A higher interest rate is only one of the factors

[divineacclivity]

The correct sentence with Choice B:
A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade.

What does "it" refer to in the above sentence? Isn't it ambiguous? I picked this answer choice only in my mind but then I wasn't sure about "it" & that's why was thinking of taking option D. Could you please explain? thanks in advance.

[jlucero]

The correct sentence with Choice B:
A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade.

What does "it" refer to in the above sentence? Isn't it ambiguous? I picked this answer choice only in my mind but then I wasn't sure about "it" & that's why was thinking of taking option D. Could you please explain? thanks in advance.

it = the higher interest rate
did = keep the housing market from spiraling out of control

A higher interest rate is only one of the factors that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control as the higher interest rate kept the housing market from spiraling out of control earlier in the decade.

Every sentence will have exceptions, so I can't come up with a single rule for all examples, but in this particular sentence, the verb "did" in the second half of the sentence limits what we can be talking about with the pronoun "it". Since "did" refers to "keeping the housing market from spiraling out of control", there's only one other singular noun outside that phrase, "the higher interest rate" (not that "one" refers to the same thing). As a bonus, pronouns in later clauses generally refer back to subjects of sentences, so "it" would logically sound best referring back to the subject of the first clause.

[divineacclivity]

How come "it" doesn't refer to "housing market" in the sentence with the correct answer choice:
A higher interest rate is only one of the factors, albeit an important one, that keep the housing market from spiraling out of control, as it did earlier in the decade.

[tim]

i don't see a good reason to conclude that this is not possible. the question is, does it ACTUALLY make a difference in what the correct answer is? if not, it's NOT WORTH WORRYING ABOUT..

[divineacclivity]

Joe,
could you please explain more about it. My doubt still is that , on gmat, we reject those choices that have ambiguous pronoun references. So, if choice B is the correct answer, "it" must be giving a just pronoun reference. But I just can't see how "it" is correctly referring to only "higher interest rate" & not "the housing market". I don't want to bother you with my repeated question but I genuinely want to understand it thoroughly.

thanks in advance

[tim]

pronoun ambiguity is pretty much a non-issue these days. we've learned that with recent problems the GMAT almost NEVER creates a sentence where the pronoun is ambiguous. what that means is if you think a pronoun is ambiguous, you almost certainly have made a mistake and need to work harder to find the correct antecedent..

[divineacclivity]

pronoun ambiguity is pretty much a non-issue these days. we've learned that with recent problems the GMAT almost NEVER creates a sentence where the pronoun is ambiguous. what that means is if you think a pronoun is ambiguous, you almost certainly have made a mistake and need to work harder to find the correct antecedent..

ok. So, pronoun ambiguity is no more a problem on gmat. that's new & i'll remember it. thank you very much for this information.

[tim]

one less thing you have to study! :)

[divineacclivity]

and I have to again & again remind myself of it & then I go yippieee :)
by the way, if you don't mind me asking, do they (GMAT people) declare it explicitly or you just know it from the kind of questions they publish in their official guide? did this rule get officially out very recently?
thank you very much for sharing the information :)

[jnelson0612]

and I have to again & again remind myself of it & then I go yippieee :)
by the way, if you don't mind me asking, do they (GMAT people) declare it explicitly or you just know it from the kind of questions they publish in their official guide? did this rule got officially out very recently?
thank you very much for sharing the information :)

To the best of my knowledge, we've just done a heavy analysis of every question the GMAC has published and have noticed that this rule is not longer relevant. :-)

[divineacclivity]

Cooool, thank you very much. Manhattan rocks!

[tim]

thanks!

[ankish]

The key clue here is the "that" following factors. (You can ignore the phrase set off by commas "albeit an important one.") "That" indicates an essential noun modifier, which means the clause following it is modifying the noun immediately preceding it - factors (again, ignore that phrase set off by the commas). So, "factors keep" is the correct subject-verb match here.

Some one has posted above-
""One" is one of those special indefinite pronouns for which you must examine the object of the the preposition (the "of construction") to determine the whether to use a singular or plural verb. Remember the acronym SANAM (some, any, none, all, most) mentioned in the Strategy Guide? Well the acronym should more appropriately be called SANAMO to include the indefinite pronoun, "one.""

Shall we consider one as an Indefinite Pronoun?

[RonPurewal]

The terminology is way over my head, so I won't go there. Perhaps another moderator knows how to classify these things; I don't.

You just have to think about the meaning of the sentence.
The point of the sentence is that there are several factors that keep xxxxx from happening, and that zzzzzz is just one of those several factors.

I.e.,
There are (several) factors that keep xxxxx from happening.
Zzzzz is just one of the (several) factors that keep xxxxx from happening.

That is what's happening.

If you actually had a verb whose subject was "one", then the verb would be singular, because "one" is always singular. (Ladies and gentlemen, "one" is the definition of singular!) But, here, you don't.

Don't obsess over grammar terms. (I don't know them, and there are no ill effects on my ability to solve SC problems.)
Especially don't obsess over them if you neglect the meaning of the sentence as a result. The meaning of the sentence is ALWAYS essential.