option A says (explicitly) that a mutual fund can rarely hold more than one percent of shares in a particular corporation.
option B suggests that its a rarity for a company to hold more than one percent of shares in a corporation. Here it "implicitly" says the same message.
I hope this helps.

Tommy Wallach wrote:Hey Imskpwr,

Again with these wacky wacky questions of yours. I continue to think this approach to thinking about the GMAT is a dangerous one, because it isn't holistic. And I'll continue to say so to whomever will listen! Focus on major grammatical issues and always consider all 5 answer choices together! : )

(A) "rarely holding" is a participial phrase modifying the entire preceding clause, giving more information on how the mutual funds invest.
(B) doesn't at all make clear who's doing the holding, because it's started a new clause (using the conjunction "and") and then doesn't allow "mutual funds" to be the subject (because "to hold" is an infinitive). "At least one percent or more" is redundant.

Hope that helps!

-t

Thanks!
I had the same reasons(for option A &B) in mind. But to be more confident and correct, I asked for other opinions.
I think I am fine with my approach in Reviewing OG problems.
However, I Always think of big pictures when I am Practicing.

Hello Everyone!

Let's take a closer look at this question, so we can narrow down the options to the correct one! First, here is the original question with the major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies, rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporation.

(A) companies, rarely holding more than one percent
(B) companies, and it is rare to hold at least one percent or more
(C) companies and rarely do they hold more than one percent
(D) companies, so that they rarely hold more than one percent
(E) companies; rarely do they hold one percent or more

After a quick glance over the options, there are a couple major differences we can address:

1. "it" vs. "they" (pronoun-antecedent agreement)
2. -ing modifier in option A (modifier use)

Let's start with #1 on our list: "it" vs. "they." Since option A doesn't use a pronoun, we'll save that option for later review. However, let's make sure that the pronouns in options B, C, D, & E all match up in number to what they're referring to:

(A) companies, rarely holding more than one percent --> OK
(no pronoun = save for later)

(B) companies, and it is rare to hold at least one percent or more --> WRONG
(The pronoun "it" in this sentence is what we call a "dummy pronoun." It's not referring to anything earlier in the sentence, which is a big no-no on the GMAT. Dummy pronouns are confusing and unclear to readers, which is why the GMAT prefers you avoid them whenever possible.)

(C) companies and rarely do they hold more than one percent --> WRONG
(The plural "they" is referring back to the singular subject "a mutual fund," which is not parallel in number.)

(D) companies, so that they rarely hold more than one percent --> WRONG
(The plural "they" is referring back to the singular subject "a mutual fund," which is not parallel in number.)

(E) companies; rarely do they hold one percent or more --> WRONG
(The plural "they" is referring back to the singular subject "a mutual fund," which is not parallel in number.)

While we have effectively eliminated all the options except for A, we should still make sure that the -ing modifier is used correctly. To make this clearer to see, we've added in the non-underlined portions of the sentence:

(A) A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies, rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporation.

To do a quick check, let's answer a couple key questions:

1. Is the -ing modifier referring back to the entire main clause (the subject and verb)? Yes!
2. Does the modifier actually add more useful information to the clause? Yes!

There you have it - option A is the correct choice! It's the only one that doesn't have any problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement, doesn't include any vague or misleading pronouns, and uses the -ing modifier correctly.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

semicolon in choice e offer the same meaning as comma+doing dose. I mean comma+doing and semi colon are interchangeble.

but choice e suffer pronoun error,so, it is wrong.

imskpwr wrote:A mutual fund having billions of dollars in assets will typically invest that money in hundreds of companies, rarely holding more than one percent of the shares of any particular corporation.

(A) companies, rarely holding more than one percent
(B) companies, and it is rare to hold at least one percent or more
[spoiler](C) companies and rarely do they hold more than one percent
(D) companies, so that they rarely hold more than one percent
(E) companies; rarely do they hold one percent or more [/spoiler]

Please explain subtle differences in MEANING between (a) and (b) ONLY.

look at B.
"it" can grammatically refer to "fund" but "it" makes illogical thing. "fund" can not be "rare".
"it" can be a fake subject, as in " it is good to learn gmat". but if this case is, "to hold" can not refer to "fund" but refer to a general persons grammatically. so, it is unclear who hold. sentence is not logic.
another mistake is that
as I said many times, "and" is a hard word on gmat. "and" show parallelism grammatically and we have to prove that the items are parallel logically. this is not easy job.
"and it is rare" show that this second action is parallel and separate from the first action "invest". while comma+doing show another aspect of the first action, this aspect not separable from the main action. in short "invest in many companies" and "rarely holding more than one percent in other companies" are the same action. choice B is gone