gmatjeet wrote:A) The average salary of new jobs is expected to rise in the near future as jobs become available in high-paying industries.
or
D) The average salary of new jobs would be expected to rise in the near future through jobs becoming available in high-paying industries.
or
E) The average salary of new jobs will rise in the near future because jobs in high paying industries are expected to become available.
Please explain which of the above 3 sentences are correct.
[spoiler]OA: A[/spoiler]
The reason I think this is interesting is that either (A) or (E) could be correct IF it were the original sentence. The only difference is one of meaning: (A) says that we expect a rise in salary because of a definite rise in jobs, and (E) reverses this, sure about the rise in salaries and only expecting (not sure of) a rise in jobs. The one that sticks closest to the intended meaning of the original sentence -- in this case, (A) by default -- will be right.
On the GMAT, especially the most up-to-date versions, you shouldn't see purely this difference; something else will make the clue more objective, such as an additional non-underlined clause that could read, for instance, "according to recent statistics about new jobs..." so we know that this fact is definite.
As for (D), the "would be" is only appropriate when paired with a hypothetical, so if it read "if new jobs become available..." this would be grammatically correct, but again, a change in meaning.
As jeet pointed out, there is a slight difference in meaning/usage between the three choices. "As" usually means simply "at the same time as" but, in this context, I think causality is implied, so "as" vs. "because" is not enough of a difference to eliminate one or the other. "Through," meanwhile, is definitely wrong: "through" used like this describes a process, not a cause-effect relationship. For example:
I am going to improve my GMAT score through study. (correct -- the study and the improvement go hand-in-hand)
I am going to improve my GMAT score by studying. (also correct)
I am going to score high on the GMAT through/by studying (either way incorrect -- you're going to score high on the actual test by actually doing well that day)
I am going to score high on the GMAT because I studied (correct)