Prep Q: Because of wireless service costs plummeting...

[kristy11126]

Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people now using their mobile phones to make calls across a wide region at night and on weekends, when numerous wireless companies provide unlimited airtime for a relatively small monthly fee.

A. Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people

B. As the cost of wireless service plummeted in the last year and as mobile phones became increasingly common, many people

C. In the last year, with the cost of wireless service plummeting, and mobile phones have become increasingly common, there are many people

D. With the cost of wireless service plummeting in the last year and mobile phones becoming increasingly common, many people are

E. While the cost of wireless service has plummeted in the last year and mobile phones are increasingly common, many people are


The key is D. Why not E?

In my view, 'with' in choice d seems to imply that many people physically own something.

Here attached another example from prep test,

On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold gold in the form of bullion or coins, immigrants found that on arrival in the United States they had to surrender all of the gold they had brought with them.

A. On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
B. With a law passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
C. A law passed in 1933 that made it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen holding
D. Because of a law passed in 1933 making it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold
E. Due to a law being passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold

The key is D.
'with' in choice b is also bad: it seems to imply that immigrants arrived with the law in their hands.

[RonPurewal]

Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people now using their mobile phones to make calls across a wide region at night and on weekends, when numerous wireless companies provide unlimited airtime for a relatively small monthly fee.

A. Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people

B. As the cost of wireless service plummeted in the last year and as mobile phones became increasingly common, many people

C. In the last year, with the cost of wireless service plummeting, and mobile phones have become increasingly common, there are many people

D. With the cost of wireless service plummeting in the last year and mobile phones becoming increasingly common, many people are

E. While the cost of wireless service has plummeted in the last year and mobile phones are increasingly common, many people are


The key is D. Why not E?

In my view, 'with' in choice d seems to imply that many people physically own something.

Here attached another example from prep test,

On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold gold in the form of bullion or coins, immigrants found that on arrival in the United States they had to surrender all of the gold they had brought with them.

A. On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
B. With a law passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
C. A law passed in 1933 that made it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen holding
D. Because of a law passed in 1933 making it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold
E. Due to a law being passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold

The key is D.
'with' in choice b is also bad: it seems to imply that immigrants arrived with the law in their hands.

hm, interesting.

first, you should be able to answer this problem based on heavy hitters such as parallelism.
parallelism is one of the most important error types on the exam, and it's also one of the most common, if not the most common.

choice (e) can be knocked out for its bad parallelism.
the two actions described at the beginning - cost plummeting, phones becoming more common - are clearly simultaneous, so we need to use parallel structure for these simultaneous events.
the first is "the cost ... has plummeted", so the second MUST be "phones ... have become increasingly common". it's not written that way, so (e) is incorrect.

in addition, (e) uses while in a questionable sense. when while appears at the beginning of a clause like this, it's normally used to introduce contrast ("while most of the class spent the weekend studying for class, i spent the weekend at the beach").

--

now, an analysis of the grammatical weirdness that's going on in the correct answer:

i'm learning something new here, but that happens decently often with these things. sentence correction is a slippery fish.

it appears that 'with' may be used with an __ING form to represent circumstances that are contemporaneous with the action described in the main clause.
that's what's going on here: the "with ___ing" constructions are used to describe things that are contemporaneous with the described uptick in the use of mobile phones.

[lawrencewwh]

My question,

In E, we find that service plummeting happened in last year, but phones becoming increasingly common happens now,
so the two actions happened in different time and are not simultaneous?

In E, Does the meaning of in the last year means from last year to current time ?
or equals last year?

Thanks in advance.

[RonPurewal]

In E, Does the meaning of in the last year means from last year to current time ?

yes.

"in the last year" = within the last 12 months. this will almost exclusively be used with "has VERBed".

"last year" = sometime last year (i.e., in the past). this will be used with past tenses (VERBed, had VERBed).

[zhuyujun]

Hello Ron,

Why can't we select B here? In B, it uses parallel structure "As.... and as....," that makes more sense than "With...". Could you please help?

Thanks!

[kevinmarmstrong]

B incorrectly uses the past tense before the comma.
More importantly, the sentence lacks a main verb: it should read "many people ARE now using"

[RonPurewal]

B incorrectly uses the past tense before the comma.
More importantly, the sentence lacks a main verb: it should read "many people ARE now using"

yep.

to elaborate on the first point: if the verbs before the comma are in the past tense, then parallelism requires that the verb(s) following the comma also be in the past tense.

the second point is more important (and easier to figure out), though: this "sentence" isn't even a sentence at all, because there's no main verb.
remember: -ING FORMS, BY THEMSELVES, ARE NOT VERBS.

[geetesht]

Hi Guys,

I eliminated choice B on this sentence immediately , since i feel 'AS' is more appropriate to USE in sentences which test COMPARISION . Specifically when comparision is between two clauses.

Ron, was i thinking on the right track regarding the use of 'AS' on GMAT SCs in general and this one in particular .

Though i completely agree that Choice B is not a sentence at all since there is no main verb, and this makes it a more compelling reason to discard Choice B.

Many thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Hi Guys,

I eliminated choice B on this sentence immediately , since i feel 'AS' is more appropriate to USE in sentences which test COMPARISION . Specifically when comparision is between two clauses.

Ron, was i thinking on the right track regarding the use of 'AS' on GMAT SCs in general and this one in particular .

well, no.
that's also a legitimate use of "as", of course, but it seems as though you are assuming that the word "as" can only be used in exactly one way.

in general, if you use that sort of assumption, you're heading for lots and lots of trouble; common constructions such as "as", "that", "-ing", etc., often have several completely different meanings and uses.

--

e.g.
as i was coming home from school, the wind blew me off my bike.
--> correct (note that "as", in this case, refers to simultaneity)

my cousin dressed up as a superhero for halloween.
--> correct (here "as" means "in the style of")

[uttam.albela]

Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people now using their mobile phones to make calls across a wide region at night and on weekends, when numerous wireless companies provide unlimited airtime for a relatively small monthly fee.

A. Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people

B. As the cost of wireless service plummeted in the last year and as mobile phones became increasingly common, many people

C. In the last year, with the cost of wireless service plummeting, and mobile phones have become increasingly common, there are many people

D. With the cost of wireless service plummeting in the last year and mobile phones becoming increasingly common, many people are

E. While the cost of wireless service has plummeted in the last year and mobile phones are increasingly common, many people are


The key is D. Why not E?

In my view, 'with' in choice d seems to imply that many people physically own something.

Here attached another example from prep test,

On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold gold in the form of bullion or coins, immigrants found that on arrival in the United States they had to surrender all of the gold they had brought with them.

A. On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
B. With a law passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
C. A law passed in 1933 that made it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen holding
D. Because of a law passed in 1933 making it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold
E. Due to a law being passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold

The key is D.
'with' in choice b is also bad: it seems to imply that immigrants arrived with the law in their hands.

hm, interesting.

first, you should be able to answer this problem based on heavy hitters such as parallelism.
parallelism is one of the most important error types on the exam, and it's also one of the most common, if not the most common.

choice (e) can be knocked out for its bad parallelism.
the two actions described at the beginning - cost plummeting, phones becoming more common - are clearly simultaneous, so we need to use parallel structure for these simultaneous events.
the first is "the cost ... has plummeted", so the second MUST be "phones ... have become increasingly common". it's not written that way, so (e) is incorrect.

in addition, (e) uses while in a questionable sense. when while appears at the beginning of a clause like this, it's normally used to introduce contrast ("while most of the class spent the weekend studying for class, i spent the weekend at the beach").

--

now, an analysis of the grammatical weirdness that's going on in the correct answer:

i'm learning something new here, but that happens decently often with these things. sentence correction is a slippery fish.

it appears that 'with' may be used with an __ING form to represent circumstances that are contemporaneous with the action described in the main clause.
that's what's going on here: the "with ___ing" constructions are used to describe things that are contemporaneous with the described uptick in the use of mobile phones.

First of all, I am a big fan of your each and every explanation. :)

I would just like to add to what you have said here. This is a example of an absolute phrase. And, as Ron rightly said, absolute phrase is used to zoom down at comtemporaneous circumstances associated with main action.
There are two absolute phrase constructs which is known to me
a) With NOUN VERB+ING : With cost of x plummeting, many people are blah -------
b) With NOUN Adverb of place: With twinkle in his eye, the old man said goodbye to his grandson. (copied from DOING GRAMMAR).

When we break these complex sentences into two or more simple sentences, WITH is altogether left out.
When with precedes an absolute phrase, with is an introductory word, like a subordinate conjunction. It is not part of the absolute itself. So absolute phrase that are introduced by with are not prepositional phrases. They remain absolute phrases.

Example: The cost of wireless service are plummeting since (in) the last year.
Mobile phones are becoming increasingly common.
Many people are now using their mobile phones to make calls across a wide region at night and on weekends.

Similarly, we can make simple sentences for 2nd example.
Twinkle was in his eye.
Old man said goodbye to his grandson.

As we see in these examples With is left out when understanding and simplifying the meaning of the absolute prhases starting with WITH (as WITH are not part of it).

Treatment of prepositional phrases starting with WITH is different.
WITH + NOUN (noun of preposition)
Example: With in prepositional phrases change to possessive words like has or have.

A house with a computer and a set of encyclopedias announces the sophistication of its occupants.

a. A house has a computer and a set of encyclopedias.
b. A house announces the sophistication of its occupants.

Note: all information is from DOING GRAMMAR.

[mschwrtz]

Interesting stuff uttam.albela, and frankly took me a while to digest. Other users should appreciate hat that level of understanding is emphatically not needed for SC questions.

Glad Ron's account helped.

[violetwind]

Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people now using their mobile phones to make calls across a wide region at night and on weekends, when numerous wireless companies provide unlimited airtime for a relatively small monthly fee.

A. Because of wireless service costs plummeting in the last year, and as mobile phones are increasingly common, many people

B. As the cost of wireless service plummeted in the last year and as mobile phones became increasingly common, many people

C. In the last year, with the cost of wireless service plummeting, and mobile phones have become increasingly common, there are many people

D. With the cost of wireless service plummeting in the last year and mobile phones becoming increasingly common, many people are

E. While the cost of wireless service has plummeted in the last year and mobile phones are increasingly common, many people are


The key is D. Why not E?

In my view, 'with' in choice d seems to imply that many people physically own something.

Here attached another example from prep test,

On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold gold in the form of bullion or coins, immigrants found that on arrival in the United States they had to surrender all of the gold they had brought with them.

A. On account of a law passed in 1993, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
B. With a law passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment that a United States citizen hold
C. A law passed in 1933 that made it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen holding
D. Because of a law passed in 1933 making it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold
E. Due to a law being passed in 1933 that makes it a crime punishable by imprisonment for a United States citizen to hold

The key is D.
'with' in choice b is also bad: it seems to imply that immigrants arrived with the law in their hands.

hm, interesting.

first, you should be able to answer this problem based on heavy hitters such as parallelism.
parallelism is one of the most important error types on the exam, and it's also one of the most common, if not the most common.

choice (e) can be knocked out for its bad parallelism.
the two actions described at the beginning - cost plummeting, phones becoming more common - are clearly simultaneous, so we need to use parallel structure for these simultaneous events.
the first is "the cost ... has plummeted", so the second MUST be "phones ... have become increasingly common". it's not written that way, so (e) is incorrect.

in addition, (e) uses while in a questionable sense. when while appears at the beginning of a clause like this, it's normally used to introduce contrast ("while most of the class spent the weekend studying for class, i spent the weekend at the beach").

--

now, an analysis of the grammatical weirdness that's going on in the correct answer:

i'm learning something new here, but that happens decently often with these things. sentence correction is a slippery fish.

it appears that 'with' may be used with an __ING form to represent circumstances that are contemporaneous with the action described in the main clause.
that's what's going on here: the "with ___ing" constructions are used to describe things that are contemporaneous with the described uptick in the use of mobile phones.

Hi,Ron,

After pondering your explanation and mine and going through similar problems with "with" issue, I think D and E both are problematic.

For D, the main issue is the usage of "with",

You may know the construction called "independent nominative", such as the last part of the following sentence:
At the turn of the twentieth century, forest covered as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodated as many as 300,000 elephants, a third of them domesticated and performing various essential tasks.

Another example of "independent nominative" : The huntsman entered the forest, gun in hand. (Well,I'm not 100% sure of this sentence's rightness.)

This first part of this SC sentence is actually not just "with + ing" but "with + N + Ving/Ved"

Then I come to the query that, if we can express the meaning without using "with", why use it? or maybe it is wrong to use it ? is it similar to the wrong usage of "of+N+ Ving" ?

There's another SC sentence with the usage of "with", in which "with" leads a noun construction but not an "N+ Ving" construction. This just enforces my mind about the similarity of the "with" 's usage with "of".

Then I went through a few SC problems with choices that use "with", and the false usage of with nearly all appears in the form of " N+ Ving".

I know, the appearance at wrong choices doesn't sufficiently means this usage is wrong, but as GMAT always put several mistakes in one false choice to make it "clear" to be wrong, I deduce this form might be one kind of false usage.

Over the course of the eighteenth century, the average output of ironwork tripled as a result of several improvements in blowing machinery and because coal replaced charcoal as the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore.

A.Over the course of the eighteenth century, the average output of ironwork tripled as a result of several improvements in blowing machinery and because coal replaced charcoal as the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore.

B.Over the course of the eighteenth century a tripling in the average output of ironwork was due to the replacement of charcoal by coal for the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore, in addition to several improvements in blowing machinery.

C.With charcoal's being replaced by coal as the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore and several improvements in blowing machinery, the average output of ironwork tripled over the eighteenth century.

D.The replacement of charcoal with coal for the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore and several improvements in blowing machinery, the average output of ironwork tripled over the eighteenth century.

E.Charcoal being replaced by coal as the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore, and several improvements in blowing machinery, which tripled the average output of ironwork over the course of the eighteenth century.

For E, I wanna argue about the different tenses used.

I think even in parralelism, the usage of tense is not limited to being the "same" only if it is proper to the intended meaning.

for the sentence of choice E, I think it is possible that the price plummeting happend in last year and the more and more common usage of mobilephone happens this year, as there may be a postponed effect on customers' feedback to market. Also, I have to admit that the two incidents could happen simultaneously. And the two situaion both fit the mentioned consequese about people's using wireless service. In short, I think there's no right or wrong about the tenses here.

the only imperfection or mistake I noticed is the "while", I agree with you that this word implies contrasting but not a causal relationship.

Well, Could you clarify the usage of "with+N+ Ving" ? if it really wrong, could we tolerate the improper usage of While in E?


sorry for this soooooo long question, Thank you for reading and reply.

[RonPurewal]

Hi,Ron,

After pondering your explanation and mine and going through similar problems with "with" issue, I think D and E both are problematic.

this is an official problem, and (d) is the officially correct answer; therefore, (d) is NOT "problematic".
DO NOT QUESTION OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWERS.
IF SOMETHING APPEARS IN AN OFFICIALLY CORRECT ANSWER, IT IS CORRECT.

You may know the construction called "independent nominative", such as the last part of the following sentence:

i don't know that name -- never heard it before.
in fact, i know very few grammatical terms, other than the basics (noun, verb, prepositional phrase, etc.). on these forums, it may seem that i have more knowledge than that, but this is the case only because i'm on the internet -- i generally just look up the names of the terms before i post here, if i'm going to name them.
so that brings me to another important point:
(1) when you solve problems, do not be concerned with labels (such as "independent nominative").
... and therefore,
(2) don't worry about labels at all unless they specifically help you understand.

the importance of not relying too much on labels cannot be overstated, since time management is so important on this exam.
here's the analogy that i give when i teach classes:
imagine the following two situations:
a) you are driving on a road. you see a red light in front of you. you realize that when you see that, you must stop. therefore, you stop.
b) you are driving on a road. you see a red light in front of you. you say to yourself, "hmm, what is that called?" you tell yourself that it's called a "circular red signal". then you ask yourself what is the significance of a "circular red signal". then you realize that its significance is that you must stop. therefore, you stop.

you can see why the second of these situations is definitely inferior to the first -- and, in a situation where time is of the essence, potentially disastrous.
the same is true for spending excessive effort putting labels on things in these sentences.
at best, the necessity of labeling grammatical elements should be temporary. once you get to the point where you can correctly classify them as correct or incorrect just by looking at them, you should completely STOP labeling them, so that you can have better time management.

At the turn of the twentieth century, forest covered as much as 90 percent of Thailand and accommodated as many as 300,000 elephants, a third of them domesticated and performing various essential tasks.

--> are you sure this problem is official?
upon searching, i don't see it anywhere on the web except for a couple of chinese sites. if this problem were official, that would be unlikely (most official problems are ALL OVER the internet).

Another example of "independent nominative" : The huntsman entered the forest, gun in hand. (Well,I'm not 100% sure of this sentence's rightness.)

i've seen that sort of construction before, but never in an official problem. therefore, i can't tell you in good faith whether you should know it or not, since we have no official evidence either way.

Then I come to the query that, if we can express the meaning without using "with", why use it? or maybe it is wrong to use it ?

it's in an officially correct answer, so it's not wrong.
end of story.
don't question the officially correct answers!

there are quite a few officially correct answers that i don't like very much, either, but i still have to accept them as correct.

There's another SC sentence with the usage of "with", in which "with" leads a noun construction but not an "N+ Ving" construction. This just enforces my mind about the similarity of the "with" 's usage with "of".

could you please quote, or link to, that sentence please?
thanks

Then I went through a few SC problems with choices that use "with", and the false usage of with nearly all appears in the form of " N+ Ving".

...but it's correct here.
so you know that it can be correct.

I know, the appearance at wrong choices doesn't sufficiently means this usage is wrong, but as GMAT always put several mistakes in one false choice to make it "clear" to be wrong, I deduce this form might be one kind of false usage.

nope.
it's in an officially correct answer, so it's correct.
(i agree with you that it's somewhat ugly, but my opinion is, unfortunately, of no consequence to the nice people at gmac.)

--

Over the course of the eighteenth century, the average output of ironwork tripled as a result of several improvements in blowing machinery and because coal replaced charcoal as the fuel used in the smelting of iron ore....

hmm? what is this problem doing here?
did you ask a question about this problem?

I think even in parralelism, the usage of tense is not limited to being the "same" only if it is proper to the intended meaning.

this is true. in fact, mechanical considerations NEVER have ANYTHING to do with verb tenses. verb tenses are completely determined by the context of the sentence.

for the sentence of choice E, I think it is possible that the price plummeting happend in last year and the more and more common usage of mobilephone happens this year, as there may be a postponed effect on customers' feedback to market. Also, I have to admit that the two incidents could happen simultaneously. And the two situaion both fit the mentioned consequese about people's using wireless service. In short, I think there's no right or wrong about the tenses here.

this may be true, sure.

perhaps the easiest way to knock off choice (e) is to note that "while" doesn't make sense.
there are two uses of "while": (1) simultaneity, (2) contrast.
(1) doesn't make sense here, since the clause after "while" it is written in the present perfect, but "are using" is in the present; therefore, these actions are NOT simultaneous. ("while" at the start of a sentence isn't normally used for simultaneity, anyway.)
(2) -- which is almost always the way in which "while" is used at the start of sentences -- also doesn't make sense, since there is no contrast.
hence (e) is wrong.

the only imperfection or mistake I noticed is the "while", I agree with you that this word implies contrasting but not a causal relationship.

yep
although i think it's pretty clear that the intention of the sentences to present those two actions as simultaneous. i see your argument that they might not be simultaneous -- an argument that has some value -- but, in my first reading of the sentence, i saw a pretty compelling suggestion that those two should be simultaneous.

[alvin8139]

Ron, Thanks for your great explanations as always. I dont' question OA. However, I try to understand at which occasion, I can eliminate answer choices by certain criteria and at which occasion, I cannot.

Here is what confuses me: you ever wrote in the other post:

*you can't write "of + NOUN + VERBing" if the action of VERBing is the focus of the preposition.*

I obviously eliminate the correct choice in this question based on the above rule, since "of wireless service plummeting" fits this rule. please help further elaborate the criteria for elimination, thanks.

Link for above-mentioned post:
although-people-in-france-consume-fatty-foods-at-a-rate-t5712.html

[mschwrtz]

That's a very subtle question. Here's the correct answer:

With the cost of wireless service plummeting in the last year and mobile phones becoming increasingly common, many people are in the form of bullion or coins, immigrants found that on arrival in the United States they had to surrender all of the gold they had brought with them.

Notice that the phrase to which you object, the cost of wireless service plummeting, isn't of the sort that Ron wrote was nonstandard. As you quote Ron, you can't write "of + NOUN + VERBing" if the action of VERBing is the focus of the preposition, but in the sentence above, plummeting is not the focus of the preposition; wireless service is.