Bear markets hurt investors

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Bear markets hurt investors

by Vishnu88 » Tue May 31, 2011 2:29 pm
While bear markets certainly hurt institutional investors, they are potentially devastating for individual investors, whose nest eggs - in many cases representing the sole source of retirement funds - can plummet or even vanish entirely.

a. they are potentially devastating for individual investors, whose
b. they can potentially devastate individual investors in that their
c. for individual investors they are potentially devastating, because their
d. for individual investors, it is potentially devastating in that their
e. it can potentially devastate individual investors, whose

[spoiler]OA = A[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Source: Veritas CAT[/spoiler]

An analysis of the different options would be much appreciated.

[spoiler]Also, can B, C, D be eliminated on account of how they fit with "nest eggs" and the rest of the sentence. [/spoiler]

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by vineeshp » Tue May 31, 2011 5:51 pm
a. they are potentially devastating for individual investors, whose
b. they can potentially devastate individual investors in that their - The their is ambiguous.
c. for individual investors they are potentially devastating, because their - Same as above.
d. for individual investors, it is potentially devastating in that their - same as above, additionaly it is singular while markets is plural.
e. it can potentially devastate individual investors, whose - use of it for markets is wrong. Also the use of the word can along with potentially is redundant.
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Just telling you what I know and think. I am not the expert. :)

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by aftableo2006 » Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:34 am
A is the correct answer

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by aspirant2011 » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:06 am
Vishnu88 wrote:While bear markets certainly hurt institutional investors, they are potentially devastating for individual investors, whose nest eggs - in many cases representing the sole source of retirement funds - can plummet or even vanish entirely.

a. they are potentially devastating for individual investors, whose
b. they can potentially devastate individual investors in that their
c. for individual investors they are potentially devastating, because their
d. for individual investors, it is potentially devastating in that their
e. it can potentially devastate individual investors, whose

[spoiler]OA = A[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Source: Veritas CAT[/spoiler]

An analysis of the different options would be much appreciated.

[spoiler]Also, can B, C, D be eliminated on account of how they fit with "nest eggs" and the rest of the sentence. [/spoiler]
B and D wrong because of the usage of "in that"......remember a rule "in that" in case of GMAT is almost everytime wrong

C their is ambiguous

E usage of singular "it"

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by Gavan » Sun May 06, 2012 2:52 am
in 'A' they is ambiguous because it refer to 'institutional investors' also.

can somebody address explain this please.

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by varunchaturvedi » Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:28 am
Experts can you please explain why 'C' is wrong?

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by gmatwar13 » Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:11 am
C is wrong as because is not coordinating conjunction

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by sachindia » Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:01 am
is 'in that' almost always wrong on gmat?

what is the right usage of 'in that'?
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by The Iceman » Sun Jan 06, 2013 10:35 am
The biggest problem with B and C is that the pronoun "they" switches reference to different nouns in the same sentence. As per the intended meaning of the sentence "they" should refer to "bear markets" and "their" should refer to "individual investors". However this is wrong because we should have consistent reference of they/their/them to a single noun in the same sentence.

In D and E, the singular "it" is made to refer to the plural "bear markets".


@sachindia: "in that" is used to provide description in a particular/specific way and the implication is limited only in this specific sense.

On the other hand "because" implies a cause-effect relationship.

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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:00 am
The Iceman is exactly right - never switch the intended referent with pronouns! "They" and "their" cannot refer to 2 different nouns within the same sentence.

To Gavan's question, though... you're right, there is some pronoun ambiguity! "Bear markets" and "investors" are both plural nouns that come before the pronoun "they," and they both have some claim: subjects "pull" strongly on pronouns, but so do nouns within close proximity. So is this question just wrong? (This is not an OG question, but it's almost a word-for-word iteration of #21 in the Verbal Supplement, so we can treat it as one).

Well, the problem is that the GMAT is a bit inconsistent on the pronoun ambiguity issue. Sometimes, like in #68 in the Verbal Supplement, the GMAT directly tests the pronoun ambiguity issue. More often, though, the GMAT will allow seemingly ambiguous pronouns, if they think that the intended meaning is clear (pretty frustrating, I know!). In this case, the meaning of the sentence makes it pretty clear that "they" refers to the markets, not the investors, so the GMAT says that it's ok.

See my earlier post on pronoun ambiguity: https://www.beatthegmat.com/declaration- ... tml#539397
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