Mortgage payments

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 114
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:19 am
Thanked: 1 times

Mortgage payments

by kobel51 » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:37 pm
In 1973 mortgage payments represented twenty-one percent of an average thirty-year-old male's income; and forty-four percent in 1984.

(A) income; and forty-four percent in 1984

(B) income; in 1984 the figure was forty-four percent

(C) income, and in 1984 forty-four percent

(D) income, forty-four percent in 1984 was the figure

(E) income that rose to forty-four percent in 1984

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1248
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:57 pm
Location: Everywhere
Thanked: 503 times
Followed by:192 members
GMAT Score:780

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:45 pm
In choice A, using a semicolon with a conjunction is redundant. Either can be used to link independent clauses, but you don't need both. Additionally, we don't have an independent clause after the semicolon because we don't have a verb.

B is pretty good.

Similar to A, C needs a verb in the second clause.

D uses a comma on its own to join two independent clauses.

E combines the two different ideas into one clause, which is illogical and awkward.

B
Join Veritas Prep's 2010 Instructor of the Year, Matt Douglas for GMATT Mondays

Visit the Veritas Prep Blog

Try the FREE Veritas Prep Practice Test

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 1052
Joined: Fri May 21, 2010 1:30 am
Thanked: 335 times
Followed by:98 members

by Patrick_GMATFix » Wed Feb 26, 2014 7:52 pm
I go through the question in detail in the full solution below (taken from the GMATFix App).

Image

-Patrick
  • Ask me about tutoring.

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Elite Legendary Member
Posts: 10392
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Thanked: 2867 times
Followed by:511 members
GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Wed Feb 26, 2014 8:45 pm
Hi kobel51,

This SC is based on Comparison rules (and by extension, Parallelism rules).

The sentence compares percents in 1973 to percents in 1984; we need to choose an answer that presents that information in parallel format.

The first part of the comparison uses the phrase "In 1973....represented.....21%", so we need the second part of the comparison to match.

Only the correct answer B presents the second part of the comparison in the same format.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
Image