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collateral!

by gmat_perfect » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:01 pm
Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

(A) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is
(B) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, is
(C) the collateral which is borrowed against by farmers to get through the harvest season, is
(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, are

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why NOT D?

What is the exact deal with D?
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by debmalya_dutta » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:36 pm
gmat_perfect wrote:Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

(A) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is
(B) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, is
(C) the collateral which is borrowed against by farmers to get through the harvest season, is
(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, are

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why NOT D?

What is the exact deal with D?
look at "Declining values for farm equipment and land" ..immediately after this should be the thing that "Declining values for farm equipment and land" is modifying...what is it modifying .i.e what are farm equipments and land? - the collateral

So ..the only contenders are really E and A .... but then you can select E because you know you have a plural subject and hence "are"
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by sirisha.g » Tue Aug 24, 2010 6:40 pm
gmat_perfect wrote:Declining values for farm equipment and land, the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is going to force many lenders to tighten or deny credit this spring.

(A) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, is
(B) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, is
(C) the collateral which is borrowed against by farmers to get through the harvest season, is
(D) which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get through the harvest season, are
(E) the collateral against which farmers borrow to get through the harvest season, are

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

Why NOT D?

What is the exact deal with D?
IMO E
we have a 2/3 split here. is vs are. are should be used because subject is declining values. hence, A, B, C are gone.

we have another 2/3 split. which vs the. if u use the logic that which grabs the noun before the comma, then u are wrong in this case because here "which" will grab the declining values and these cannot be used as a collateral. therefore, we arrive at E
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by kal750gmat » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:18 pm
Agreed. When you see the word which, remember that it modifies the entire segment before the comma, not just the noun it touches. Farmers aren't using the 'declining values' as collateral. Farmers will be using the equipment for collateral.
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by paes » Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:42 am
gmat_perfect@

D : Most of the posts are saying that usage of which is incorrect.
there is nothing wrong using 'which' here.
which can refer to "farm equipment and land"

The problem is something else here.

A preposition should be as close to the noun (it is modifying ) as possible.

D : which farmers use as collateral to borrow against to get

E : the collateral against which farmers ....

So E is better than D.
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