In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in

Question

In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China,
about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported,
indicating that
selling bamboo, “poor man’s timber”, to Chinese is hard.

A. exported, indicating that
B.exported to indicate that
C.exported, exports that indicate that
D.exported, a metric indicating
E.exports for indicating

shameekv1989 · Answer

In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China,
about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported,
indicating that
selling bamboo, “poor man’s timber”, to Chinese is hard.

A. exported, indicating that  Correct ,Verbing used appropriately. Since 95% of handicrafts are crafted is what indicates that selling bamboo to chinese is hard 
B.exported to indicate that   "to indicate that" shows intention that bamboo handicrafts can't have themselves - INCORRECT 
C.exported, exports that indicate that  its the whole clause not just the exports that indicates selling is hard - INCORRECT 
D.exported, a metric indicating  indicating selling bamboo is incorrect. that must be there - INCORRECT 
E.exports for indicating  for indicating is idiomatically incorrect - INCORRECT

rohanrale · Answer

In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China,
about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported,
indicating that
selling bamboo, “poor man’s timber”, to Chinese is hard.

A. exported, indicating that
B.exported to indicate that
C.exported, exports that indicate that
D.exported, a metric indicating
E.exports for indicating

The sentence structure is that of  cause_effect relationship. 
 Cause- selling bamboo to Chinese is hard.
Effect is - 95% of the bamboo handicrafts are exported.

Verb+ing is form is used often to indicate the cause effect relationship.

Only options A and D use the correct structure. 
Option D says- a metric indicating. Since statistical data is given, a metric indicating can be used.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, everyone. I am writing in response to a request from  PTD1995 . I enjoy discussing the finer points of grammar sometimes in an effort to assist the community, and this question presents a few issues that bear discussion. I would like to know the source for reasons that I will broach below.
 
Before we even get to the answer choices, notice the comma that falls  outside  the quotation marks surrounding  poor man's timber . I see two distinct possibilities here that are worth mentioning. First, the transcriptionist copied the punctuation incorrectly from the source material. I mistype all the time, although usually not with punctuation. The other plausible explanation is that the comma placement is a faithful representation of the original sentence, but that would introduce uncertainty as to the likeness the question bears to an actual GMAT™ question. That is, the GMAT™  always  observes the punctuation conventions of Standard American English, and within this set of rules, commas go  inside  quotation marks. I would not go so far as to say that the question was a dubious one if the second scenario proved true, but at the same time, I would draw attention to the risks that may come attached to third-party questions, where quality control might not be that high. With that said, let us jump into the answer choices.

Analysis: An -ing phrase can reach back in the sentence to modify more than just the word on the other side of the comma. If we break down the sentence at hand, we have a prepositional phrase,  In Shengzhou , followed by another prepositional phrase,  among the most prolific regions in the Zhejiang province in eastern China , a prepositional phrase that is bounded by double commas and clearly modifies the noun  Shengzhou  in the first. The double commas allow us to jump over the modifying phrase and leave a perfectly intact main clause:  In Shengzhou, about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported, indicating that selling bamboo to Chinese is hard.  Notice that I cut out the appositive phrase  "poor man's timber"  because it is also bound by double commas. The question becomes, can we make sense of just what  indicating  refers to in the main clause? I would argue yes, it must be the entire fact that 95% of bamboo handicrafts from the region are exported. It cannot be  exported  alone because we would need to know what was exported to complete a causal link between the main clause and the modifier that follows it. That link, of course, is bamboo. Since almost all the bamboo handicrafts are exported, presumably from China and not just the region, the Chinese must not be buying the bamboo, hence the modifying phrase. If you were unsure and just wanted to check the other answers, that is fine. For now, I see nothing wrong with this option.  Yellow light.

Analysis: The infinitive  to indicate  muddles the meaning here, as if we were meant to understand that the bamboo handicrafts were exported  in order to  indicate something, and there is simply no way to argue that such a reading has no basis. It is not that the use of the infinitive is always wrong (see  this recent question  or  this earlier one , based on an official question). However, in this case, the infinitive distorts the meaning of the sentence in a way that would not make logical sense.  Red light.

Analysis: Surely, there is a better way to express this notion than to repeat a form of  export , not to mention the double  that . Furthermore, the first  that  is problematic, shifting the focus from the overall fact that the high percentage of bamboo exports from the region indicates something to the  exports  themselves indicating something. Watch out for restrictive  that  clauses. The meaning may not be as clear as you think.  Red light.

Analysis: I have no problem with the  metric  here, which would clearly refer back to the 95% part. It is the tail-end that concerns me,   a metric indicating  selling . To answer the question of  what  the metric indicates, I am looking for a noun or a placeholder pronoun--i.e.  that --instead of a phrase. I cannot find a single example of stacking -ing phrases in this manner in any correct response to an official question, making me wonder whether  that  might, in fact, appear in the original source material. I would not okay this option, as written.  Red light.

Analysis: We are back to explaining why  exports  are going on, as we saw in option (B). If it did not work there, it will not work here, either. Moreover, as  shameekv1989  pointed out,  for indicating  is not the correct way of expressing the notion that something  indicates .  Red light.

It is easy to argue for an answer after the fact, with knowledge of the official answer in hand, but third-party material is not always the most reliable, and I have even seen  at least one such question  in which a moderator changed the official answer after conceding a point to a debater. Regardless, I am not afraid of being wrong on this one. I would choose (A) any day of the week. If someone else wants to come along and  disprove  (A), then so be it, but for now, I would call it the best of the lot for reasons outlined above.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

rheam25 · Answer

According to the explanation provided by E-gmat :

Option A is incorrect because :
The comma + verb-ing modifier indicating… does not make sense with the subject of the modified verb. The handicrafts do not indicate anything.

I posted this question because I don't necessarily agree with the same. I had marked option A too.

shameekv1989 · Answer

rheam25  :- First of all, its not the subject of the modified verb that has to go with Comma + verb-ing. The doer of the action needs to make sense with comma + verb-ing. Here "handicrafts" is not the doer of the action "are exported". Hence the explanation doesn't make sense.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice B:  This answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence to imply that the handicrafts are exported for the purpose of indicating that selling bamboo to the Chinese is hard, as evidenced by the use of the phrase "exported to". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C:  This answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence to imply that the "exports" themselves, rather than the level of exports, are what indicate that selling bamboo to the Chinese is hard. Moreover, the pronoun "that" is used in two different contexts; it refers to the noun "exports" and serves as a helping word to the verb "selling". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D:  This answer choice fails to provide a subject of any kind for the verb "indicating" to act upon, rendering the sentence incomplete. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice repeats the meaning-related error found in Option B, due to the use of the phrase "for indicating". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGc9RgNXBZE

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

AndrewN · Answer

Thank you,  rheam25 , for posting the explanation. Likewise, thank you,  shameekv1989 , for your thoughtful comments. All I can say is that you have to remember, you can only judge a question by what is on the screen (or on the page, as it were), NOT by what you want to be there. I am guessing the question was created with a grammatical concept in mind, but then something got lost in the mix, and cutting a single word from option (D) made it nonsensical when it was supposed to be the correct answer.

Kudos from me. You both deserve it. Happy studies.

- Andrew

ajaymahadev · Answer

Should there be a "that" at the end of option D? "a metric indicating that"

Posted from my mobile device

AndrewN · Answer

There should be to make the option grammatically correct, but as written, the lack of  that  makes it easy to toss aside. There could have been a transcription error, but we can only guess.

- Andrew

aarushisingla · Answer

Hi,

Could you please let me know which one is correct? A or D? 
In D, I see that there is no "that" after indicating which I believe is wrong. 
Please help me.

Nidhijain94 · Answer

n Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China, about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported, indicating that selling bamboo, ???poor man???s timber???, to Chinese is hard.

A. exported, indicating that
B.exported to indicate that
C.exported, exports that indicate that
D.exported, a metric indicating
E.exports for indicating

why all are saying that option A is correct?

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Here is my understanding of the question UNDERSTANDING INTENDED MEANING Let’ break the sentence to derive the intended meaning, identifying the errors along the way: In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China, about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported, indicating that selling bamboo, “poor man’s timber”, to Chinese is hard. There are no errors: 1. The “ing” verbal “indicating” is separated from the preceding clause by a comma. This means that “indicating” is modifying the verb “are exported” in the preceding clause. Thus, the fact that 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported indicates something 2. Note: “ That” is used after “indicating” since there is a clause –“ selling bamboo , “poor man’s timber”, to Chinese is hard ”. In choice D, this "that" is missing, making the choice incorrect. 3. No “that” would be required if “indicating” was followed by just a noun – this is not the case here. INTENDED MEANING • Shengzhou is among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in eastern China. • In Shengzhou, about 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported. • The fact that 95% of bamboo handicrafts are exported indicates that selling bamboo, to Chinese is hard – • Bamboo is known as “poor man’s timber” Choice A brings out the intended meaning clearly and logically. Hope this helps

GMATWhizTeam · Answer

Hi Nidhi Please check out my reply to Arushisingla. Hope it helps

itspC · Answer

Hi @E-gmat experts. Can you please explain the OA for this ! i marked A as D didn't have that after indicating.

VerbalBot · Answer

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In Shengzhou, among the most prolific regions in Zhejiang province in

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