Very, VERY strange problem: OG 10e, 231: Ms. Chambers . . .

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Ms. Chambers is among the forecasters who predict that the rate of addition of arable lands will drop while those of loss rise.

A. those of loss rise
B. it rises for loss
C. those of losses rise
D. the rate of loss rises
E. there are rises for the rate of loss

The answer is D, but should it not be "the rate of loss WILL rise"?
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by Ravish » Tue Dec 28, 2010 1:30 am
Don't think about what it should be if it is NOT stated in the answer choices. Often times, in the tougher questions, the correct answer will sound extremely vague and you will not like it but it contains no errors enough to render the answer a violation of the rules of written grammer.

The GMAT was extremely kind with the answer choices here as they did not use the word 'will' in any of the answer choices nor did they use a future tense in any of the answer choices.

All we need to look for is a choice that matches the parallell structure of the first argument and D does that.

THE RATE OF addition of arable lands vs. THE RATE OF loss.

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by prachich1987 » Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:13 am
Ravish wrote:Don't think about what it should be if it is NOT stated in the answer choices. Often times, in the tougher questions, the correct answer will sound extremely vague and you will not like it but it contains no errors enough to render the answer a violation of the rules of written grammer.

The GMAT was extremely kind with the answer choices here as they did not use the word 'will' in any of the answer choices nor did they use a future tense in any of the answer choices.

All we need to look for is a choice that matches the parallell structure of the first argument and D does that.

THE RATE OF addition of arable lands vs. THE RATE OF loss.
But if you compare the verbs they are not parallel
will rise vs rises??

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by towerSpider » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:38 am
Sorry i forgot to underline the incorrect part.
Ms. Chambers is among the
forecasters who predict that the rate
of addition of arable lands will drop
while those of loss rise.

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by prachich1987 » Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:45 am
towerSpider wrote:Sorry i forgot to underline the incorrect part.
Ms. Chambers is among the
forecasters who predict that the rate
of addition of arable lands will drop
while those of loss rise.
you can even edit your post.
You can find edit option at the rightmost upper corner

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by Coop » Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:09 pm
Ms. Chambers is among the forecasters who predict that the rate of addition of arable lands will drop while those of loss rise.

A. those of loss rise
B. it rises for loss
C. those of losses rise
D. the rate of loss rises
E. there are rises for the rate of loss

The answer is D, but should it not be "the rate of loss WILL rise"?

I agree with Ravish. Also, the key to this SC question is recognizing that it is a parrell question and the question stem wants us to make two nouns parrell. We need to make "those of loss rise" parrell to the noun "the rate of addition." Only one answer choice makes the two parrell and that answer is D.
Coop

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by Ravish » Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:16 pm
prachich1987 wrote:
Ravish wrote:Don't think about what it should be if it is NOT stated in the answer choices. Often times, in the tougher questions, the correct answer will sound extremely vague and you will not like it but it contains no errors enough to render the answer a violation of the rules of written grammer.

The GMAT was extremely kind with the answer choices here as they did not use the word 'will' in any of the answer choices nor did they use a future tense in any of the answer choices.

All we need to look for is a choice that matches the parallell structure of the first argument and D does that.

THE RATE OF addition of arable lands vs. THE RATE OF loss.
But if you compare the verbs they are not parallel
will rise vs rises??
Hence I said that the GMAT was extremely kind with the answer choices. I was looking for the word 'Will' to but since they did not include it in any of the incorrect answer choices, it made the question a lot easier as I would have been really thrown of should 'will' have appeared in a wrong answer.

However, now that i think about it, it's not quite necessary to use 'will' in this sentence as it is trying to convey that one event is causing another event.

Here is another example:

As the the price of the stock of company X falls, the price of the stock of company Y WILL rise.

Here the author is trying to convey that the stock of company X is CURRENTLY falling. Now let's put the word will inside.


As the stock of company X WILL fall, the stock of company Y WILL rise.

The word will changes the context of the sentence as now, the fall of the stock price of company X becomes a future prediction as opposed to the first sentence where it is a currently occurring and causing the stock of Y to rise.

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