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In a state of pure commercial competition

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In a state of pure commercial competition

by aditya8062 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:15 am
In a state of pure commercial competition, there would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than each other.

A)all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than each other.
B)all seeking more successfully to meet consumer needs and wants than the others.
C)each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than one another.
D)each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others.
E)each seeking successfully to meet consumer needs and wants than another


my doubt: honestly i was baffled by this question. i am somehow not able to appreciate the construction in this SC. there are number of reasons to it

1) all through OG and prep questions, i have observed that GMAC generally avoids such constructions as: clause, modifier, modifier. if GMAC has been avoiding this construction then why this SC becomes correct?

2) all through OG and prep questions, i have observed "comma+ each" construction refers to "plural noun" before COMMA . this rule seems flouted here

3) if the construction "all unfettered by governmental regulations" AND "each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others" are indeed modifier describing "FIRMS" then shouldn't there be a parallelism between these TWO constructions with "AND" parallelism?

4) i have always been told to read the sentences very literally and with that in mind "comma + each" seems to refer to "governmental regulations" . i know it makes no sense but then how do i decide between this "literal reading" and "common sense" reading?
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:28 pm
aditya8062 wrote:In a state of pure commercial competition, there would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than each other.

A)all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than each other.
B)all seeking more successfully to meet consumer needs and wants than the others.
C)each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than one another.
D)each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others.
E)each seeking successfully to meet consumer needs and wants than another
Each other and one another are reciprocal pronouns.
Their purpose is to express actions that are RECIPROCATED.
The two brothers loved each other.
Here, the first brother loves the second; the second brother loves the first.
The members of the club fought with one another.
Here, each member is fighting with every other member.

In the SC above, there is no action being reciprocated; the firms are being COMPARED.
Hence, each other (in A) and one another (in C) are not appropriate.
Eliminate A and C.

In B and E, successfully seems to be modifying seeking. The intended meaning is not that the firms are SEEKING successfully but that they are seeking TO MEET CONSUMER WANTS AND NEEDS successfully.
Eliminate B and E.

The correct answer is D.

In the OA, it is clear that EACH FIRM is being compared to THE OTHERS.
my doubt: honestly i was baffled by this question. i am somehow not able to appreciate the construction in this SC. there are number of reasons to it

1) all through OG and prep questions, i have observed that GMAC generally avoids such constructions as: clause, modifier, modifier. if GMAC has been avoiding this construction then why this SC becomes correct?

2) all through OG and prep questions, i have observed "comma+ each" construction refers to "plural noun" before COMMA . this rule seems flouted here

3) if the construction "all unfettered by governmental regulations" AND "each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others" are indeed modifier describing "FIRMS" then shouldn't there be a parallelism between these TWO constructions with "AND" parallelism?

4) i have always been told to read the sentences very literally and with that in mind "comma + each" seems to refer to "governmental regulations" . i know it makes no sense but then how do i decide between this "literal reading" and "common sense" reading?
While back-to-back modifiers joined by a comma are rare, other OAs from GMAC have employed this structure.
Two examples:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-hognose- ... 93558.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/parallelism- ... 96011.html
Generally, the two modifiers joined by a comma will be PARALLEL IN FORM and will serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE.

OA to the SC above: There would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than one another.
Note that the two modifiers in red are parallel in form.
First modifier: all + VERBed + other words
Second modifier: each + VERBing + other words
The parallel forms make it clear that both modifiers serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE: to modify firms, the nearest preceding plural noun.
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by aditya8062 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:28 pm
Thanks Guru

i have a follow up question . you said that :
In B and E, successfully seems to be modifying seeking. The intended meaning is not that the firms are SEEKING successfully but that they are seeking TO MEET CONSUMER WANTS AND NEEDS successfully.
i somehow find it difficult to differentiate this meaning,especially in timed situation. i guess grammatically both version are viable so how do select one over the other?

also you said :
Generally, the two modifiers joined by a comma will be PARALLEL IN FORM and will serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE.
this is really interesting and new for me . i always thought that only PARALLEL marker such as "AND" , "BUT" , "NOT ONLY" etc can only create parallel construction .
please tell me will the following choice be superior to the OA : In a state of pure commercial competition, there would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others -----> parallelism between "ALL ..." and "ALL ..."
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:23 pm
aditya8062 wrote:Thanks Guru

i have a follow up question . you said that :
In B and E, successfully seems to be modifying seeking. The intended meaning is not that the firms are SEEKING successfully but that they are seeking TO MEET CONSUMER WANTS AND NEEDS successfully.
i somehow find it difficult to differentiate this meaning,especially in timed situation. i guess grammatically both version are viable so how do select one over the other?
In many cases, an incorrect answer choice will have more than one error.
If you're not sure whether one portion of an answer choice constitutes an error, LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT ERROR.

B: all seeking to meet consumer needs more than the others
Here, ALL of the firms cannot be compared to THE OTHERS.
Let's say there are 3 firms X, Y and Z.
B implies the following comparison:
Firms X, Y and Z are seeking to meet consumer needs more than the others.
What others?
Eliminate B.

E: each seeking successfully to meet consumer needs and wants than another
Here, than requires a preceding comparative such as more or less.
Eliminate E.
also you said :
Generally, the two modifiers joined by a comma will be PARALLEL IN FORM and will serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE.
this is really interesting and new for me . i always thought that only PARALLEL marker such as "AND" , "BUT" , "NOT ONLY" etc can only create parallel construction .
please tell me will the following choice be superior to the OA : In a state of pure commercial competition, there would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, all seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others -----> parallelism between "ALL ..." and "ALL ..."
As noted above, ALL of the firms cannot be compared to THE OTHERS.

In the OA, there is a reason that the first modifier begins with ALL, while the second modifier begins with EACH.
First modifier: ALL unfettered by government regulations
Here, the firms as a group are ALL unfettered by government regulations.
Second modifier: EACH seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than the others
Here, EACH firm ON ITS OWN is seeking to meet consumer needs more successfully than THE OTHER FIRMS.
Since the first modifier refers to ALL of the firms, while the second modifier refers to EACH firm individually, the first modifier begins with ALL, while the second modifier begins with EACH.
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by aditya8062 » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:51 pm
B: all seeking to meet consumer needs more than the others
Here, ALL of the firms cannot be compared to THE OTHERS.
Let's say there are 3 firms X, Y and Z.
B implies the following comparison:
Firms X, Y and Z are seeking to meet consumer needs more than the others.
What others?
Eliminate B.
excellent explanation as always . thanks a lot Guru . just one question on this . is it that while making comparisons we need to make sure that we compare singular things with singular AND plural things with plural . for instance if i come up with something like : like the industry of America, industries of XYZ ....." . i read somewhere that such comparison is not viable because singulars cannot be compared to plurals . is it so?
Thanks and regards
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by gocoder » Tue May 03, 2016 7:23 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
aditya8062 wrote:
OA to the SC above: There would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than one another.
Note that the two modifiers in red are parallel in form.
First modifier: all + VERBed + other words
Second modifier: each + VERBing + other words
The parallel forms make it clear that both modifiers serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE: to modify firms, the nearest preceding plural noun.
Don't the VERBing modifiers modify the subject of the preceding clause.

"The man worked hard with his team, pushing it to stay whole night."
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue May 03, 2016 12:43 pm
gocoder wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
OA to the SC above: There would be a large number of producing firms, all unfettered by governmental regulations, each seeking to meet consumer needs and wants more successfully than one another.
Note that the two modifiers in red are parallel in form.
First modifier: all + VERBed + other words
Second modifier: each + VERBing + other words
The parallel forms make it clear that both modifiers serve the SAME GRAMMATICAL PURPOSE: to modify firms, the nearest preceding plural noun.
Don't the VERBing modifiers modify the subject of the preceding clause.

"The man worked hard with his team, pushing it to stay whole night."
Generally:
A VERBing modifier that immediately follows a COMMA serves to refer to the preceding subject.
A VERBing modifier that immediately follows a NOUN or PRONOUN serves to modify that noun or pronoun.
OA: each seeking to meet consumer needs
Here, seeking immediately follows a pronoun (each).
Thus, seeking serves to modify this pronoun, conveying that EACH firm is SEEKING to meet consumer needs.
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