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crejoc
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo Updated on: 29 Oct 2017, 05:27
Originally posted by crejoc on 15 Aug 2009, 02:18.
Last edited by BillyZ on 29 Oct 2017, 05:27, edited 2 times in total.
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B
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75% (01:05) correct 25% (01:17) wrong based on 1427 sessions

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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often responds by raising the key interest rate, which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them, as one might expect.

(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them

(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them

(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them

(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them

(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them
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B
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 29 Oct 2017, 05:29
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crejoc
When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often responds by raising the key interest rate, which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them, as one might expect.

(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them

(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them

(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them

(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them

(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them
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OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


In the original sentence, the use of "which" incorrectly implies that the key interest rate has the curious effect, when in fact it is the raising of the interest rate that does. Also, "lowering housing prices instead of raise them" is not a parallel construction. And it is preferable to use "rather than" with verbs, in place of "instead of," which is better used with nouns.

(A) This choice is the same as the original sentence.

(B) CORRECT. This choice remedies the incorrect use of "which." Moreover, it contains the parallel construction "lowering housing prices rather than raising them." Finally, "rather than" is correctly used here in place of "instead of."

(C) This choice corrects the parallelism issue, but it still incorrectly uses "which" and "instead of."

(D) This choice incorrectly uses "which."

(E) This choice incorrectly uses "instead of" and contains the unparallel construction "lowering housing prices instead of raise them."
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 15 Aug 2009, 04:40
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only option B used rather than and parallel; makes life easy :-)
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 15 Aug 2009, 05:03
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'which' refers to 'the key interest rate' ..so A, C and D gone ..

now in B and E ... you use 'rather than' to compare clauses ..so only B is doing that ..

IMO B.
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 19 Dec 2011, 01:42
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B

which refer to immediate noun thats why "an action" is required...
rather than is preferred over instead of
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 05 Jan 2012, 07:07
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Simple one. B it is. The "raising of the key interest rate", NOT "the key interest rate" itself, has the "curious effect...".
Only B and E convey the proper meaning.
B maintains parallelism and E does not.
B is the answer.
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 29 Oct 2017, 06:26
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crejoc
When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often responds by raising the key interest rate, which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them, as one might expect.

(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them

(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them

(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them

(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them

(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them
Show more

The answer is B

Here " the curious effect " was due to the raise that interest rate was given .The effect was not due to the interest rate .
Which in the original sentence refers to the key interest rate so it is clearly worn as the meaning is not clear so A ,C and D are out .
E is not parallel as "lowering housing prices instead of raise them " is wrong here raising should have come .
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 22 Jul 2019, 23:14
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More importantly, "which" never typically refers to an action. It's a more rules based observation
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 05 Oct 2020, 18:14
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often responds by raising the key interest rate, which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them, as one might expect.

(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them --> Modifier error - this is modifying interest rate rather than modifying the action taken by FR.

(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them --> Correctly represents the effect of action by FR.

(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them --> Modifier error - this is modifying interest rate rather than modifying the action taken by FR.
(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them --> Modifier error - this is modifying interest rate rather than modifying the action taken by FR.

(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them --> Incorrect idiom Usage even when the modifier issue is fixed.
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When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often respo 23 Aug 2023, 03:36
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crejoc
When housing prices climb too quickly, the Federal Reserve often responds by raising the key interest rate, which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them, as one might expect.

(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them

(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them

(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them

(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them

(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them
Show more

Which is always used for information bits in a sentence which is unimportant. It looks important here, so lets eliminate A, C and D
(A) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them
(C) which has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raising them
(D) which rather than raising housing prices actually has the curious effect of lowering them

Now we're left with B and E

E has lowering and raise which is not parallel hence eliminate E
(E) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices instead of raise them

We're left with B which seems right - may not be the one we wanted but its grammatically correct.
(B) an action that has the curious effect of actually lowering housing prices rather than raising them
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