SC - Although the restaurant company...

[sinhavis]

Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically

B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company's

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Source : GMAT Prep Software
OA is A.
I chose B. Please explain ?

[RonPurewal]

Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically

B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company's

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Source : GMAT Prep Software
OA is A.
I chose B. Please explain ?

i'll assume that you are inquiring only about (a) vs. (b). if you need information about other choices, post back.

(b) contains bad parallelism. since you're talking about two trends that have taken place simultaneously, you MUST use the same verb tense to describe those trends.
in (b), the first verb (has ... added) is in the present perfect, but the second (increased) is in the simple past. i don't care whether you actually know what these tenses are called, provided that you can recognize that they are different.

the parallelism in (a) is perfect: both verbs (has ... added and have ... increased) are presented in the same tense.

[hberens18]

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Can someone comment on what's wrong with D/E? Specifically the 'having' verb tense and why it is wrong here.

[RonPurewal]

d) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

e) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

Can someone comment on what's wrong with D/E? Specifically the 'having' verb tense and why it is wrong here.

in this case, you don't even have to worry about minutiae such as the "having".

these choices are both wrong for one of the most common (and therefore important) reasons you'll encounter: the initial modifier modifies the wrong noun.

read this post for the use of INITIAL MODIFIERS WITHOUT SUBJECTS:
post20923.html#p20923

now apply that principle here.

both of these choices modify "the restaurant company's sales".
they should be modifying "the restaurant company".
therefore, they are wrong.
end of story.

[goelmohit2002]

Can someone please tell what is wrong with C ?

[RonPurewal]

Can someone please tell what is wrong with C ?

many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and...

in this construction, there is no indication that these new restaurants have been opened by the company in question. it just says that they have recently been opened, but not by whom.
that's an unacceptable shift of meaning.

[priyankamittal]

Hi Ron,

I read and re-read your explanation a couple of times, but did not understand the reasoning for the correct answer.

Please explain what is wrong is the line of thought written below:

GMAT, as I've read in your previous posts is very particular on antecedents for pronouns.
The first "its"- possessive pronoun refers back to the to new restaurant as that is the closest noun. The 2nd "its" then should also refer back to the same noun- the new restaurant. However this would distort the meaning as the rest of the sentence refers to the main restaurant.

In choosing C, I was bringing the noun closer to the object of the sentence presuming the first part of the sentence to be the modifier.

Please explain where am I going wrong.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

I read and re-read your explanation a couple of times, but did not understand the reasoning for the correct answer.

Please explain what is wrong is the line of thought written below:

GMAT, as I've read in your previous posts is very particular on antecedents for pronouns.
The first "its"- possessive pronoun refers back to the to new restaurant as that is the closest noun. The 2nd "its" then should also refer back to the same noun- the new restaurant. However this would distort the meaning as the rest of the sentence refers to the main restaurant.

In choosing C, I was bringing the noun closer to the object of the sentence presuming the first part of the sentence to be the modifier.

Please explain where am I going wrong.

Thanks

first, there is absolutely no rule stating that nouns lying closer to a pronoun are more likely to be considered antecedents. where'd you get that "rule"?

second, the gmat is rather inconsistent on the issue of pronoun ambiguity, as i've noted in several places. see here, for instance:
post35595.html#p35595
...so picking based on pronoun ambiguity is a VERY bad idea, unless you literally can't think of any other criterion on which to split.

third, we HAVE noticed the following trend: objects of prepositions are unlikely to be chosen as antecedents of pronouns, unless the pronoun itself is also the object of a preposition.
here, "country" is the object of the preposition "across", and so is much less likely to be considered the antecedent.

[visitdhiraj]

Hi Ron

in option A, which is also the correct option, I am confused whether it should be "Sales has" or "Sales have" since it refers to the restaurant company should it not be Sales has?

Is Sales plural?

Regards
Dheeraj

[richrat69]

Hi,

In the original question (choice A),
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

Construction - Although CLAUSE and CLAUSE, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

I understand that we shouldn't question official answers, but just to confirm my understanding. I have a question -

It seems two clauses can be attached with AND (without comma). Is it a special case, in which ALTHOUGH (subordinator) is introducing two clauses with AND to create parallelism?

Regards
Vish

[jlucero]

Hi Ron

in option A, which is also the correct option, I am confused whether it should be "Sales has" or "Sales have" since it refers to the restaurant company should it not be Sales has?

Is Sales plural?

Regards
Dheeraj

The sales is large
OR
The sales are large?

The sales are large; therefore sales is a plural noun. Don't confuse a possessive adjective for the subject of the sentence. The verb must only match with the noun.

The dog's toys are cluttering up the living room.

[jlucero]

Hi,

In the original question (choice A),
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

Construction - Although CLAUSE and CLAUSE, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

I understand that we shouldn't question official answers, but just to confirm my understanding. I have a question -

It seems two clauses can be attached with AND (without comma). Is it a special case, in which ALTHOUGH (subordinator) is introducing two clauses with AND to create parallelism?

Regards
Vish

Although introduces a warmup phrase, but it has nothing do with creating parallelism. AND can connect two clauses without a comma and rarely would you need a comma in between the two clauses. Example:

(AND can connect two clauses without a comma) and (rarely would you need a comma in between the two clauses).

[sunruiapply]

Hi, Ron
I find a common problem in the answers C, D, E.
in "with its sales", its refers to the company, but in the following, the company appears in the possesssive form.

so I think its does not have an antesedent.

do I get the point? thanks for your answer

[jlucero]

Hi, Ron
I find a common problem in the answers C, D, E.
in "with its sales", its refers to the company, but in the following, the company appears in the possesssive form.

so I think its does not have an antesedent.

do I get the point? thanks for your answer

[edited by Moderator on 4/9]
Not in this case. Since "its" is a possessive pronoun, it can refer to a possessive antecedent:

Although its sales have gone up, the company's profits have not.

[bodhisattwabiswas]

Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its

B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

(b) contains bad parallelism. since you're talking about two trends that have taken place simultaneously, you MUST use the same verb tense to describe those trends.

Very nice explanation...
My query is how to know whether two trends have taken place simultaneously.
If the sentence were "Although the restaurant company added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its xxxxxxxxxx.", then would it be right?
I mean, the 'addition of restaurants' and 'increase in sales' may be considered events of two different times.
OR is it necessary that events (whether taken place simultaneously or not) have always to be in the same tense to make a viable parallelism?