During the past decade, the labor market in France

by **Samy** Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:32 pm

During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers.

A. principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers
B. principles, instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers
C. principles, rather functioning despite being stifled as a result of government regulations that variously restrict worker hiring and firing
D. principles; the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled
E. principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I agree that the correct ans is E. But apart from the fact that B is a sentence with 2 independent clauses and therefore needs to be separated by a semicolon is there any other point weakening B.

Also, I feel in B, instead plays the role of a conjunction here linking the two clauses.

Please provide your expert opinion. Where have the MGMAT experts disappeared ?

Thanks

by **Guest** Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Instead is an adversative Conjunction.
Some of the others in this group are:but, yet, however, instead, on the other hand, nevertheless at any rate, as a matter of fact;

Explanation given for B. This choice incorrectly uses a comma to connect two independent clauses, thus creating a run-on sentence. Two independent clauses must be connected either by a conjunction, such as "and" or "but," or by a semicolon.

Please clarify.

Thanks

by **StaceyKoprince** Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:33 pm

Instead is a conjunctive adverb, yes. To be more specific: 2 independent clauses are connected by a coordinating conjunction (and usually a comma) - not just any conjunction. The coordinating conjunctions are generally acknowledged as for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (FANBOYS). The other way you can connect two independent clauses is with a semi-colon alone or a semi-colon, a conjunctive adverb (or several other types of non-coordinating-conjunctions), and a comma (as in answer E).

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_conjunction for a little more background.

by **StaceyKoprince** Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:35 pm

p.s. yes this issue is the big one for B. B is also wordy, but I wouldn't want to make the decision to eliminate just based on that.

p.p.s. as you've noticed, we're a bit behind. July 4 was a holiday for us and we've been playing catch up ever since b/c our forum posters didn't take the day off! :)

by **Samy** Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:29 am

Thanks.
But this was a tough Q. I feel some of the problem with B is a also in the meaning it conveys.
To pin this down in 40-60 secs is a task.

Yes we are hungry and regular with our Q's !! :)

by **dbernst** Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:28 am

Remeber that 60 seconds is an AVERAGE. Some questions, such as this one, might take you a little longer. Just be certain to make up for this time on other questions throughout the section.

-dan

by **During the past decade, t** Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:26 am

Hi,

Choice E, the correct answer sounds like "the government is purposely stifling the functioning by restricting the hiring and firing of workers"

Choice A does not say that, so why should we change the meaning of the sentence..

Choice A says that "the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles because of some regulation by the government.

Am I correct?

by **rfernandez** Fri Aug 01, 2008 3:43 am

Actually, choice A conveys that the labor market itself is doing the stifling and that the labor market somehow controls government regulations. Because this meaning is illogical, we do not want to preserve it.