PREP SC: Trans World Entertainment Corporation

[Jessie_8112000]

Hi,
The correct answer of below question is C. I would like to understand why A is wrong.

in choice, pronoun 'they' is ambiguously refer to sales?

Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains, announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed

[mschwrtz]

Hey Jessie,

Hate to call you on this one, after jumping the gun on the last one, but I suspect this is from a banned source. Please verify source.

[Jessie_8112000]

Hi
I confirm that it is a GMAT Prep question.

[akhp77]

Old thread

prep-questions-trans-world-entertainment-corporation-t7262.html

[RonPurewal]

the main problem with (a) is the idiom "sales of up to one-fourth of its stores".
in english, "sales OF x" is a construction implying that "x" is for sale. therefore, this version unintentionally implies that the stores themselves are being sold.

[violetwind]

the main problem with (a) is the idiom "sales of up to one-fourth of its stores".
in english, "sales OF x" is a construction implying that "x" is for sale. therefore, this version unintentionally implies that the stores themselves are being sold.

Hi Ron, Sorry for digging this tread up.

About the idiomatic usage of "sales of X" you mentioned, I'm wondering, what is the correct phrase to express a store's performance on sales volumn? (mine is very lenghty..I know..)

A store's sale? (but 's is used on animated things, right?)

Thank you very much!

[RonPurewal]

About the idiomatic usage of "sales of X" you mentioned, I'm wondering, what is the correct phrase to express a store's performance on sales volumn? (mine is very lenghty..I know..)

you could say "the store's sales", or "the sales at store X", among others.

[violetwind]

About the idiomatic usage of "sales of X" you mentioned, I'm wondering, what is the correct phrase to express a store's performance on sales volumn? (mine is very lenghty..I know..)

you could say "the store's sales", or "the sales at store X", among others.

Thank you for clear it up!

To be honest, I've never noticed the meaning issue of "sales of X" if you didn't mention it~ the differentiation is necessary as these two meanings are both commonly used.

[RonPurewal]

To be honest, I've never noticed the meaning issue of "sales of X" if you didn't mention it~ the differentiation is necessary as these two meanings are both commonly used.

to tell the truth, i wasn't consciously aware of the difference, either, until considering this post. (as in any other language, native speakers generally make idiomatic distinctions subconsciously; most native speakers wouldn't be able to articulate these distinctions on the spot, even if they can make the distinctions effortlessly in their own speech.)

[CHANDEEP_SODHI]

Hi Ron ,
What is wrong with option B ?
B also does not have 'That' as in option C (which unfortunately is correct don't know why in spite of having "was" instead of "would ").

is it because of the present tense 'is' ? is

[saptadeepc]

Hi Ron ,
What is wrong with option B ?
B also does not have 'That' as in option C (which unfortunately is correct don't know why in spite of having "was" instead of "would ").

is it because of the present tense 'is' ? is

------

Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains, announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed
------
In 'B' the placement of which is incorrect.

which refers to the NOUN just before the comma, if the verb after which complies with that NOUN.

We are talking about 1/4th of its stores as a whole that accounted for its poor sales and not only about "stores", as is the intended meaning in 'B'

Secondly, as you said the verb tense should have been 'was' and not 'is' coz announced is in the past tense.

thirdly, I think the modifier should be essential coz that is the reason the stores are getting closed. which introduces non-essential modifier and therefore statement should stand without "which .. " but if we remove that part from the sentence, we would not know why are the stores getting closed.

[tim]

B refers generically to 1/4 of the stores without specifying which ones, so it makes no sense to then attach a "which" afterwards, the effect of which is to specify some unique quality specific to a generic 1/4 of the stores. Of course, you also need a "that" at the beginning of the answer choice to make the subordinate clause work..

[soulwangh]

basically, there are 2 possibilities:

1/
the sentence is written from the present point of view:
the company has announced (or, just announced) ... that it is closing (or will close) the stores ... that have accounted for the poor sales figures

2/
the sentence is written from the point of view of the (past) announcement:
the company announced (some time ago) ... that it was closing (or would be closing) the stores ... that accounted for the poor sales figures


the good news is that verb tenses are an extremely minor topic on the gmat.

first, they aren't tested very often to begin with; second, if they are tested, they're usually tested in conjunction with more major topics -- so, if you can spot what else is wrong with the sentence, then you're off the hook even if you don't understand the tenses all that well.

Hi, Ron

As for the tense in B, your reply is really helpful.
I found a exception in OG 13 #133.
Here is an abridged version of the correct sentence.
Last week A held a news conference to do sth, saying that their compliance with laws is protecting adult sea turtles.
We know Present participles get their tense from the main verb in the sentence.As a result, "saying" has the same tense as the preceding clause verb "held". Therefore, its point of view is from past.
However, the right sentence uses a present tense, and we see this usage usually in news report.
1/
Can you please explain this exceptional usage?
2/
According to the logic above, I think A and B is wrong not because the tense problem but because pronoun(they) ambiguous in A and relative pronoun(which) ambiguous in B.

And in A, the ambiguous between "sales" and "stores" is not the vital wrong point, because we know，by our common sense， "they" cannot refer to "sales".

The key point is they can refer to both "stores" and "1/4 of the stores". It is the real ambiguous, because we really cannot decide which antecedent the pronoun exactly refers to.

B has the same ambiguous problem between "stores" and "1/4 of the stores".

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks in advance!

PS:I have already checked what you post in another thread. I reply in this thread because I don't want to bump up that one, and I think the question raised by the last person inspired me and want to see what you will reply to him.
http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/prep-questions-trans-world-entertainment-corporation-t7262-45.html?sid=f7a355845aaf6ed009b9610f1f968c7c

[RonPurewal]

As for the tense in B, your reply is really helpful.
I found a exception in OG 13 #133.
Here is an abridged version of the correct sentence.
Last week A held a news conference to do sth, saying that their compliance with laws is protecting adult sea turtles.

Not an exception.
If the protection of sea turtles is ongoing -- into the present -- then "is protecting" makes sense.

John told me last week that he is eating a ketogenic diet.
--> He's still on the diet. He told me about it last week.
("Was eating" would imply that John has already gone off the diet.)

"Is closing" would be nonsense, since that can't be an ongoing situation.

[RonPurewal]

We know Present participles get their tense from the main verb in the sentence.As a result, "saying" has the same tense as the preceding clause verb "held". Therefore, its point of view is from past.

I don't get what you are implying here. In fact, I can't even tell whether you think "saying" is correct or incorrect.

"Saying" is fine, because it describes something that happened at the conference.

According to the logic above, I think A and B is wrong not because the tense problem but because pronoun(they) ambiguous in A and relative pronoun(which) ambiguous in B.

No.

"Pronoun ambiguity" is not a thing on this test.
If you find a noun that can correspond to a pronoun, then the pronoun is fine.

The key point is they can refer to both "stores" and "1/4 of the stores". It is the real ambiguous, because we really cannot decide which antecedent the pronoun exactly refers to.

In context, it is clear that we're talking only about the stores with poor sales. I.e., the company is not going to close all of its stores just because 25% of them had subpar sales!