Prep Questions - Trans World Entertainment Corporation

[RonPurewal]

Since I am not a native English speaker, sometime it is hard for me to find out the right answer

True, although there are many aspects of SC that are less difficult for non-native speakers. Especially pronouns and modifiers, which are used in ways that are almost completely different from spoken language.
Everyone has to learn how those work, but native speakers first have to un-learn what their ears are telling them.

No doubt there are a lot of things that are harder for non-native speakers, but the test writers try pretty hard to even things out.

[zhouyj1089]

Thank you so much for sharing those extremely meaningful and helpful tips.
I learn things from you every day. Thank you!
I used to think those choices, which may "appear simple" but are logically complicated, are correct answer for two reasons: first, i assume that GMAC are composed of people who are extremely smart and have the brain that can process complicated things, and they try to give test-takers a hard time.

Their goal is to create an exam that requires sharp thinking, but not specialized thinking.

In real world, "professional" things usually appear "complicated".

Only to people who don't know what they mean. Once you have the requisite knowledge, "professional" things are generally pretty simple, too.

The difference here is that the GMAT has relatively little "requisite knowledge".

Ron, you are so right.
Thanks for your time and those comments. I will follow your instructions.

[RonPurewal]

Ok. Good luck.

[boncourage]

Hi Instructors!

Having read the previous posts, I still have questions about A: 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.

1. Could they refer to one-fourth of its stores? Because besides sales, 1/4 of its stores are also plural, and it makes perfect sense. Actually i suppose that there must be something wrong about this point, but don't know where...Please kindly correct me =)

2. "since... are poor" is directly after "that", is A wrong also because of this construction? Because in "that-clause", there is usually just one simple sentence, but not "that + since XXX, XXX"?

Thank you so much!

[thanghnvn]

[quote="zhuyujun"]Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the RecordTown 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 choice A,
"they" must grammartically refer to "sales " because the parallelism makes this point. gmat agrees to this rule by presenting many official answers in the OG books, which contain this pattern.

this refering is not logical

[RonPurewal]

in choice A,
"they" must grammartically refer to "sales " because the parallelism makes this point. gmat agrees to this rule by presenting many official answers in the OG books, which contain this pattern.

this refering is not logical

No. There's no rule saying that pronouns must play exactly the same grammatical role as their nouns.
As long as the meaning of a pronoun is obvious in context (and the required noun is actually there), the pronoun is ok. Why introduce unnecessary (and spurious) complexity?

In fact, if you open up OG12 to the very first SC problem, you'll see a pronoun ("them") that is an object, even though its noun is a subject.

[cshen02]

I struggled between B and C, and finally settle on B...
There was discussion on the non-restrictive clause used in B, but it doesn't help me out.
Would anyone clarify why the non-restrictive clause in B is wrong? I don't see why it makes such a big difference in this sentence.

Cheers!
Oh, btw, for instructors, maybe using color can make your comments stand out from the rest :)

[RonPurewal]

I don't know the terminology in your question ("non-restrictive clause"), so I'm unable to answer it right now.
Could you please ask the question again, with reference to specific parts of that answer choice? Thanks.

You can also eliminate choice B because the tenses don't make sense together.
"Announced that it is closing..." makes sense by itself"”say, the company just made an announcement about a process that's ongoing at present"”but then that pins the situation to the present.
If that's the case, then the subsequent past tense ("which accounted...") doesn't make sense; it implies that the poor sales are no longer a thing!

[thanghnvn]

[quote="zhuyujun"]Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the RecordTown 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

I think this problem test us the use of verbs

some verb is followed by "that-clause", others by "to do" , others by "do-ing" , others by "object+to do" and others by "for+object+to do" . some verb can be followed by two of the forms above. this point is idiomatic problem and should be remembered.

idiomaticaly ,"announced" is followed by "that-clause", not by "doing" as in choice E, not by "to do" as in choice D.

end of story.

is my thinking correct? pls confirm

thank you

[tim]

"is my thinking correct?" is a very generic question, so my generic answer is "no". :) Specifically, it looks like you are trying to turn this into an idioms question, which it most definitively is not. If an idiom does not show up in our SC strategy guide idioms list, you should assume you are NOT dealing with idioms. Making up idioms that do not exist is one of the surest ways to distract yourself from what is important in SC.

[thanghnvn]

"unlike" is used many times in og questions and, so, is a preposition.

why "unlike" is not a preposition in this problem?

[RonPurewal]

"unlike" is used many times in og questions and, so, is a preposition.

why "unlike" is not a preposition in this problem?

"Unlike" does not appear anywhere in this problem, so I'm bemused by this post.
Wrong thread, perhaps?

[supratim7]

Choice A: 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.

Scanned all the pages, but couldn't zero on the main issue with Choice (A). Noticed some discussion on pronoun ambiguity, meaning, tense, etc. but also noticed some counter arguments against each. So, what is the real deal breaker here?

Thank you so much.

[jlucero]

Choice A: 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.

Scanned all the pages, but couldn't zero on the main issue with Choice (A). Noticed some discussion on pronoun ambiguity, meaning, tense, etc. but also noticed some counter arguments against each. So, what is the real deal breaker here?

Thank you so much.

Dealbreaker: Uses they to refer to a singular company. Notice the correct answer choice uses it.

Backup Problem: Awkward structure/ambiguous meaning. You and I probably understand the meaning of the sentence, but the modifiers keep breaking up the main idea of the sentence.

Bad:
A) TWEC, modifier, announced that (lengthy modifier), they will be closed. (wait, what's closing?)

Better:
C) TWEC, modifier, announced it was closing up to one-fourth of its stores (modifier). (oh, the company is closing certain stores)

[maria.segal.1]

Hi Ron,

I read the entire thread and could not find why D was wrong (except for "weird, wordy etc"). What would be in your opinion a good reason to eliminate D?


Thanks,
Maria