pl explain

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 371
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:16 am
Thanked: 6 times
Followed by:1 members

pl explain

by vaivish » Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:20 am
7. A higher interest rate is only of the of factors, albeit an important one, that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
a. that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control, like it did earlier in the decade.
b. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control as it did in the earlier decade
c. that keeps the housing market from spiralling out of control as it did in the earlier decade
d. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control like earlier in the decade
e. that keep the housing market from spiralling out of control like it did in earlier decade


OA is b

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 343
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:28 pm
Thanked: 4 times

by arorag » Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:57 am
Rule:
Construction such as following one
X that/who verb----- Verb use onlu and only depends on X.

Based on above rule eliminate A and C

Correct comparision require AS
So ans is B

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 871
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:48 am
Thanked: 48 times

by stop@800 » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:47 am
high interest rates is one of the factors, that keep
so keeps is wrong
AC out

DE
Like is incorrect here. We are comparing actions and not nouns.

so Ans B

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 435
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:02 pm
Location: San Jose, CA
Thanked: 43 times
Followed by:1 members
GMAT Score:720

IMO B

by dumb.doofus » Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:35 pm
A higher interest rate is only one of the factors that keep....

here the main subject is rate.. "one of the factors that keep" is a subordinate clause - the "that" indicates a noun modifier, so it refers to the noun right before it - "factors", which is plural... so "keep" should be used..

Answer is B

Good question..

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 371
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:16 am
Thanked: 6 times
Followed by:1 members

by vaivish » Sat Sep 27, 2008 7:15 pm
thnaks...but i thought thanks modifies the ''albeith one '' but it modifies the factors.....

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 1:11 am
Location: London

by sunnychopra » Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:59 am
Hi Folks,

here the main subject is rate.. "one of the factors that keep" is a subordinate clause - the "that" indicates a noun modifier, so it refers to the noun right before it - "factors", which is plural... so "keep" should be used..
"that" refers to the noun right before it. however, :) i feel "that" doesn't refer to "factors".. if you read the sentence then it looks like it is referring to "interest rate"..keep is not plural..keep is singular..
for eg.
M.S Dhoni kept for india for many years..

for more details you can refer to the below link also..

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/keeps


please correct me, if i am wrong..
Regards,
Sunny

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 401
Joined: Fri May 04, 2007 9:21 am
Thanked: 3 times
Followed by:1 members

by NSNguyen » Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:46 am
IMO: B
Please share your idea and your reasoning :D
https://bmnmed.com/home/
https://nguyensinguyen.vietnam21.org

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:57 am
Followed by:1 members
GMAT Score:720

by bleacherseat » Wed Oct 15, 2008 6:03 pm
People have to be kidding me with B as the justification of an answer.


The subject is Higher intesrest rate - singular


The subject is modified by albeit ........an important one . If we just get rid of this modifier

we are saying .....higher intesrest rate is one of the factors that keep


we need to use keeps not keep

verb is not refering to factors but to one of the factors - singular again

also if you use use that keep (plural) , it violates the parallelism in the later part of the sentence.


..as it did earlier.

C should be it.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 344
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:00 am
Location: USA
Thanked: 6 times
Followed by:1 members

by Bidisha800 » Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:20 pm
LOL ! Some posts have some real humor.

Legendary Member
Posts: 594
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:51 pm
Thanked: 12 times

by nervesofsteel » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:39 pm
B should be the answer

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 94
Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:05 pm

sc

by simba12123 » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:22 pm
Please google, wiki or research the net. The subject of the sentence needs to hidden or else the exam will turn into an elemantary verbal exam. THe subject is almost always hidden just before the word OF. GO ahead test it out on the OG I dare you. :)

The subject here (as bleacherseat explained) is singular and therefore the answer has to be C!
Advancing to be reckoned with!

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2008 10:01 pm
Location: UK
Thanked: 7 times

by augusto » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:44 pm
I might be really wrong but let's give it a try.

First the main verb of the sentence is IS in "A higher interest rate is only of the of factors". And it's used as a linking verb.

that is used as a relative pronoun, refers to factors.

and it refers to the housing market.

For me the answer is B, but what to do...

Cheers,
Augusto

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 101
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:32 pm
Location: NY and Boston
Thanked: 56 times
Followed by:16 members

by Karen » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:09 pm
The answer is B. The relative clause "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control" modifies "factors," and so the verb has to be plural.

To put it another way, the sentence is saying that there are many factors (plural) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. Then it's also identifying one thing that is just one of those factors. But "one" is not the word that's being modified by "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control."

The reason some people find it confusing, I think, is that many people *would* use a singular verb here -- in their natural way of speaking, they would construct the sentence as if "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control" *did* modify "one". This is an example of spoken conversational English diverging from formal written English. The GMAT is always looking for formal written style, and the test writers deliberately construct examples for which some people's spoken style will lead them to the wrong answer. In other words, for some people C is going to sound right, because that's how many people speak, but C isn't right according to formal rules of grammar.

I don't like it that B changes the meaning in an odd way, though -- "in the earlier decade." I assume this isn't an example from official materials but from some other source?
Karen van Hoek, PhD
Verbal Specialist

Test Prep New York
maximize your score, minimize your stress
www.testprepny.com
[email protected]

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 200
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:14 pm
Thanked: 1 times

Karen help!

by ska7945 » Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:59 am
As you mentioned,
To put it another way, the sentence is saying that there are many factors (plural) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. Then it's also identifying one thing that is just one of those factors. But "one" is not the word that's being modified by "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control."

Karen, i am still confusing.
"one of the factors that---does "that" always have to modify the right before one "factors"?

then is this the wrong sentence?

Tom is one of the soccer players who scores a goal.
(There are several soccer players and Tom is the only one who scores.)

Tom is one of the scooer players who score a goal.
(There are several soccer players who score a goal and Tom is one of them.)

I thought we can use WHO in these both ways.
If so, how can we sure about that modifies 'factors' but not "one"?
please explain. Thanks a lot.
let's beat GMAT.

User avatar
MBA Student
Posts: 1194
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:42 pm
Location: Paris, France
Thanked: 71 times
Followed by:17 members
GMAT Score:710

by gmat740 » Thu Jun 04, 2009 12:17 am
As you mentioned,
To put it another way, the sentence is saying that there are many factors (plural) that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. Then it's also identifying one thing that is just one of those factors. But "one" is not the word that's being modified by "that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control."

Karen, i am still confusing.
"one of the factors that---does "that" always have to modify the right before one "factors"?

then is this the wrong sentence?

Tom is one of the soccer players who scores a goal.
(There are several soccer players and Tom is the only one who scores.)

Tom is one of the scooer players who score a goal.
(There are several soccer players who score a goal and Tom is one of them.)

I thought we can use WHO in these both ways.
If so, how can we sure about that modifies 'factors' but not "one"?
please explain. Thanks a lot.

Even I have the same doubt


When we use :

John is one of the students who works hard

Here we use Singular verb works.

There is a rule I came across in this forum

Noun + one of the + Plural Noun + That/Who + Singular Verb.

So if we are using this theory,then...."Kee" is wrong

Please suggest