Gains in stock market had

[acethegmat]

According to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come in for a "soft landing," followed by a gradual increase in business activity.

(A) that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come
(B) in the economy to avoid the recession, what many feared earlier in the year, rather to come
(C) in the economy's ability to avoid the recession, something earlier in the year many had feared, and instead to come
(D) in the economy to avoid the recession many were fearing earlier in the year, and rather to come
(E) that the economy will avoid the recession that was feared earlier this year by many, with it instead coming

why is the past perfect correct here. There is no action in the past. The analysts opinion is current and their prediction is for the future, so shouldn't it be simple past - what many feared? instead of what many 'had feared'!!

[RonPurewal]

why is the past perfect correct here. There is no action in the past. The analysts opinion is current and their prediction is for the future, so shouldn't it be simple past - what many feared? instead of what many 'had feared'!!

note that the past perfect can be used, roughly speaking, in two different circumstances:
1) for past actions that were ongoing until, or relevant to, a later past action (this is what you're thinking about);
OR
2) for past actions that were ongoing until, or relevant to, a later past TIME MARKER.

for #2, the second time marker could be something explicitly mentioned in the sentence.
before the introduction of soft landing mats, high jumpers had been forced to use the western-roll style of jumping
--> note that there is no second verb, but "the introduction of soft landing mats" is a time marker.

however, if the context of the sentence clearly IMPLIES a second time marker, then that second time marker may not even have to be mentioned explicitly.
in this sentence, the second time marker is implied by the phrase "earlier in the year" -- i.e., these fears were ongoing until a certain point that is already in the past.

--

as a final note, make sure you know that the difficulty of learning verb tenses -- not just in english but in any language -- is going to be vastly higher than the difficulty of learning almost anything else in a language.
verb tenses tend to encode extremely subtle information, and, worse, their usages vary wildly from language to language -- it's rare to find any two languages that have tenses exactly equivalent to one another. (even in european languages that are closely related to english, different tenses are often used for the same situation than would be used in english.)

[vikram4689]

i have a feeling that "growing confidence in the economy" is wrong and hence C, D, and E are incorrect but i am not able to find concrete reasons for the same. please tell whether my feeling is legitimate and, if yes, what would be the concrete reason

also, what is the role of "instead" in option A. "and instead" sound a bit iffy

[tim]

just because something sounds wrong is not a reason to eliminate it as an answer choice. focus on grammar, and don't eliminate an answer choice unless you can pinpoint an exact grammar rule that is being violated..

"instead" is intended to provide a contrast. the economy will avoid one thing and instead do another thing. those two things are contrasted by the "instead"..

[vikram4689]

just because something sounds wrong is not a reason to eliminate it as an answer choice. focus on grammar, and don't eliminate an answer choice unless you can pinpoint an exact grammar rule that is being violated..

tim,
what i meant is whether "growing confidence in the economy" is incorrect in the sense that it does not convey logical meaning. this construction seems to suggest that there is confidence in the economy which i think does not make sense

"instead" is intended to provide a contrast. the economy will avoid one thing and instead do another thing. those two things are contrasted by the "instead"..

is this usage a special one. i would like to learn it as it is correct. it sound iffy because "and" and "instead" convey almost opposite meanings. it seems like using "and but" together.
please help

[tim]

let me take a closer look at your questions and get back to you later today..

[tim]

as for your first concern, there is actually nothing wrong with having "growing confidence in the economy". if it sounds weird to you, that is one more reason why you should not rely on your ear and should instead focus on eliminating answer choices with clear and identifiable grammar errors..

on the second point, it sounds as though you may just need to memorize that "and instead" is okay to use even though "and but" is not..

[thanghnvn]

If I understand correctly, there is only one case in which past perfect is used.

past perfect is used to show an action which finished before a latter past action. This latter action can be replaced with a point of time in the past.

past perfect is not used to show an action which begin before and continue into a latter past action. Past perfect continuous do so but it is not tested on gmat.

question No 3 in og 12 illustrates my above thinking.

[vikram4689]

instructors,
can "instead to come" be considered one of the reasons to eliminate C. first,instead (here) is acting as adverb and hence would require a proper verb and not infinitive. on second thought, i read somewhere that instead + infinitive is always incorrect, please confirm its validity

thanghnvn,
i hope 2 following will help you resolve all queries in this question
post207.html#p207
http://www.beatthegmat.com/gains-in-the ... tml#435020

[RonPurewal]

i read somewhere that instead + infinitive is always incorrect, please confirm its validity

in the last month, everything on this forum that has been preceded by "i read somewhere..." or "i think i remember..." has been incorrect. just saying.

it's perfectly possible to have instead in front of an infinitive. for instance...
we decided not to eat at the restaurant, and instead to cook our own food at home.
technically, "instead..." modifies the verb "decided" (as does the other parallel structure), so there is no contradiction. but the point is that it's totally possible to have instead in front of to + verb.

[vikram4689]

thanks ron.

do you think that B,C,D can be eliminated because they did not use "that" after "confidence"

[RonPurewal]

thanks ron.

do you think that B,C,D can be eliminated because they did not use "that" after "confidence"

no, that's too simplistic.

it is true that "confidence in (thing/person) to (verb)" is unidiomatic, but "confidence in (thing/person)" is perfectly fine.

[vikram4689]

thanks ron.

do you think that B,C,D can be eliminated because they did not use "that" after "confidence"

no, that's too simplistic.

it is true that "confidence in (thing/person) to (verb)" is unidiomatic, but "confidence in (thing/person)" is perfectly fine.

if i understand this correctly, you are saying that i should not eliminate simply on the basis that i did not see "that" after "confidence". However, since B,C,D conform to unidiomatic construction, can i eliminate these 3 ??

Also please give an example in which "confidence in thing/person" is followed neither by to verb nor by that

[RonPurewal]

Also please give an example in which "confidence in thing/person" is followed neither by to verb nor by that

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confide ... tions.aspx

if you want more examples, you can google "confidence in" (with the quotes) and find 65,700,000 more of them.

in general, doing this sort of thing (typing an internet search and then seeing how a construction is used in the results) is going to be more effective, in terms of your own learning, then just asking for examples on a forum.
(you should of course judge the general quality of the results -- i.e., if you see some construction in a webpage that's badly written in general, you should ignore it.)

[vikram4689]

Double thanks !!! you have also taught me how to search specific words. actually i tried to search and spend almost 15-20 min but i was doing it wrong way. in search bar, i was typing usage of confidence in in sentences, confidence in idiom etc.

can i assume that answer to this quote is YES. just wanted to confirm that my identification of this pattern is correct

if i understand this correctly, you are saying that i should not eliminate simply on the basis that i did not see "that" after "confidence". However, since B,C,D conform to unidiomatic construction "confidence in (thing/person) to (verb)", can i eliminate these 3 ??