I think 2) would be answer..because of parallelism issue with 1)
Please correct me If I am wrong!!

phoenix111 wrote:complete the sentence :

Some analyst expects automakers___________________________

1) to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends.

2) to set dividends more conservatively than they have been.

Yup I also feel 1) should be the right answer.........

Yes, the OA is 1

But how do I eliminate the wrong one???

Hey guys,

Probably the most noticeable difference here is the placement of the pronoun "they". In option 1, "they" clearly refers back to automakers. But by option 2, "dividends" have been introduced to the sentence, too, so "they' could refer back to either "automakers" or "dividends". So #2 offers a pronoun issue that isn't a problem in #1.

On top of that, then, "they have been" in #2 gives you a verb ("have been") for which we don't really know whether it's "dividends are set more conservatively than they have been set" or "automakers will set dividends more conservatively than the automakers have been (setting them)".

#1 is clearer, putting "in setting dividends" there to further clarify that "they" refers to "automakers" (the dividends don't set themselves.

I totally agree with brian. I used the same logic to go for 1.