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Need help on this parallelism question

by manjus_mailme » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:15 pm
The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that
the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher
energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned
about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the
prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Is it necessary to have 'that' after 'said' .I actually narrowed the choices to A,B and E because of 'few '.Eliminated 'E' because past perfect tense is required.Need help to chose Between A and B .
OA is A

Thanks in Advance.
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by hja379 » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:41 pm
manjus_mailme wrote:The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

A) that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
B) growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
C) that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
D) growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
E) that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Is it necessary to have 'that' after 'said' .I actually narrowed the choices to A,B and E because of 'few '.Eliminated 'E' because past perfect tense is required.Need help to chose Between A and B .
OA is A

Thanks in Advance.
Just edited to make it more readable.
Last edited by hja379 on Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Night reader » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:42 pm
I would restate this sentence as such given below:

The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth has accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers were remained concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there have been few few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

E)"¢ that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

answer seems the only one satisfying the tense sequence given and the logic of sentence, however I go with E as the last given not incorrect answer here.

BTW, what's the source - I went digging into this sentence right by modifying its structure first and then looked up the answers :(
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by manjus_mailme » Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:07 pm
Night reader wrote:I would restate this sentence as such given below:

The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth has accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers were remained concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there have been few few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

E)"¢ that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

answer seems the only one satisfying the tense sequence given and the logic of sentence, however I go with E as the last given not incorrect answer here.

BTW, what's the source - I went digging into this sentence right by modifying its structure first and then looked up the answers :(
I am not sure about the source .But I see two things that happened in the past.
1.Growth acceleration after slowdown.
2.Federal reserve announcement .

Why do you think past perfect tense is not needed here ?
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by Night reader » Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:16 pm
do you really see these events in the past or help yourself with other posts :)

growth acceleration after + some slowdown (slowdown is first, growth is next --> may be slowdown is past perfect? Or may be nothing is past perfect here, as we speak in the 2nd quarter, and nobody knows from reading this sentence which quarter it's now :) may be it's still the 2nd quarter - continuing event...)

yes Fed reserve announcement said - this was in the simple past... and it might imply that the growth would or could be accelerated - future in the past :)

go figure
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by aspirant2011 » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:49 pm
B is wrong because with said "that" should be used..................
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by prachich1987 » Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:55 am
IMO Parallelism is not maintained in A

that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Please advise if I am wrong.
Thanks!
Prachi
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by Night reader » Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:13 am
prachich1987 wrote:IMO Parallelism is not maintained in A

that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Please advise if I am wrong.
the issue in this sentence is not parallelism. Two sub-ordinate clauses are linked with the preposition that -->
Main clause: The Federal Reserve announcement said
Sub-ordinate clause 1: that growth has accelerated ...
Sub-ordinate clause 2: that policy makers were remained concerned ...

the problems are rooted in the sequence of tenses between the main clause and sub-clauses, and the logical sense of a sentence (clear idea expression)
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:55 am
manjus_mailme wrote:The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that
the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher
energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned
about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the
prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Is it necessary to have 'that' after 'said' .I actually narrowed the choices to A,B and E because of 'few '.Eliminated 'E' because past perfect tense is required.Need help to chose Between A and B .
OA is A

Thanks in Advance.
Quickest approach:

The announcement said two things: that growth had accelerated...and that the policy makers remained concerned. The repetition of the word that is needed in order to maintain parallelism and to make clear what two things were said. Eliminate B, C and D.

In E, the verbs said and accelerated cannot both be in the same tense because the two actions did not happen contemporaneously (at the same time). To indicate the correct order of events, the past perfect is needed: the announcement said that growth had accelerated. Eliminate E.

The correct answer is A.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:52 am, edited 5 times in total.
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by Night reader » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:29 am
@Mitch, The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated ---
OK, let's assume that past perfect is used, then growth is past and left behind, has no event connection with the present, this a complete action in the past :)

after slowing in the second quarter ---
this part is like bug following the past perfect tense, it must be past before the complete past according to you and answer A) :)

and that the policy makers remain concerned ---
to remain + past participle = present condition, 'very good' connection of the tense sequence i.e. present simple to the past perfect both logically and time-wise :)

about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far. --- I hope this part of sentence has some meaning and pertains to relationship of growth with the inflation, although the above order does not help our relationship.

how comes A correct?????
GMATGuruNY wrote:
manjus_mailme wrote:The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that
the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher
energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned
about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
"¢ that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the
prospects of inflation, even though there are little
"¢ that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about
the prospects of inflation, even though there are few

Is it necessary to have 'that' after 'said' .I actually narrowed the choices to A,B and E because of 'few '.Eliminated 'E' because past perfect tense is required.Need help to chose Between A and B .
OA is A

Thanks in Advance.
Quickest approach:

The announcement said two things: that growth had accelerated...and that the policy makers remained concerned. The repetition of the word that is needed in order to maintain parallelism and to make clear what two things were said. Eliminate B, C and D.

In E, it is incorrect to say that the policy makers remained concerned that growth accelerated in the fourth quarter. To convey the correct the order of events, the past perfect is needed: the policy makers remained concerned that growth had accelerated. Eliminate E.

The correct answer is A.
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by Night reader » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:47 am
-->
Night reader wrote:
growth acceleration after + some slowdown (slowdown is first, growth is next --> may be slowdown is past perfect? Or may be nothing is past perfect here, as we speak in the 2nd quarter, and nobody knows from reading this sentence which quarter it's now :) may be it's still the 2nd quarter - continuing event...)

yes Fed reserve announcement said - this was in the simple past... and it might imply that the growth would or could be accelerated - future in the past :)

go figure
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:55 am
I am unable to figure out the usage of word 'had' in option A.

had refers to something which happened in the past at some point of time before some past event.

I am unable to find two past events here.

I also picked E but confused now!!

Could you please clarify.
Regards,

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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:57 am
Please see my amended post above. The verbs said and accelerated cannot both be in the same tense because the two actions did not happen contemporaneously (at the same time). The past perfect is needed to indicate the correct order of events: the announcement said that growth had accelerated.
Night reader wrote:@Mitch, The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated ---
OK, let's assume that past perfect is used, then growth is past and left behind, has no event connection with the present, this a complete action in the past :)

after slowing in the second quarter ---
this part is like bug following the past perfect tense, it must be past before the complete past according to you and answer A) :)

and that the policy makers remain concerned ---
to remain + past participle = present condition, 'very good' connection of the tense sequence i.e. present simple to the past perfect both logically and time-wise :)

about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far. --- I hope this part of sentence has some meaning and pertains to relationship of growth with the inflation, although the above order does not help our relationship.

how comes A correct?????
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by Night reader » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:10 am
in russian we call this 'podqoniat' or 'closing by the answer'

not any answer is correct, E is the less error containing.

the free edition of the sentence made by myself was 'said-has accelerated'

:( totally unsatisfied :(

@Mitch, what we gonna do with /had - after - slowdown/ here?
GMATGuruNY wrote:Please see my amended post above. The verbs said and accelerated cannot both be in the same tense because the two actions did not happen contemporaneously (at the same time). The past perfect is needed to indicate the correct order of events: the announcement said that growth had accelerated in the fourth quarter.
Night reader wrote:@Mitch, The Federal Reserve announcement said that growth had accelerated ---
OK, let's assume that past perfect is used, then growth is past and left behind, has no event connection with the present, this a complete action in the past :)

after slowing in the second quarter ---
this part is like bug following the past perfect tense, it must be past before the complete past according to you and answer A) :)

and that the policy makers remain concerned ---
to remain + past participle = present condition, 'very good' connection of the tense sequence i.e. present simple to the past perfect both logically and time-wise :)

about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far. --- I hope this part of sentence has some meaning and pertains to relationship of growth with the inflation, although the above order does not help our relationship.

how comes A correct?????
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:09 am
Let's move the events to the present tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerates after slowing in the second quarter.

While the statement above might appear as a newspaper headline, it makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect. Clearly the two actions -- the saying and the accelerating -- are not happening at the same time. Thus, the verbs should not be in the same tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Ah, much better. Now the order of the actions is clear and makes sense.

When the time frame moves into the past, the same logic holds true. Since the two actions are not happening at the same time, different tenses are needed. The present tense verb says becomes the past tense verb said; the past tense verb accelerated becomes the past perfect tense verb had accelerated:

The announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Hope this helps!
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