banks service charges

[EricKryk]

A recent survey showed that while many banks have service charges on interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing accounts with balances that are falling below a set minimum, some banks provide virtually free checking regardless of the account balance.

(A) with balances that are falling below

(B) whose balances fall below

(C) whose balances fall below that of

(D) that have balances falling below that of

(E) that have balances that fall below those of

[Patrick_GMATFix]

The right answer should be a simple way to modify "accounts". The full solution below is taken from the GMATFix App.



-Patrick

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Hi EricKryk,

This SC involves 3 rules:

1) Verbs/Parallelism - the sentence uses the phrase "many banks HAVE service charges....", so the phrase "balances FALL...." provides the necessary verb parallelism. Eliminate A and D.

2) Pronouns - The sentence refers to the nouns "interest bearing and non-interest bearing accounts" and then to the balances of those accounts. The correct way to present that piece of information is with the pronoun/phrase "whose balances...." Eliminate E.

3) Style/Redundancy - GMAT SCs don't allow redundant language (certain types of parallelism notwithstanding). Between B and C, we have these options:

Answer B: "...fall below a set minimum..."
Answer C: "...fall below that of a set minimum..."

The words "that of" are redundant and unnecessary. Eliminate C.

Final Answer: B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich