SC, QNo-5

[hintel]

Could anyone kindly explain:

As its sales of computer products have surpassed
those of measuring instruments, the company has
become increasingly willing to compete for the mass
market sales they would in the past have conceded
to rivals.
(A) they would in the past have conceded to rivals
(B) they would have conceded previously to their
rivals
(C) that in the past would have been conceded
previously to rivals
(D) it previously would have conceded to rivals in
the past
(E) it would in the past have conceded to rivals

Why A is wrong..They refer to market sales.
Company market sales would have yielded compared to rivals in past..also make sense.
If it is right then why there is no comma or that etc.

[David@VeritasPrep]

I believe this is from the official guide 12th edition. Question 7.

A is wrong because it is the company that is conceding the sales, not the "market sales" that you reference.

"the company" is the noun that would have been willing to concede the sales in the past and so the pronoun should be "it."

A and B are eliminated for this reason. C is redundant "in the past" would have been conceded "previously." In the past and the previously are redundant.

D is also redundant for the same reason "previously" "in the past"

E is the correct answer.

[hintel]

Thanks David,

My doubt is,

You would have studied implies he hasn't studied to get so and so..
Similarly
They would in the past have conceded to rivals means the company havent lost its sales in the past.

Could you clearly explain the meaning of this sentence and why suddenly a clasue pitches in.

[David@VeritasPrep]

The meaning is that the company is now selling more computers than measuring instruments and so they are now going to compete for the mass market (presumably in computer products). In the past they would not have competed for this market and so "would have conceded" to the rivals.

Does that help?

[GMAT Kolaveri]

Why A is wrong..They refer to market sales.
Company market sales would have yielded compared to rivals in past..also make sense.
If it is right then why there is no comma or that etc.

The most tested topic in Sentence correction is Subject-Verb and Subject-Number agreement.
Find out the subject in the given statement.
Who has become increasingly willing to compete?
Answer is "the company(singular)".

A and B - Incorrect. they cannot refer to singular subject.
C and D - Redundancy. in the past and previously.
Hence OA is E