GMAT Sentence Correction: How To Find the Core Sentence (Part 3)
Welcome to the third installment of our Core Sentence series. In part 1, we began learning how to strip an SC sentence (or any sentence!) down to the core sentence structure. In part 2, we took a look at a compound sentence structure.
Today, we’re going to look at yet another interesting sentence structure that is commonly used on the GMAT.
Try out this GMATPrep® problem from the free exams. (Note: as in the previous installments, I’m going to discuss aspects of our SC Process; if you haven’t learned it already, read about it before doing this problem.)
* “Many financial experts believe that policy makers at the Federal Reserve, now viewing the economy as balanced between moderate growth and low inflation, are almost certain to leave interest rates unchanged for the foreseeable future.
“(A) Reserve, now viewing the economy as balanced between moderate growth and low inflation, are
“(B) Reserve, now viewing the economy to be balanced between that of moderate growth and low inflation and are
“(C) Reserve who, now viewing the economy as balanced between moderate growth and low inflation, are
“(D) Reserve, who now view the economy to be balanced between that of moderate growth and low inflation, will be
“(E) Reserve, which now views the economy to be balanced between moderate growth and low inflation, is”
The First Glance didn’t tell me a lot on this one. In each case, there appears to be some kind of modifier going on, signaled either by the who / which language or by the comma, but I don’t have a good idea of what’s being tested. Time to read the sentence.
I don’t know about you, but the original sentence really doesn’t sound good to me. The difficulty, though, is that I don’t know exactly why. I just find myself thinking, “Ugh, I wouldn’t say it that way.”
Specifically, I don’t like the “now viewing” after the comma…but when I examined it a second time, I couldn’t find an actual error. That’s a good clue to me that I need to leave the answer in; they’re just trying to fool my ear (and almost succeeding!).
Because I’m not certain what to examine and because I know that there may be something going on with modifiers, I’m going to strip the original sentence down to the core:
Here’s the core:
Many experts believe that policy makers are almost certain to leave interest rates unchanged.
This sentence uses what we call a “Subject-Verb-THAT” structure. When you see the word that immediately after a verb, expect another subject and verb (and possibly object) to come after. The full core will be Subject-Verb-THAT-Subject-Verb(-Object).
Back to the problem: notice where the underline falls. The Subject-Verb-THAT-Subject part is not underlined, but the second verb is, and it’s the last underlined word. Check the core sentence with the different options in the answers:
Many experts believe that policy makers __________ almost certain to leave rates unchanged.
(A) Many experts believe that policy makers are almost certain to leave rates unchanged.
(B) Many experts believe that policy makers and are almost certain to leave rates unchanged.
(C) Many experts believe that policy makers.
(D) Many experts believe that policy makers will be almost certain to leave rates unchanged.
(E) Many experts believe that policy makers is almost certain to leave rates unchanged.
Excellent! First, answer (E) is wrong because it uses a singular verb to match with the plural policy makers.
Next, notice that answer (B) tosses the conjunction and into the mix. A sentence can have two verbs, in which case you could connect them with an and, but this answer just tosses in a random and between the subject and the verb. Answer (B) is also incorrect.
Answer (C) is tricky! At first, it might look like the core is the same as answer (A)’s core. It’s not. Notice the lack of a comma before the word who. Take a look at this example:
The cat thought that the dog who lived next door was really annoying.
What’s the core sentence here? This still has a subject-verb-THAT-subject-verb(-object) set-up. It also has a modifier that contains its own verb—but this verb is not part of the core sentence:
The cat thought that the dog [who lived next door] was really annoying.
Answer (C) has this same structure:
Many experts believe that policy makers [who are almost certain to leave rates unchanged]…
Where’s the main verb that goes with policy makers? It isn’t there at all. Answer (C) is a sentence fragment.
We’re down to answers (A) and (D). Both cores are solid, so we’ll have to dig a little deeper. So far, we’ve been ignoring the modifier in the middle of the sentence. Let’s take a look; compare the two answers directly:
“(A) Reserve, now viewing the economy as balanced between moderate growth and low inflation, are
“(D) Reserve, who now view the economy to be balanced between that of moderate growth and low inflation, will be”
Probably the most obvious difference is are vs. will be. I don’t like this one though because I think either tense can logically finish the sentence. I’m going to look for something else.
There are two other big differences. First, there’s an idiom. Is it view as or view to be? If you’re not sure, there’s also a comparison issue. Is the economy balanced between growth and inflation? Or between that of growth and inflation?
The that of structure should be referring to another noun somewhere else: She likes her brother’s house more than she likes that of her sister. In this case, that of refers to house.
What does that of refer to in answer (D)?
I’m not really sure. The economy? The Federal Reserve? These don’t make sense. The two things that are balanced are, in fact, the growth and the inflation; that of is unnecessary. Answer (D) is incorrect.
The correct answer is (A).
The correct idiom is view as, so answers (B), (D), and (E) are all incorrect based on the idiom.
Key Takeaways: Strip the sentence to the Core
(1) When you see the word that immediately following a verb, then you have a Subject-Verb-THAT-Subject-Verb(-Object) structure. Check the core sentence to make sure that all of the necessary pieces are present. Also make sure, as always, that the subjects and verbs match.
(2) If you still have two or more answers left after dealing with the core sentence, then check any modifiers. The two main modifier issues are bad placement (which makes them seem to be pointing to the wrong thing) or meaning issues. In this case, the modifier tossed in a couple of extraneous words that messed up the meaning of the between X and Y idiom.
* GMATPrep® questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.