For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been

Question

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

A. For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

B. Considering all their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people, with 32 million unique viewers alone in the United States every month.

C. With all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

D. Given all their financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people, nearly 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

E. Even considering their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

daagh · Accepted Answer

First, let’s get rid of the ungrammatical fluff; Choices B, D and E are out because of SV mismatch. Between A and C, the reversed sentence in A is more appropriate because it brings the contrast well by saying ‘for all its financial troubles’, meaning in spite of its financial troubles. Because of reversal, the modification may seem somewhat out of track, but that is a style of writing. C on the contrary by toeing the same direction rather than attempting to espouse the contrast, is an inferior expression, since, with carries a notion of physical carrying

avohden · Answer

Here is the   official explanation   from Veritas

Answer A   - Verb inversion (when the verb is put before the subject) is a common trick used by testmakers to make sentences confusing. In this example there is a good reason to invert the verb: “Never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people”conveys clearly that at no point in the past has it been read more. If you write “The Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people” it could mean the there is a new record for the number of people who have never read it!!!

(A) is thus correct – it starts with a structure “For all its financial troubles…” and follows with the inverted structure to show that even though there are financial problems, lots of people are reading it. (B), (D), and (E) are incorrect because the plural pronoun “their” has no logical antecedent.

(C) is more difficult to eliminate but contains two distinct errors. first, it does not invert the verb and thus suffers from the meaning ambiguity discussed previously. Secondly, there is not the necessary contrast in the beginning. It would need to say “Even with the financial problems…lots of people are reading it” Using “with” suggests that people are reading it because of the financial troubles. Answer is (A).

saikarthikreddy · Answer

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month .  -->For is required to show the reason.Subject and verb agreement is proper.

Considering all  their  financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people, with 32 million unique viewers alone in the United States every month.--> Subject verb agreement error

With all its financial troubles,  the Wall Street Journal has never been read  by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.---> changes the meaning .Placement of never is wrong.

Given all  their  financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people, nearly 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.--> Subject verb agreement error

Even considering  their  financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.--> Subject verb agreement error

thelosthippie · Answer

Please explain why Option C is incorrect:

With all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

HumptyDumpty · Answer

Does it mean that so many people read the Wall Street Journal because it has financial troubles?

Why you say placement of "never" is wrong?
"With" is used here in the meaning of "despite". The only bad thing about this sentence is it does differ in meaning from the original A.

sytabish · Answer

chetan2u  ,  souvik101990  Can u plz help out to distinguish between A & C ?
My understanding is that in 'C' 'With all its financial troubles' means the Wall Street Journal is read alongwith its financial trouble. This is in contrast to the original intended meaning of the sentence. I fail to see how 'with.. troubles' is showing contrast.

Your help is very much appreciated.
Thanks!

chetan2u · Answer

hi styabish,
with the choices available, i too would go for A....
you are correct that 'with...' clause is not showing contrast and means exactly what you have mentioned and that is the reason why A should be the answer,  although apart from meaning, part C is correct that the "with..." correctly modifies the wall street journal and in A, we have to make a link deliberately between 'its' in first dependent clause and TWSJ  since the sentence is ...
Option A: For all its financial troubles,  never has the Wall Street Journal  been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month..... never has separates TWSJ from comma...
reason is in A, there is nothing else the possessive 'its ' can refer to....

KyleWiddison · Answer

The pronoun issue here is one that would likely not be tested on the GMAT because in some areas of the world WSJ could correctly take "their" as a pronoun. The GMAC has stated they will try to stay away from issues like this...

KW

KW

AR15J · Answer

Hello Verbal Expert,

Why C is a wrong choice? Why the intended meaning got changed in C? For me, A is very awkward, so I rejected choice A without even looking at any answer choice. Please advise.

sayantanc2k · Answer

A implies: WSJ may have been read by more people before, but for some other reason, not for its financial troubles. For its financial troubles this is the first time it is read by so many people.

C implies: WSJ is read by maximum people this time; never before has it been read by so many people - it also has its financial troubles this time.

However in real GMAT more serious issues would generally differentiate a wrong answer from a right.

push12345 · Answer

A and C are best contenders for this
A is best choice 
As for all means despite , For all usage correctly bring out meaning in the sentence

Wonderwoman31 · Answer

Hi Verbal Experts,

I believe that the difference between Option A and Option C is that the prepositional phrase in Option A is trying to modify the verb, whereas the prepositional phrase in Option C is trying to modify a noun and hence the change in meaning is observed

Kindly let me know your thoughts on this  chetan2u   sayantanc2k

uzumakinaruto444 · Answer

Hello,

I went through the entire discussion yet failed to understand why A is not incorrect for modifying the sentence wrongly? Shouldn't the modifier be followed by a noun i.e. The Wall Street Journal in this case as in C?

Please help me out. Would be grateful.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Which part of modifiers are you trying to apply here?

Although I can't say how the GMAT will react to a sentence like this, it sounds fine to me. The structure we are looking at is just an inversion of the subject and verb. The author of the sentence is most likely using it to provide additional stress to the word  never . And although I haven't seen this with a  for  at the beginning of a sentence, I don't think it's wrong.

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people. 
is the same as
 For all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people.

As long as the sentence doesn't use as a subject something that the  it  in  for all its  can refer to, we should be fine.

For all its military might, analysts still worry about India.  This seems fine.
 For all its military might, the economy is something that analysts worry about.  This one is problematic, because this sentence seems to imply that the  economy  has  military might .

You'll have to look at what you are trying to apply here. For example, would you think that the following sentence is incorrect?
 Although  it  was a major hit, we did not enjoy  the new superhero movie .

vimas · Answer

Can someone please explain what does "its" refer to in the correct choice? As per the sentence it seems that it refers to the WSJ. The problem that I see is that "how can the journal have financial trouble"? It should ideally be the company which has financial troubles.

XyLan · Answer

'Its' refers to The Wall Street Journal, which is  a publication house (  a company ) earning revenue generated through subscribers and advertisements.
Many publication houses, during their inception days, were struggling to reach the break-even.

Thus, the usage of  financial trouble  is aptly done to refer to the economic-crunch situation of the WSJ.

Cangri · Answer

Can someone tell me whether the portion after the colon needs to be an independent clause? (just as semicolons demand so). I believe "32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month" is not an independent clause [if it is, please explain why

]

Furthermore, could "their" reffer to "people"?

Furthermore, could "their" reffer to "people"?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  Cangri ,

1. You're right, that is not an independent clause, but we don't always need to use an independent clause after a colon.

He really wanted only one thing: to get a good score.

2. Yes,  their  can refer to  people , but that is not the intended meaning of the sentence.

dracarys007 · Answer

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

A. For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

B. Considering all their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people, with 32 million unique viewers alone in the United States every month.
There is used to refer to the wall street which is incorrect and SV pair error

C. With all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.
For is more appropriate than with when expressing contrast.
D. Given all their financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people, nearly 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.
There is used to refer to the wall street which is incorrect and SV pair error
E. Even considering their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.
There is used to refer to the wall street which is incorrect and SV pair error
Answer is A

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been

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For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been

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