Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A. analysts, who predicted
B. analysts, whose predictions
C. analysts and their predictions
D. analysts' predicting
E. analysts' predictions
[spoiler]OA: Debated[/spoiler]
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gmat_perfect
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shovan85
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Contrary to X , Y happened.... here Y is "the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth". So X cannot be "financial analysts" but "financial analysts' predictions "gmat_perfect wrote:We should explain why one of the options is correct and why four of them are wrong.
Thanks.
This kills all but E.
A: Not contrary to analysts
B: Presence of comma makes it wrong. "whose" makes the analysts against the growth.
C: Both Analysts and Predictions are contradicted to growth
D: "Predicting" again emphasizes "analysts"
E: the WINNER
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GMATMadeEasy
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You want basically option D .
"analysts' predicting " predicting is made as gerund here to play the role of noun. Prediction is ,however, already existing noun of verb prediction, so it is the one to be used.
If A, B and C are not clear, let me know . They are ,simply, incorrect modifiers.
"analysts' predicting " predicting is made as gerund here to play the role of noun. Prediction is ,however, already existing noun of verb prediction, so it is the one to be used.
If A, B and C are not clear, let me know . They are ,simply, incorrect modifiers.
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lunarpower
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this question is awful. what's the source of the question?gmat_perfect wrote:Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A. analysts, who predicted
B. analysts, whose predictions
C. analysts and their predictions
D. analysts' predicting
E. analysts' predictions
[spoiler]OA: Debated[/spoiler]
whatever the source of this question, you should probably be quite suspicious of problems from that source, from now on.
choice (e) is the best of these five choices, but they are all bad.
first, "contrary" is an adjective, so the initial modifier that begins with this adjective must modify a NOUN. (this is what all adjectives do; they modify nouns.) therefore, the initial modifier actually modifies the following subject "the personal computer industry", which doesn't make sense as the referent for any of the options; the industry is not "contrary to analysts", nor is the industry itself "contrary to analysts' prediction".
if this problem showed up on the official test, then "contrary to analysts' prediction" would have to modify something like "the performance of the home computer market", since that is actually what was contrary to the prediction.
second, "prediction" should be singular, since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction.
horrible, sloppy problem.
what's the source?
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gmat_perfect
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Many thanks for the reply.lunarpower wrote:this question is awful. what's the source of the question?gmat_perfect wrote:Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A. analysts, who predicted
B. analysts, whose predictions
C. analysts and their predictions
D. analysts' predicting
E. analysts' predictions
[spoiler]OA: Debated[/spoiler]
whatever the source of this question, you should probably be quite suspicious of problems from that source, from now on.
choice (e) is the best of these five choices, but they are all bad.
first, "contrary" is an adjective, so the initial modifier that begins with this adjective must modify a NOUN. (this is what all adjectives do; they modify nouns.) therefore, the initial modifier actually modifies the following subject "the personal computer industry", which doesn't make sense as the referent for any of the options; the industry is not "contrary to analysts", nor is the industry itself "contrary to analysts' prediction".
if this problem showed up on the official test, then "contrary to analysts' prediction" would have to modify something like "the performance of the home computer market", since that is actually what was contrary to the prediction.
second, "prediction" should be singular, since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction.
horrible, sloppy problem.
what's the source?
This question is from a forum titled urch.com. I don't know who is the writer of this sentence.
Hi Ron,lunarpower wrote:this question is awful. what's the source of the question?gmat_perfect wrote:Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A. analysts, who predicted
B. analysts, whose predictions
C. analysts and their predictions
D. analysts' predicting
E. analysts' predictions
[spoiler]OA: Debated[/spoiler]
whatever the source of this question, you should probably be quite suspicious of problems from that source, from now on.
choice (e) is the best of these five choices, but they are all bad.
first, "contrary" is an adjective, so the initial modifier that begins with this adjective must modify a NOUN. (this is what all adjectives do; they modify nouns.) therefore, the initial modifier actually modifies the following subject "the personal computer industry", which doesn't make sense as the referent for any of the options; the industry is not "contrary to analysts", nor is the industry itself "contrary to analysts' prediction".
if this problem showed up on the official test, then "contrary to analysts' prediction" would have to modify something like "the performance of the home computer market", since that is actually what was contrary to the prediction.
second, "prediction" should be singular, since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction.
horrible, sloppy problem.
what's the source?
This question just appeared in MY GMAT Prep EP2 exam#6. I have been reading similar comments about other questions from EP2. I'm not sure what does this speak about the quality of questions in EP2. Please throw in your inputs on whether EP2 is a good enough source to gauge your performance.
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meenakshimiyer
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The contrary statement refers to the prediction and not to the analysts. The contrast is between the prediction and the outcome. So, choice A and B and C are out. Choice D also gives the same sense that the contrast is between the outcome and the analysts. Only choice E correctly marks the contrast. Hence, E is the answer.
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vietnam47
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we are here not to ask about source of the question. if the experts think a question is not worth studying, say so. even normal person can say so.
we focus on official questions and other good questions. if we feel a question is not good, go to another question and dont waiste out time.
we focus on official questions and other good questions. if we feel a question is not good, go to another question and dont waiste out time.
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gui_guimaraes
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@lunarpower Hi Ron! Actually this question is from GMATPREP Exam 5...lunarpower wrote: ↑Thu Oct 07, 2010 4:40 amthis question is awful. what's the source of the question?gmat_perfect wrote:Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A. analysts, who predicted
B. analysts, whose predictions
C. analysts and their predictions
D. analysts' predicting
E. analysts' predictions
[spoiler]OA: Debated[/spoiler]
whatever the source of this question, you should probably be quite suspicious of problems from that source, from now on.
choice (e) is the best of these five choices, but they are all bad.
first, "contrary" is an adjective, so the initial modifier that begins with this adjective must modify a NOUN. (this is what all adjectives do; they modify nouns.) therefore, the initial modifier actually modifies the following subject "the personal computer industry", which doesn't make sense as the referent for any of the options; the industry is not "contrary to analysts", nor is the industry itself "contrary to analysts' prediction".
if this problem showed up on the official test, then "contrary to analysts' prediction" would have to modify something like "the performance of the home computer market", since that is actually what was contrary to the prediction.
second, "prediction" should be singular, since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction.
horrible, sloppy problem.
what's the source?
