Question
Before 1988, insurance companies in California were free to charge whatever rates the market would bear, needing no approval from regulators before raising rates.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
Here’s the sentence structure:
- Before 1988, (Prepositional phrase modifying the main verb ‘were’)
- insurance companies (Main Subject)
- in California (Prepositional phrase modifying the main subject)
- were free to charge whatever rates the market would bear, (Main verb: were. ‘whatever…bear’ is a noun clause acting as an object for ‘charge’)
- needing no approval from regulators before raising (Verb-ing modifier modifying the main clause. ‘before’ is followed by a verb-ing modifier which makes sense with the subject ‘insurance companies’)
The sentence says that before 1988, insurance companies were free to decide rates and did not need approval from regulators before raising rates. The second part ‘not needing approval from regulators’ is presented as a verb-ing modifier to the main clause. This construction makes sense since ‘not needing approval from regulators’ explains how the insurance companies were free to decide rates. Besides, the verb-ing ‘needing’ makes sense with the subject ‘insurance companies’. The sentence, as is, looks fine.
Option Analysis
(A) Correct.
(B) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Pronoun Disagreement – Singular pronoun ‘it’ cannot refer to plural ‘insurance companies’.
- Incorrect Preposition – The use of the preposition ‘by’ is incorrect. The companies will need approval ‘from’ regulators, not ‘by’ regulators.
(C) Incorrect. ‘needing’ is not parallel to anything before ‘and’. This is a deterministic error.
Even though the reference of ‘they’ seems ambiguous since it can refer to both insurance companies and regulators, pronoun ambiguity is generally not a major error.
(D) Incorrect. The use of the preposition ‘by’ is incorrect, as explained in the analysis of option B. Besides, the structure of this option ‘approval not needed’ makes it passive in voice and is thus less preferable to the structure in the original sentence.
(E) Incorrect. The structure ‘the raising of rates’ is incorrect. The correct expression is ‘raising rates’. Besides, the structure ‘no approval needed’ makes it passive in voice and is thus less preferable to the structure in the original sentence.
Can you explain the usage of comma +with construction in option D & E. also general usage of with in GMAT.
“with” is a regular preposition in English language. A comma+with at the end of a clause is generally used to provide additional information about the clause. For example:
China leads the world in facial-recognition and other new surveillance technologies, with its own government using the tools at home and Huawei Technologies Co. exporting them globally
Visitors to the park have often looked up into the leafy canopy and seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging like socks on a clothesline
Shares that until last week were market highfliers posted double-digit percent losses, with Tesla Inc. sliding 13% and Virgin Galactic Holdings shedding 24%.
Traders described an atmosphere of apprehension, with many fixating on headlines about the coronavirus epidemic, bracing for a drop in business activity and trying to get a grip on expectations for corporate earnings.
The coronavirus epidemic continued to escalate globally into the weekend, with Florida reporting the first two deaths on the U.S. East Coast and a number of countries across Asia experiencing their largest one-day jumps in new infections.
U.S. stocks careened lower Monday, with major indexes swinging perilously close to the first bear market in more than a decade as a price war for oil and fallout from the coronavirus frightened investors.
The selling was heavy across markets and geographies, with investors seeking shelter in government bonds, sending Treasury yields to new lows.
Leave a comment