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Savings banks

by sumithshah » Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:56 am
Need help with this weird question

Since savings banks have to use short-term deposits to finance long-term fixed-rate mortgage loans, they sometimes lose money when there is a rise in short-term rates and, on the other hand, they are unable to raise the rates on their mortgages.

(A) when there is a rise in short-term rates and, on the other hand, they are unable to raise
(B) when short-term rates rise and they are unable to raise
(C) when a rise in short-term rates occurs and, correspondingly, there is no rise possible in
(D) with a rise in short-term rates, and they are unable to raise
(E) with short-term rates on the rise and no rise possible in

OA B

Thanks
Sumit
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by gmatinjuly » Sat Aug 16, 2008 4:42 pm
Sumit, this is how I came to B


As the sentence explains a situation, the situation will occur WHEN ....

So with is incorrect Eliminate Dand E

C/A explains is verbose has correspondingly so eliminate
Also A on othe hand is not required.

B explains meaning and verbs are correct.
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by Vignesh.4384 » Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:14 pm
sumithshah,

The subject of the sentence is savings banks.

There are two clauses here that are joined by "AND".
So C
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by saurabh_dce08 » Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:33 pm
IMO B :D

Vignesh4384,
pls let me know your reasoning behind C :shock:
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by Vignesh.4384 » Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:55 am
saurabh_dce08 wrote:IMO B :D

Vignesh4384,
pls let me know your reasoning behind C :shock:
I meant B . I was just careless and i typed C.
Thanks for pointing it out
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by aj5105 » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:46 am
I chose C..

Reason--just wanted to avoid a choice with 'they'

Can some one please explain how B?
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by Rashmi1804 » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:04 am
But i thought A is correct because it express the contrast required though wordy.
isnt contrast required here ???
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by kpetrova123 » Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:04 am
Rashmi1804 wrote:But i thought A is correct because it express the contrast required though wordy.
isnt contrast required here ???
Yes, contrast is required, but i personally ruled out A because the expression is on one hand...and on the other hand and the first part was missing. I would agree the use of they in B is not clear, so i went with C too.
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by gmat740 » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:58 pm
I would agree the use of they in B is not clear, so i went with C too.
They clearly is for Saving Banks.
B is correct
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by karmayogi » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:10 am
gmat740 wrote:
I would agree the use of they in B is not clear, so i went with C too.
They clearly is for Saving Banks.
B is correct
Not sure. To me, "they" is ambiguous in B. I selected C.

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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:07 am
I received a PM asking me to reply on the specific issue of pronouns in the above sentence and the broader issue of why pronouns sometimes seem to be ambiguous but the official answer says they're okay or vice versa.

Before I respond, I have a question: who wrote this problem? If it is a released question from the official test writers or if it is from a reputable company that has studied the test extensively, then it is worth discussing any apparent ambiguities. If the problem is not from a good source, however, then don't spend time agonizing over any ambiguities, because you don't know whether the real test would do something similar or whether this just isn't a well-constructed problem.

I'm a little skeptical of this one based on the first word: "since." Official test questions typically prefer "because" in this setup, reserving "since" for expressions related to time. (Yes, in the real world, we often use "because" and "since" interchangeably, and OG explanations will even do this too. But the questions themselves show a decided preference for not using the word "since" when the meaning is "because"!)

Also, as a short explanation, we have to check both logical meaning and structural composition of the sentence. In a quick glance at the problem above, I notice that the subject of the opening clause is "savings banks" and the two "they" pronouns that follow also function as the subjects of their respective clauses. Each "they" pronoun, then, both logically and structurally refers to "savings banks." That is often sufficient to indicate a proper antecedent on official questions, even when there are other plural nouns in the sentence.
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by sandysai » Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:31 pm
Hi stacey,

The source of this question is official gmac retired question paper 48.

Confused with meaning,My undestanding is below :

The Banks loose money when there is rise in Short term interest rates BUT they are unable to increase interest rates on mortgages.

These events are both interconnected actions that leads to loss .But the correct answer (choice B) used AND clause to express them as 2 independent (saperate equal priority) events .


Where am i misreading or understanding it. Please assist

sandhya
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