SC : Despite the growing number

[Nz]

Thank you Ron, there was a lot of good material on that link. I hope I can apply it on this question.

C) growing number of people purchasing plane tickets online,...
D) fact that the number of people purchasing plane tickets online is growing,....

choice d is wrong because it talks about the number of people is growing, whereas it should be specifically about those people who purchase tickets online that are growing.
Same problem with C. Both using prep + noun + VERBing that conveys the wrong meaning.

Also, in the current thread, you wrote:

* "People __ing" and "people who __" aren't exactly the same.
The "__ing" version means that something is happening during the timeframe of the sentence, but does not imply that it's permanent or habitual.
The "who __" version, on the other hand, implies permanence or habitual action.
E.g.,
People talking about politics = people who are talking about politics at this very moment (or whenever the action of the sentence occurs), even if those people have never talked about politics at any other point in their lives.
People who talk about politics = people who regularly/habitually talk about politics.

In this sentence, the __ing makes more sense, because the whole point is that more people are starting to buy online -- i.e., NOT longstanding/habitual actions.

But in the correct answer choice is A so I'm confused because you wrote _ing makes more sense and the correct answer is
A) growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online,......

Thanks for your help in this.

[RonPurewal]

Thank you Ron, there was a lot of good material on that link. I hope I can apply it on this question.

C) growing number of people purchasing plane tickets online,...
D) fact that the number of people purchasing plane tickets online is growing,....

choice d is wrong because it talks about the number of people is growing, whereas it should be specifically about those people who purchase tickets online that are growing.

No, choice D is fine, because you're talking about the people.
That modifier is attached to "people", so those are the specific people we're talking about. But, as long as we mean to talk about the people themselves"”rather than about their purchases"”the sentence is fine.

Check out the link again. "Prep + noun + __ing" is incorrect when the sentence is intended to describe the act of __ing rather than the noun.

[RonPurewal]

But in the correct answer choice is A so I'm confused because you wrote _ing makes more sense and the correct answer is
A) growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online,......

Thanks for your help in this.

The sentence makes sense with "purchasing", but it also makes sense with "who purchase".

In fact, "who purchase" makes the airline executives' concern more urgent!
I.e., long-term changes in people's buying habits are much more concerning than shorter-term abnormalities.

[Nz]

Oh I see, thanks for your reply. so the only thing wrong with D is the redundant use of prefer and compared to and "would" at the end of the sentence.

If we replace, "people who purchase" in choice A with "people purchasing", and if the author is interested in short term buying habits of the people, would/will it be correct?

Thank you

[RonPurewal]

Oh I see, thanks for your reply. so the only thing wrong with D is the redundant use of prefer and compared to and "would" at the end of the sentence.

No"”you've left out what is perhaps the worst thing about choice D.
"That" is in the wrong place"”and that placement messes up the entire comparison.
Choice D says, "airline executives are convinced ... just as people still prefer bank tellers". Nonsense; the parallel needs to be between the use of bank tellers and the use of travel agents.

If we replace, "people who purchase" in choice A with "people purchasing", and if the author is interested in short term buying habits of the people, would/will it be correct?

Thank you

It would be fine, yes.

[tim60288]

Hi Ron,

Can you please let us know the correct use of "Despite"? I cannot find the way of using from this forum or I missed it : (

Thank you : )

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

Can you please let us know the correct use of "Despite"? I cannot find the way of using from this forum or I missed it : (

Thank you : )

The most basic response possible is "It must be followed by a noun; it can't be followed by a whole sentence."

To learn more, you should do one or both of the following:

"- Google "despite", along with a few random keywords to ensure that you don't get all dictionary pages. (E.g., google despite Obama, or despite alligators, or despite perestroika, or whatever.)
Then just read the results!
Take note of how "despite" is used.
(In my opinion, this is the best way to learn usage.)

- Look up "despite" on dictionary sites, and read example sentences. (Danger: If there are archaic, outdated, or informal uses, those might not be adequately indicated.)

[rustom.hakimiyan]

the easy way to eliminate (b) is to know that "would" is incorrect.

"would" can be used as a past-tense form of "will" -- for instance, i know that we will win translates into the past tense as i knew that we would win -- or to express a hypothetical situation that isn't true. neither of these is the case here; this is a prognostication of future events, so the future tense makes sense and the conditional ("would") doesn't.

the hard way to eliminate (b) is to realize that its construction - the placement of the commas and the word "that" - isn't right.
because of the placement of the commas and "that", this choice mistakenly puts "executives are convinced" in parallel with "1/3 of customers prefer...". that makes no sense.
in (a), though, since "that" precedes the comma, the parallelism is different: "1/3 of customers prefer..." is now parallel to "many travelers will...", as it logically should be.

Hi Ron,

I'm a little hung up on the would/will part. I saw the split but thought that it was irrelevant to the question.

I understand what you're saying: "would" should refer to past while "will" should refer to the future. From what perspective is the past/future "calibrated" from.

Taking out the issues with "that" placement, I'd like to tackle the would/will issue independently.

1) "airline execs are convinced that, just as x, travelers will still use"
- Doesn't "are convinced" imply that it's in the past? If many travelers are ALREADY using the travel agents, wouldn't the sentence have to say "would" instead of "will"?

How do we know if the action is supposed to still happen or if it has already happened and this sentence is read from the past perspective?

2) "airline execs are convinced that, just as x, travelers would still use"
-Doesn't this imply that the execs are ALREADy convinced and the travelers are ALREADY using travel agents, therefore the "would" is more appropriate here?

3) Going back to your point above. Aren't the executives "guessing" what the travelers will do? Doesn't that make it a hypothetical and therefore requires a "would"?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

1) "airline execs are convinced that, just as x, travelers will still use"
- Doesn't "are convinced" imply that it's in the past? If many travelers are ALREADY using the travel agents, wouldn't the sentence have to say "would" instead of "will"?

"are convinced" = present
"were convinced" = past

The sentence is about whether these travelers will continue to use (= will still use) the travel agents--i.e., about future behavior.
Perhaps it would be easier to understand if the sentence said "will continue to use..." in place of "will still use...". If you understand that, then you understand this, too.

How do we know if the action is supposed to still happen or if it has already happened and this sentence is read from the past perspective?

"Are convinced" is a statement about the present. So, the only sensible interpretation is that they're convinced about what will happen in the future.

2) "airline execs are convinced that, just as x, travelers would still use"
-Doesn't this imply that the execs are ALREADy convinced and the travelers are ALREADY using travel agents, therefore the "would" is more appropriate here?

I believe this point is addressed by what I wrote above. If you are in fact asking something else, please clarify.

[RonPurewal]

3) Going back to your point above. Aren't the executives "guessing" what the travelers will do? Doesn't that make it a hypothetical and therefore requires a "would"?

If I'm making guesses about the future, I use "will", even if they are guesses.
I don't think he will show up.
I think it will rain tomorrow.

"Would" is used for hypotheticals that are (a) contrary to fact, or (b) considered extremely unlikely by the speaker.

(a) If I were rich, I would continue to tithe to charity.
(I'm not rich. Contrary to fact.)

(b) If I won the lottery next week, I would give 50% to charity.
(It's extremely unlikely that this will happen.)
I can also write If I win the lottery next week, I will give 50% to charity--but only if I actually think of this as a reasonable possibility!

[NarenS469]

Hello Instructors,

Looking at the correct answer choice A & C, I have questions regarding 'Despite .... , ...' construction.

A) Despite ....<subject> + <verb> , <subject> + <verb>
C) Despite ....<mod> , <subject> + <verb>

-Are the construction above correct for A and C (besides the other errors) as long as there is subject+verb before or/and after the comma?

Thanks for the help,

Naren

[RonPurewal]

the correct use of "despite" is ...
despite + NOUN

that's it.
(the noun can have modifiers, of course.)

[RonPurewal]

incidentally, that ^^ is a non-issue in this problem, since all five choices contain despite + NOUN.
• the first three choices have despite + the number (with some modifiers)
• the last two choices have despite + the fact (with modifiers)

[vili1108]

Hi Ron, in answer choices, does "Convinced" has to go with "that"? or it can work fine without "that"? Can this be a split to eliminate choices?


Also in your earlier post below, can you please give an example that native speaker has problem with? Thanks!

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


yes.
this is mostly a problem for native english speakers, because that kind of usage is ubiquitous in spoken english. for non-native speakers, it's just a normal modifier rule that doesn't require any un-learning of speech habits.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron, in answer choices, does "Convinced" has to go with "that"? or it can work fine without "that"? Can this be a split to eliminate choices?

in general, 'verbs that HAVE to go with that' do not exist.

read about this here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... tml#p47979

in the case of 'convinced'...
...you can be convinced that something is true
...you can be convinced of some idea/notion/belief
...you can just use 'convinced' by itself, if the appropriate context occurs earlier (e.g., Most of my friends believed everything he said, but I was not convinced.)