More Than Just Grammar: The Search for Meaning in the New SC (Part 4)
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Jim Jacobson is a GMAT verbal expert who lives and works in Madison, WI. Visit Grockit for more test prep advice. |
People are talking about the new GMAT, and the way that Sentence Correction will test your comprehension of the sentence’s meaning as well as its grammar, style, and concision, by giving you more answer choices that are grammatically correct (but still wrong). In this series of articles, I want to explore the ways this could happen, with some example questions for you as well.
Last time, I gave you a question using conditional statements; this time, let’s take a look at the answer. In case you missed it or forgot, this was the question:
A group of well-regarded economists has recently published projected figures for the economy next year, which predict that if interest rates remain at their current level, lending should continue to increase as slowly as it has this year.
A. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending should continue to increase
B. when interest rates remain at their current level, lending can continue its increasing
C. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending continues to increase
D. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending will continue to increase
E. if interest rates remain at their current level, lending could continue to increase
I tried to make it a little tricky by having the sentence involve a study (since I had mentioned that statements of general truth with tense in present/present are often attached to studies), but this one is a straightforward prediction.
A. Incorrect. It is fine grammatically, but there is no reason to put a modal “should” in the second half of the condition. It’s already a prediction about the future, a prediction which may not come to pass; adding even more uncertainty to the “then” portion is not needed to convey that.
B. Incorrect. I suppose this was mean of me; by changing the beginning and end of one answer choice, I had an excuse to increase the length of the underlined portion and make you read more for every answer choice. This choice is technically correct as well, but I think it would only be a strange alternate universe where the GMAT wanted you to use phrases like “can continue its increasing.”
C. Incorrect. This one is the present/present tense trap that I mentioned, which is entirely grammatically correct and appropriate for studies. Here, though, the meaning is changed, claiming that WHENEVER interest rates remain at their current level, lending will increase at some (slow) rate. While a study could show that, it would not come in the form of a prediction.
D. Correct. Here we have a simple present for the static interest rates and a simple future for the predicted effect.
E. Incorrect. As with Choice A, the modal “could” is grammatically and even contextually plausible, but there is no reason to add this additional uncertainty to the prediction.
Next time: word placement!
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1 comment
Pavan on February 2nd, 2012 at 4:59 am
Thanks for posting. But I found it to be a medium level question. BTW, I got it right... :)