CAT 4 - Q19 - Policy makers remain....

[gmatwork]

Policy makers remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, although there are few signs of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.

(A) remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, although there are few signs of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far

(B) still remain concerned about the prospects of inflation; there are as yet few signs that increasing energy prices are currently driving up the cost of other goods

(C) remain concerned about the prospect for inflation, even though as yet few signs of higher energy prices are driving up the cost of other goods so far

(D) still remain concerned about inflation, even though there are currently few signs that increasing energy prices drive up the cost of other goods

(E) remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, despite the lack of signs thus far that increasing energy prices are driving up the cost of other goods
OA: E


OE for choice (A) as listed by MGMAT software -


"(A) "Of increasing energy prices driving" is not a correct construction; a prepositional phrase cannot have a noun + verb-ing construction as its object. To express this kind of reference -- in which the entire following idea is the intended description of "signs" -- a clause should be used. (Interpreted in a grammatically proper way, this sentence suggests that "signs of higher energy prices" are the things that could potentially drive up the cost of goods.) In addition, the placement of "so far" creates ambiguity; it could mean that there are, thus far, few signs (the intended meaning), but it could also mean that the energy prices are driving up the cost of other goods by a great deal (driving them up so far)."


Please explain the prepositional phrase rule that the explanation is talking about. I don't understand why is Prep + noun + verb(ing) wrong here. Examples will be helpful.

How about the general usage of this construct? Is this construct wrong in general or needs to be avoided?

[jnelson0612]

"(A) "Of increasing energy prices driving" is not a correct construction; a prepositional phrase cannot have a noun + verb-ing construction as its object. To express this kind of reference -- in which the entire following idea is the intended description of "signs" -- a clause should be used. (Interpreted in a grammatically proper way, this sentence suggests that "signs of higher energy prices" are the things that could potentially drive up the cost of goods.) In addition, the placement of "so far" creates ambiguity; it could mean that there are, thus far, few signs (the intended meaning), but it could also mean that the energy prices are driving up the cost of other goods by a great deal (driving them up so far)."


Please explain the prepositional phrase rule that the explanation is talking about. I don't understand why is Prep + noun + verb(ing) wrong here. Examples will be helpful.

How about the general usage of this construct? Is this construct wrong in general or needs to be avoided?

Sure! Yes, this construct is not correct and should not be used. For example:
"The car was driven onto the curb." (correct)
"The car was onto the curb driving." (incorrect)

"I am jumping into the well." (correct)
"I am into the well jumping." (incorrect)

Can you see how this preposition + noun + verb(ing) creates perfectly awful and confusing sentences? Again, this is a construction you should not use as it is just not correct.

[shtrud.shtrud]

I still find the rule unconvincing:
When I do a google search for the phrase "of increasing costs affecting"
using quotes to preserve the order of words, I get upwards of 90K results.

[tim]

and if google wrote the test, using evidence from a google search might be useful. :) remember, the GMAT makes the rules, and even if the entire rest of the world disagrees with the GMAT, we still have to learn and apply their rules if we want to succeed on their test..

[bbll]

"
Sure! Yes, this construct is not correct and should not be used. For example:
"The car was driven onto the curb." (correct)
"The car was onto the curb driving." (incorrect)

"I am jumping into the well." (correct)
"I am into the well jumping." (incorrect)

Can you see how this preposition + noun + verb(ing) creates perfectly awful and confusing sentences? Again, this is a construction you should not use as it is just not correct.

I don't understand how the examples you gave here relate to the construct in question. In my opinion, the -ing part 'driving up the cost of other goods so far' is to describe 'increasing energy prices'. An equivalent example is, There is a picture of a cat lying on the couch. Is there anything wrong with this equivalent sentence? Can you please explain further?

[jlucero]

I think this post will answer most of your question about this sentence and when using prep+noun+verb-ing is acceptable.

post26678.html#p26678

Finally, I don't love your sentence here. Ron's example:
I have a picture of my cousin playing hockey. (clear meaning)

vs yours:
There is a picture of a cat lying on the couch. (is the picture lying on the couch or the cat?)

[bbll]

I think this post will answer most of your question about this sentence and when using prep+noun+verb-ing is acceptable.

post26678.html#p26678

Finally, I don't love your sentence here. Ron's example:
I have a picture of my cousin playing hockey. (clear meaning)

vs yours:
There is a picture of a cat lying on the couch. (is the picture lying on the couch or the cat?)

Do you love this sentence: ' There is a picture of a cat drinking milk.' ?

[tim]

I won't say I love it, but I claim that the meaning will be 100% clear to anyone who reads the sentence.

[rustom.hakimiyan]

Hi,

Can someone explain the usage of "drive up" vs. "driving up" -- I can't understand the explanation given in the CAT.

"signs that increasing energy prices drive up the cost of other good"

At first, I thought that "drive up" correctly indicates causality -- increase prices drive something up. Then I thought that parallelism would come into play and we need "driving" to be in parallel with "increasing prices".

Thanks.

[AndyH539]

Dear instructor,
what does "thus far" modify in the correct answer "e) remain concerned about the prospect of inflation, despite the dearth of signs thus far that increasing energy prices are driving up the cost of other goods" ?

Thanks
Regards
Andy

[Chelsey Cooley]

I'd say it modifies 'dearth'. For a simpler example, try this:

The absence of customers today led me to close the store early.

'Today' seems to modify 'absence', because it specifies that it isn't just absence in general, but a particular absence that only happened today. Apparently 'time' words like 'today', 'thus far', 'this week', etc. can modify some nouns, even though they can't modify most nouns and generally modify verbs. But it's such a context-specific point that it definitely isn't worth figuring out the exact list, except for remembering that sentences like (E) are okay.

[JbhB682]

Hi Tutors

In A, when does the prepositional phrase end ?

a) "of increasing energy prices driving" OR

b) " of increasing energy prices" OR

c) "of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods"

Is the a general rule of thumb re: how to determine when the prepositional phrase ends

Thank you

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I'd say that the prepositional phrase is "of increasing energy prices driving up the cost of other goods". However, since this phrase is wrong, you don't need to worry about it.

In general terms, I'd recommend using meaning as a guide to finding prepositional phrases. Look at the following example: "The bowl of apples is on the table." Here we've got two prepositional phrases: 'of apples' tells you information about the bowl, and 'on the table' about the location of the bowl.

[THANHD377]

Hi experts,

Here is an example of a correct construction in from another GMAT problem:

...the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electic Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments investigating...

And from the answer (A):

...there are few signs of increasing energy prices driving up the cost...

I just couldn't see how one is more valid than the other regarding grammatical construction, as it's logical in the former that series cannot investigate but experiments can, and in the latter that signs cannot drive up cost but increasing energy prices can. The only way that I can differentiate them is when I change both to:

... signs that increasing energy prices are driving up the cost... (this one makes sense)
... series that experiment is investigating...(this one doesn't make sense)

Please help me articulate the reason behind all this .

Thanks a lot,
Thanh

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

This is certainly a tricky area! You're right to test for meaning, but the meaning issue is not about what happens after the construction, but before. I assume you've read Ron's post about this: https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p26678.

What makes the sentence 'I've never heard of bees stinging dogs', is that the 'never heard' bit refers to 'stinging', not just to bees. However, the sentence 'I have a picture of my cousin playing hockey' is okay, as the 'picture' indeed does refer to 'cousin'.

Consequently, a test for such sentences is to leave off the '-ing' part at the end and see if it makes sense. In your examples:

there are few signs of increasing energy prices This doesn't make sense, the 'signs of' is referring to the 'driving up', not the 'prices'.
the Hawthorne Works ... was the scene of an intensive series of experiments This is okay as the meaning is what we're looking for.