cyrwr1 wrote:I got this from gmatclub. I came across this and was confused about it.
What I think about this problem is that, if A were to be correct, it would be :
as it has been doing
B, simplifies that with "as it has done", I am not particular sure whether this substitution is always correct.
Received PMs about this one -- The above has it just right... and yes, that substitution is always valid as long as it doesn't result in tense errors. Frankenstein's post just above is right on, too.
Overall, remember that both for GMAT purposes and for "real life" writing, your job is just to choose the best phrasing you can. If I were a teacher correcting the grammar of students' essays or something, I don't know that I'd call it an error necessarily to say "continue to increase as it has been," BUT it doesn't HAVE to be an error for us not to choose it -- it just has to be not as good as some other alternative. In this case we KNOW that (B) works for sure, because we know that "do" (and forms of it) can function for verbs as pronouns do for nouns, i.e. tell you to mentally repeat whatever verb they're referring to. If we go through that mental repetition, (B) says "as it has increased..." and so I've for sure got my verb in there. Some people would validly argue that "has been" can cue repetition in whatever form is necessary, which is why (A) may be acceptable, but if some part of you feels like "I wish there were a 'doing' tacked onto the end of (A)," and if no part of you has any reservations about (B), go with (B).
It's obviously a lot more confidence-inspiring when you can rule answers out based on specific grammatical violations, but we always have to remember that sometimes an answer choice doesn't make the cut simply because it's not the best of the five options
[/u]
