pl explain

vaivish · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:20 am Post subject: pl explain

7. A higher interest rate is only of the of factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
a. that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
b. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control as it did in the earlier decade
c. that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control as it did in the earlier decade
d. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control like earlier in the decade
e. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control like it did in earlier decade

OA is b

arorag · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:57 am Post subject:

Rule:
Construction such as following one
X that/who verb----- Verb use onlu and only depends on X.

Based on above rule eliminate A and C

Correct comparision require AS
So ans is B

stop@800 · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:47 am Post subject:

high interest rates is one of the factors, that keep
so keeps is wrong
AC out

DE
Like is incorrect here. We are comparing actions and not nouns.

so Ans B

dumb.doofus · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:35 pm Post subject: IMO B

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors that keep....

here the main subject is rate.. "one of the factors that keep" is a subordinate clause - the "that" indicates a noun modifier, so it refers to the noun right before it - "factors", which is plural... so "keep" should be used..

Answer is B

Good question..

vaivish · Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject:

thnaks...but i thought thanks modifies the ''albeith one '' but it modifies the factors.....

sunnychopra · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:59 am Post subject:

Hi Folks,

NSNguyen · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:46 am Post subject:

IMO: B

bleacherseat · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:03 pm Post subject:

People have to be kidding me with B as the justification of an answer.

The subject is Higher intesrest rate - singular

The subject is modified by albeit ........an important one . If we just get rid of this modifier

we are saying .....higher intesrest rate is one of the factors that keep

we need to use keeps not keep

verb is not refering to factors but to one of the factors - singular again

also if you use use that keep (plural) , it violates the parallelism in the later part of the sentence.

..as it did earlier.

C should be it.

Bidisha800 · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject:

LOL ! Some posts have some real humor.

nervesofsteel · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject:

B should be the answer

simba12123 · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:22 pm Post subject: sc

Please google, wiki or research the net. The subject of the sentence needs to hidden or else the exam will turn into an elemantary verbal exam. THe subject is almost always hidden just before the word OF. GO ahead test it out on the OG I dare you. Smile

The subject here (as bleacherseat explained) is singular and therefore the answer has to be C!

augusto · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject:

I might be really wrong but let's give it a try.

First the main verb of the sentence is IS in "A higher interest rate is only of the of factors". And it's used as a linking verb.

that is used as a relative pronoun, refers to factors.

and it refers to the housing market.

For me the answer is B, but what to do...

Cheers,
Augusto

Karen · Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

The answer is B. The relative clause "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control" modifies "factors," and so the verb has to be plural.

To put it another way, the sentence is saying that there are many factors (plural) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. Then it's also identifying one thing that is just one of those factors. But "one" is not the word that's being modified by "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control."

The reason some people find it confusing, I think, is that many people *would* use a singular verb here -- in their natural way of speaking, they would construct the sentence as if "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control" *did* modify "one". This is an example of spoken conversational English diverging from formal written English. The GMAT is always looking for formal written style, and the test writers deliberately construct examples for which some people's spoken style will lead them to the wrong answer. In other words, for some people C is going to sound right, because that's how many people speak, but C isn't right according to formal rules of grammar.

I don't like it that B changes the meaning in an odd way, though -- "in the earlier decade." I assume this isn't an example from official materials but from some other source?

ska7945 · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:59 am Post subject: Karen help!

As you mentioned,
To put it another way, the sentence is saying that there are many factors (plural) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. Then it's also identifying one thing that is just one of those factors. But "one" is not the word that's being modified by "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control."

Karen, i am still confusing.
"one of the factors that---does "that" always have to modify the right before one "factors"?

then is this the wrong sentence?

Tom is one of the soccer players who scores a goal.
(There are several soccer players and Tom is the only one who scores.)

Tom is one of the scooer players who score a goal.
(There are several soccer players who score a goal and Tom is one of them.)

I thought we can use WHO in these both ways.
If so, how can we sure about that modifies 'factors' but not "one"?
please explain. Thanks a lot.