Commodity market

[gmatrant]

The market for recycled commodities like zinc and other metals remain strong despite economic changes in the recycling industry.

A. commodities like zinc and other metals remain
B. commodities like those of zinc and other metals are remaining
C. commodities such as zinc and other metals remains
D. commodities, such as zinc and other metals, remain
E. commodities, like the commodities of zinc and other metals, remains

OA is E, but why not C

[yxhh2008]

my answer is C.

[ranji]

my first thought was C, since such as is used to give examples.

But looking again, are Zinc and other metals examples of commodities?? actually not.

In that case, such as usage is not correct.

then E seems to be right. [comparing 'recycled commodities' with 'commodities made of Zinc and Other metals'], it should be 'remains' since market is singular.

any corrections

[yxhh2008]

aha, agree with Ranji, I ignored the meaning of sentence.

[maverick2007]

I would go with the option C too, because if we look at the question stem once again the meaning of the sentence is preserved only if we stick to the option C. option E makes sense too but the meaning of the original sentence gets distorted. I think the author is trying to give zinc and other commodities as examples. I wonder what is the source of the question??

Any thoughts guys???[/quote]

[Danielle]

This one is tricky because this sentence can be read and understood more than one way, and only one way gets the right answer. If you read the sentence and see "zinc and other metals" as examples of recycled commodities, you're wrong. If you read "zinc and other metals" as examples of recycled commodities markets, then you're correct.

The answer breaks down like this. The example sentence is wrong because the plural verb "remain" does not agree with the single subject "market". The only two answers that correct this are C and E. E is the correct choice because it clarifies zinc and other metals as commodities (as in markets), whereas C does not.