Good SC!

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Good SC!

by gmat_perfect » Thu Aug 05, 2010 8:29 am
An economic recession can result from a lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

(A) lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and start a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

(B) lowering of employment rates triggered by dropping investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and starts a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

(C) falling employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which cause cutbacks in consumer spending, starting a cycle of layoffs that lead to even lower employment rates.

(D) falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, causing people to cut consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs that lead back to even lower employment rates.

(E) falling employment rates that are triggered by a drop in investment, causing cutbacks in consumer spending and starting a cycle of layoffs leading to even lower employment rates.



First:

The use of "Which":

Which refers to the immediate eligible NOUN before which. Eligible means the following:

--> The NOUN must match with the Verb after which.
--> The NOUN must match singular/Plural.

Example:

The list of animals, which has been prepared by the experts, has been lost.

=> Which + has been

Has = Singular
Which =Singular
=> Which MUST refer to a singular NOUN.

So, which refers to "the list".

This is grammatical deal.

Meaning deal can also be applied in some cases:

The list of animals, which has been prepared by the experts, has been lost.


"Which has been prepared by experts" => If which refers to animals, it seems that animals has been prepared by experts. Does it make sense? NO. So, which cannot logically refer to "animals".


The same deal here:

Take the options one by one:

A. lowering of employment rates triggered by a drop in investment, which causes people to cut consumer spending and start a cycle of layoffs leading back to even lower employment rates.

Here, "which causes" indicates that which refers to the singular noun, a drop in investment.

Come to the meaning: A drop in investment causes people to cut consumer spending.

Investment may drop. But does it make sense that a drop in investment causes people to cut consumer spending?

If people are unemployed, they will NOT spend more.

So, it is illogical to say that "a drop in investment" causes..

A is wrong for this reason.

B. Same logic is applied in case of B.


Second:

The building that was built in 1990 has been destroyed.

=> The building built in 1990 has been destroyed. ----> GMAT likes conciseness. if two options express the same meaning, the shorter one is preferred.

In that sense:

"Rates triggered" is preferable to "rates that are triggered"

So, the options D and E are out.

Answer is C.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by kvcpk » Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:47 am
Hi perfect,
I think You missed "a" in options A and B. Can you please edit that. I was unable to find right any answer due to that.

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by gmat_perfect » Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:30 pm
kvcpk wrote:Hi perfect,
I think You missed "a" in options A and B. Can you please edit that. I was unable to find right any answer due to that.
Yes, you are correct. Both in A and in B, there is an A at the beginning of the options.

Thanks.

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