Sentence Correction

In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

OA after some discussion.

IMO E
to pay and to profit - parallel.
thus only a,e left. E- idiomatic.

In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

Fight is between A and E...I will chose A
not sure why ?

I'll go for E

So, B,C,D are clearly out due to parallelism issues - - -to pay, to profit...

E vs A

Companies' vs company's

Subtle change in meaning

The investors will pay off the debt by using/with the (same thing)....but the difference is whether they will use a SINGLE COMPANY'S EARNINGS (company's) or the earnings of all the companies they have invested in (companies')

I'll go for E. In fact, the non-underlined portion also uses companies

mukgera wrote:In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit
OA after some discussion.

IMO:E

I agree with E. I want to explore this question from meaning perspective.

What difference does the following two sentences make?

by using the companies' earnings and to profit

with the companies' earnings and to profit

In short, its a discussion of how meaning drifts by usage of by/with?

Please comment.

OA is E.

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quote Quote

gmat_perfect wrote:
In a leveraged buyout, investors borrow huge sums of money to buy companies, hoping to pay off the debt by using the company's earnings and to profit richly by the later resale of the companies or their divisions.

A. by using the company's earnings and to profit
B. by using the companies' earnings and by profiting
C. using the companies' earnings and profiting
D. with the company's earnings, profiting
E. with the companies' earnings and to profit

A and D incorrectly say company's (singular), while the rest of the sentence refers to companies (plural). Eliminate A and D.

B changes the meaning. The investors are not hoping to pay off debt...by profiting richly by the later resale of the companies. Eliminate B.

In C, it's unclear what is being modified by using. Placing using next to debt makes it sound as though the debt is using the companies' earnings. Eliminate C.

The correct answer is E.