Information Technology cost

[GmatKiss]

Although most large public relations firms can afford to run information technology centers in-house, some niche firms are discovering that the costs arising from maintaining an information technology staff and from continuously improving hardware and software are larger than they initially estimated.

A) costs arising from
B) costs associated from
C) costs associated with
D) cost arising from
E) cost associated with

OA after some discussion

[crick]

I will go with A here

It is a very good problem to sharpen the SC strategies -

1) Read the sentence completely and carefully. -

discovering that the ____________ maintaining an information technology staff and from continuously improving hardware - presence of from in un-underlined part indicates that the underlined part should have a from => B, C and E can be eliminated. (associated from is unidiomatic).

Presence of and indicates that the noun must be plural. => costs is correct.

Hence A.

[aspirant2011]

Although most large public relations firms can afford to run information technology centers in-house, some niche firms are discovering that the costs arising from maintaining an information technology staff and from continuously improving hardware and software are larger than they initially estimated.

A) costs arising from ----- arising from is parallel to and from
B) costs associated from----- associate with is the right word
C) costs associated with ------ not parallel I.e with and from
D) cost arising from ----- singular
E) cost associated with ----- singular

OA after some discussion

[HSPA]

Btw A and C.. I was intrested C

Although most large public relations firms can afford to run information technology centers in-house, some niche firms are discovering that the costs arising from maintaining an information technology staff and from continuously improving hardware and software are larger than they initially estimated.

A) costs arising from ----- arising from is parallel to and from
B) costs associated from----- associate with is the right word
C) costs associated with ------ not parallel I.e with and from
D) cost arising from ----- singular
E) cost associated with ----- singular

OA after some discussion

[smackmartine]

IMO A

A) costs arising from
B) costs associated from
C) costs associated with
D) cost arising from
E) cost associated with

I would take a different approach to select correct answer choice among A,B and C.
As GMAT has been focusing a lot on meaning/correctness rather than clarity, I would look for the intended meaning of the whole sentence.
If any costs are associated with/from(I don't care for the time being,even though from is parallel construction) something like staffing or bla..bla.., why would firms not decide to run IT centers in-house ? It's not the association ,but the increasing trend of the costs which might bother them. I will go with A for that reason.

Many a times, on tough questions I find that GMAT does not follow average grammar rules. I have been tricked a lot of times by beautiful parallel construction, so it's always a good idea to look for context and meaning.

[GmatKiss]

OA is A