sentence inversion and ambiguity

Question

For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

A) For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

B) Considering all their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people, with 32 million unique viewers alone in the United States every month.

C) With all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

D) Given all their financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people, nearly 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

E) Even considering their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

[spoiler]Source : Veritas Prep OA: A[/spoiler]
[spoiler]How do you decide between A & C? Does C change the meaning of sentence? Does A remove Ambiguity[/spoiler]

Rich.C@EMPOWERgmat.com · Answer

Hi vinodsundaram,

The "intent" of this sentence is that there is "contrast" - the idea is that even though The WSJ has financial troubles, it still has millions of viewers. You need a sentence that correctly presents that contrast (and uses the proper pronoun). Answers A and C have the proper pronoun, but only A provides the proper contrast (In C, the phrase "With all its financial troubles..." is a "continuation" phrase, so the proper style would be to describe something negative next).

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Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

tinku@523 · Answer

Hey Rich but the first sentence has a modifier error right please correct me If am wrong because C option clearly follows the modifier please let me know If am wrong

GMATGuruNY · Answer

vinodsundaram wrote:For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

A) For all its financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

B) Considering all their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people, with 32 million unique viewers alone in the United States every month.

C) With all its financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

D) Given all their financial troubles, never has the Wall Street Journal been read by more people, nearly 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

E) Even considering their financial troubles, the Wall Street Journal has never been read by more people: 32 million unique viewers online in the United States alone every month.

In B, D and E, their (plural) cannot serve to refer to the Wall Street Journal (singular).
Eliminate B, D and E.

Generally, an introductory with-modifier serves to indicate HOW the action in the following clause is performed.
C implies the following:
The Wall Street Journal has never been read WITH ALL ITS FINANCIAL TROUBLES.
Not the intended meaning: the financial troubles are not HOW the Journal has never been read.
Eliminate C.

On the GMAT, when an introductory modifier includes a pronoun without an antecedent, the referent for the pronoun is invariably the FIRST WORD right after the comma.
Consider the following examples from the OG12:

Q7: As ITS sales of computer products have surpassed those of measuring instruments, THE COMPANY...
Q28: Building on civilizations that preceded THEM in coastal Peru, THE MOHICA...
Q31: Even though many of HER colleagues were convinced that genes were relatively simple and static, BARBARA MCCLINTOCK...

In each case, the introductory modifier includes a pronoun without an antecedent.
In each case, the referent for the pronoun is the first word right after the comma.

In A, the referent for its is NOT the first word after the comma.

I recommend that you disregard this SC.

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