OG SC - Growing competitive pressure

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OG SC - Growing competitive pressure

by fiza gupta » Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:37 am
Growing competitive pressures may be encouraging auditors to bend the rules in favor of clients; auditors may, for instance, allow a questionable loan to remain on the books in order to maintain a bank's profits on paper.

(A) clients; auditors may, for instance, allow
(B) clients, as an instance, to allow
(C) clients, like to allow
(D) clients, such as to be allowing
(E) clients; which might, as an instance, be the allowing of

I was able to mark the correct answer as it is best among all.
but want to discuss more on option B and D,
what make them wrong grammatically and logically

OA:A
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Oct 21, 2016 2:50 pm
There are a lot of issues tested in this problem: IDIOMS, COMPARISON language, VERB constructs, and SEMICOLONS.

Growing competitive pressures may be encouraging auditors to bend the rules in favor of clients; auditors may, for instance, allow a questionable loan to remain on the books in order to maintain a bank's profits on paper.

(A) clients; auditors may, for instance, allow
Correct! Proper semicolon usage and idiomatic comparison structure.


(B) clients, as an instance, to allow
- "As an instance" is not idiomatic. One could say either "for instance" or "as an example."
- The usage of the infinitive "to allow" is also not quite right (some grammarians might argue that it's technically correct, but certainly not stylistically preferable). The infinitive often implies INTENTION. We can think of substituting "IN ORDER TO allow." This would change the meaning of the sentence.

(C) clients, like to allow
- same issue with "to allow
- the usage of "like" is not correct here. If we're providing further explanation of what was meant by "bend the rules," we need to say "for example." We can't use "like," which is properly used for similarities: "these things, like other things..."
- the placement of "like" also seems to be modifying "clients" rather than "rules."

(D) clients, such as to be allowing
- the placement of "such as" next to "clients" again suggests that we're about to create a list of examples of clients.
- "to be allowing" is unnecessary. I can't think of an example in which the infinitive progressive ("to be ____-ing") would ever be the most correct verb form. There's rarely need to say "I want to be eating" (in this EXACT moment) rather than "I want to eat" (generally) unless you're talking about a hypothetical condition in the exact present moment. That probably won't happen on the GMAT.

(E) clients; which might, as an instance, be the allowing of
- a semicolon must always separate two independent clauses, but the "which" here sets up a dependent clause.
- "as an instance" - same issue as in B
- We almost never use gerunds like "the allowing" if there is another noun form of the verb - in this case, "allowance." We don't say "the exploding" because we can say "the explosion." We only use the gerund when there is no other noun form for the action: "the cooking," etc.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:28 am
UPDATE: the GMAT appears to have changed its mind on the "like" v. "such as" rule!

See #685 in OG 2017:
Especially in the early years, new entrepreneurs may need to find resourceful ways, like renting temporary office space or using answering services, that make their company seem large and more firmly established than they may actually be.
(A) that make their company seem large
(B) to make their companies seem larger
(C) thus making their companies seem larger
(D) so that the companies seem larger
(E) of making their companies seem larger
Here, "like" is used to introduce a list in the non-underlined portion of the sentence; thus, it is implied that this usage is correct.

Language and grammar shift over time, and the GMAT (eventually) adapts to reflect this. The GMAT used to test the "like" v. "such as" issue with some regularity; you'll find examples in older versions of OGs and GMATPrep tests 1&2 (both over 10 yrs old at this point). Because "like" is very commonly used to introduce lists in colloquial spoken English, though, the GMAT seems to have adapted its policy on this rule. We can infer that it's unlikely that you'll see this issue on the real test in future (though you may still see it in practice questions).
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education