By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase thei

Question

By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase  their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging  from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

(A) their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging

(B) from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges

(C) to 10 percent from 6 percent in their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging

(D) in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges

(E) to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country's $21 billion book market, which ranges

anairamitch1804 · Accepted Answer

in option A and C, “their” (plural) does not agree with “company” (singular). Eliminate A and C.

in D, “the company will increase IN its share” implies that the COMPANY will increase. The intended meaning is that the SHARE will increase. Eliminate D. 
in B, since the verb attributed to “which” is singular, the implied antecedent is the nearest preceding singular noun “(country)”. Since E places “which” next to its intended antecedent “(market)” , E is the clear winner. Eliminate B. 
The correct answer is E. 
On the GMAT, when which does not refer to the nearest preceding noun, the verb generally will make the situation clear: 
Many tourists gasp when they see the BUILDINGS of New York, which ARE among the world's tallest. 
The plural verb are makes it clear that which refers to the plural antecedent buildings.
idioms: 
The price fell FROM 10 euros TO 3 euros. 
The price fell TO 3 euros FROM 10 euros.

saurabsen · Answer

By merging its two publishing divisions, the company will increase their share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

A. their share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging
B. from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges
C. to 10 percent from 6 percent in their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging
D. in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges
E. to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country’s $21 billion book market, which ranges

Choices A and C are OUT because the plural 'their' cannot refer to the singular noun 'company'. We are now left with choibes B, D, and E.
DO THE VERTICAL COMPARISON OF THESE CHOICES AND DETERMINE HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER.
The difference as you can see lies in the modification by the wh-word 'WHICH'.
Before I embark upon my explanation let's understand the fine nuances of modification by a wh-word.
For example,
[1] The committee chose Mr. Smith of Left Block, who was the most experienced member, to lead all the management-related operations.

Many of you will right away discard this sentence as “incorrect” because “who” is not preceded by “Mr. Smith”, the noun it should logically refer to. Well, this sentence is absolutely correct. There is no modification error here. Here “who” correctly modifies “Mr. Smith”.

This is so because the newly added prepositional phrase “of Left Block” is a modifier that modifies “Mr. Smith”. So it is placed next to that entity. This prepositional cannot be placed elsewhere in the sentence without violating the structure and the meaning of the sentence. So now instead of just “Mr. Smith” in sentence 1, we have a “noun phrase” in sentence 2 – “Mr. Smith of Left Block”. In this scenario, “who” has the liberty to jump over the preceding preposition phrase (modifier) to modify the HEAD of this noun phrase – “Mr. Smith”

and
[2] The committee chose Mr. Smith in the last meeting, who was the most experienced member, to lead all the management-related operations.

However, the sentence [2] is not correct. Here “who” ends up modifying immediately preceding noun “the last meeting”, resulting in modifier error.
This is so because “in the last meeting” does not modify “Mr. Smith” because it is an adverbial modifier and hence cannot modify a Noun. It rather modifies the action “chose”. When did the committee choose? It did in the last meeting. This prepositional phrase can actually be placed right in the beginning of the sentence, after “The committee”, or before “Mr. Smith” to convey the intended meaning. Hence, here “who” cannot jump over the preceding noun. Notice how per the context of this sentence, the expression “Mr. Smith in the last meeting” is not a noun phrase. Contrast this with the noun phrase in the original sentence “Mr. Smith of Left Block”.

Now, with this understanding let's start our 2nd round of elimination.

Choice B is wrong because the WHICH can't refer to 'country' or for that matter the word 'share'. None of them can logically range from obscure textbooks to ...paperbacks.
So, what logically ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks? Certainly the BOOK MARKET. Right?
In choice D the company will increase what? Its not clear because here all you have is a bunch of modifiers. In D 'share' is part of the prepositional phrase 'in its share' - a modifier. So, WHICH doers not have a clear antecedent to refer to. Hence eliminate D.
We are left with E, wherein WHICH rightly modifies the book market. Also, if you are worried about "to X from Y" read the following examples:
The price fell FROM 10 Dollars TO 3 Dollars.
The price fell TO 3 Dollars FROM 10 Dollars.
Both are correct!

duttsit · Answer

E. 

A, C : pronoun error. Their refferring to the country (singular)

B, D - modifier error. "which ranges" wrongly seems modifying "country" rather than "market"

trulyblessed · Answer

I'm going with E. Here's why...

A. their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging
- the company ... their share. should be "its share"

B. from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges
- this changes the meaning of the sentence. the company is not increasing from 6 - 10%, its share is

C. to 10 percent from 6 percent in their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging
- same as A

D. in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges 
- "which ranges" is awkward

prude_sb · Answer

can someone clarify why E is better than B ?

age · Answer

IMO E....in B ..which modifies country....it is not country that "ranges from from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks" ...whick should modify market...

which (a relative pronoun) modifies the noun before comma

jb2010 · Answer

for B and D, the word which modifies country. That is incorrect. country is not ranging... market is ranging...
for A and C, their is incorrect

In my opinion,  answer is E.

By merging its two publishing divisions, the company will increase their share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

A.  their  share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging
B. from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the  country, which  ranges
C. to 10 percent from 6 percent in  their  share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging
D. in  its  share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the  country, which  ranges
E. to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country’s $21 billion book market, which ranges

E is looking little awkward, but simplified form looks more convincing.

By merging its two publishing divisions, the company will increase ... its share of .. book market, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

BKimball · Answer

Noun modifiers are an interesting species. You can generally identify them because they start with the words which, whose, where, or when. Whether they start with one of these signal words or not, here's the rule you need to follow:

Noun modifiers (i.e. modifiers that modify nouns) must TOUCH the word they are modifying.

It doesn't matter whether they come before or after the noun, but they must touch it. Here are a few examples:

"I read the book, which had a green cover." --> Correct. "Which had a green cover" modifies "the book" so they need to touch.
"I read the book you gave me, which had a green cover." --> Incorrect. "Which had a green cover" modifiers "me" in this example.

"A very nice man, my uncle gave $1,000 to charity yesterday." --> Correct. Although this will sound a little too Yoda-like for many people, the modifiers "A very nice man" correctly modifiers "my uncle."
"A very nice man, yesterday my uncle gave $1,000 to charity." -->Incorrect. Here, "yesterday" is "a very nice man."

Hope this helps!

Brett

pqhai · Answer

I just want to correct this question a bit.

**This is an Official GMAT question, a correct option C is "to 10 percent from 6 percent their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging". Thus, we can eliminate C easily.

**But in this question, option C is written wrongly: "to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging" --> Thus, C is not a wrong answer because C uses "noun+ noun modifier" - "a market ranging" correctly.

Note: NOUN + NOUN MODIFIER can modify a preceding noun, a middle noun or even a preceding clause. This kind of modifier is very versatile.
See lesson of "noun + noun modifier" here:
noun-noun-modifiers-the-most-versatile-modifier-137292.html

ANALYZE THE QUESTION:

By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

A. their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging
Wrong.

B. from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges
Wrong.

C. to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging
Correct.

D. in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges
Wrong.

E. to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country's $21 billion book market, which ranges
Correct.

Please see a correct version of the question in the link below, OA is E.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... t8026.html

Hope it helps.

raj44 · Answer

egmat  can you please clarify the reference of "which" in choice B. I think it clearly refers to the market since the essential modifier "in the country" is needed to specify which market the sentence is referring to. Am I right? The only reason to prefer choice E over B is choice E is more concise. Also, the correct idiom or the preferred idiom to use is "from....to" rather than "to....from"?

KarishmaB · Answer

Responding to a pm:

"which" will refer to the closest 'eligible' noun.
Here, country, the closest noun, is an eligible antecedent of the pronoun "which".

By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the  country, which  ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.
The country cannot range from textbooks to paperbacks and hence (E) is preferable. 
In (E), "which" clearly refers to "market". There is no problem with (E). The construct 'to ... from ...' is equally valid even though 'from ... to...' is the one used often.

Conciseness comes into the picture only after all grammatical issues have been sorted out.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Option B has a faulty modifier reference as discussed in the the thread above. Moreover the FROM...TO... constructions in options B and E are equivalent. The OA has been changed to E.

nailin16 · Answer

Why is B wrong here.
By merging its two publishing divisions, the company will increase their share of the country’s $21
billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to massmarket
paperbacks.
A. their share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market
ranging
B. from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which
ranges
C. to 10 percent from 6 percent in their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a
market ranging
D. in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which
ranges
E. to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country’s $21 billion book market, which Ranges

Over here 
in B 'which' is correctly referring to '$21 billion book market in the country' its a noun phrase

noun- $21 billion book market /prepositional phrase-in the country

moreover a country cant range from obscure textbooks to massmarket
paperbacks.So which correctly and should refer to $21 billion book market

if we go OG then it is perfectly fine

Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan’s
marriage to Emily’s brother and ending shortly before Emily’s death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else. (OG 13#29, Choice
E)

Over here too(OG question) which refers to letters and not Susan Huntington Dickinson

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi nailin16,  which  actually modifies the  nearest grammatically eligible  word before it.

In B, that word happens to be  country , while that word is  letters  in the  Susan Huntington Dickinson  example.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  the usage of  which  , its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

cledgard · Answer

Meaning, meaning, meaning.

“Their” can only refer to “its two publishing divisions” . As it is stated, it makes sense, and there is no reason to believe that there is another meaning. 
By merging its two publishing divisions, the company will increase their ( its two publishing divisions ) share of the country’s $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging…
“Its share” refers to the company. While this meaning also makes sense, it is not what is stated in the original sentence.  We do not have any reason to change the original sentence .
The use of the absolute phrase “ a marked ranging from…  “ eliminates any possible ambiguity in the modifier.
I believe that choice   A   clearly conveys the correct meaning and is grammatically correct.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

This question tests the concept of pronoun usage.

If the underlined portion begins or ends with a pronoun, one point of elimination is the error of pronouns.

One of the errors of pronouns is Pronoun-antecedent disagreement. The antecedent is the noun that a pronoun refers to. The rule of Pronoun-antecedent agreement is that a singular pronoun refers to a singular antecedent and a plural pronoun refers to a plural antecedent.

In Option A, the pronoun ‘their’ refers to ‘the company in the first part of the sentence. Since ‘the company is a singular noun, the plural pronoun ‘their’ cannot be used to refer to it. So, Option A is incorrect because of pronoun-antecedent disagreement.

Option C is also incorrect for the same reason even though the placement of ‘their’ has been changed.

In Option D, the phrase “increase in its share” is not stylistically correct. “Increase its share” would be a better construction.

The option also has what could be a pronoun error at the end of the underlined portion. 
A relative pronoun generally refers to the noun immediately preceding it.
The pronoun ‘which’ seems to refer to the noun ‘country’as the noun has been placed immediately before it. This placement changes the meaning as ‘country’ cannot range from “obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks”.

That leaves us with options B and E. Option B has the same pronoun ambiguity as Option D.

Option E makes the meaning clearer by using the relative pronoun ‘which’ to refer to ‘the market’.

Therefore, E is the best option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem: 
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that the company will increase its share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 to 10 percent, and this market ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Pronouns + Awkwardness/Redundancy

A: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the company" with the plural pronoun "their".

B: 
1/ This answer choice uses the needlessly wordy phrase "book market in the country", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "the company" with the plural pronoun "their". 
2/ The sentence formed by Option C alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "will increase...in their share"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the company will increase its share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 to 10 percent, and this market ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.
3/ Option C uses the needlessly wordy phrase "book market in the country", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

D: 
1/ The sentence formed by this answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "will increase in its share"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that the company will increase its share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 to 10 percent, and this market ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.
2/ Option D uses the needlessly wordy phrase "book market in the country", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

E:   Correct. 
1/ This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "the company" with the singular pronoun "its".
2/ Option E uses the phrase "will increase...its share", conveying the intended meaning - that the company will increase its share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 to 10 percent, and this market ranges from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.
3/ Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

brt · Answer

By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging from obscure textbooks to mass-market paperbacks.

(A) their share of the country's $21 billion book market from 6 percent to 10 percent, a market ranging

(B) from 6 percent to 10 percent its share of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges

(C) to 10 percent from 6 percent in their share of the $21 billion book market in the country, a market ranging

(D) in its share, from 6 percent to 10 percent, of the $21 billion book market in the country, which ranges

(E) to 10 percent from 6 percent its share of the country's $21 billion book market, which ranges

Which refers to the immediate word preceding it, so option B and D are wrong. We can eliminate A and C because the company is singular and takes a singular pronoun its rather than their. So, ans is E.

By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase thei

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By merging its two publishing division, the company will increase thei

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