SC: Currently 26 billion barrels a year...

[manassingh]

Initially i picked E as the answer choice. But looks like i was wrong. I would like to confirm my understanding.

Why is E wrong ?
Currently 26 billion barrels a year, Oil is

Currently 26 billion barrels a year This is a modifier and is supposed to modify the first word/non appearing after comma. In this case, it is oil

Here is modifier does not tell much how are Currently 26 billion barrels a year and oil] related, hence this is NOT A CORRECT choice.

Why is A Correct ?
Currently 26 billion barrels a year, word consumption of oil...

Here there is a clear relationship between the modifier(Currently 26 billion barrels a year) and word consumption of oil

Hence A is the correct choice.

Is this a fair assesement ?

[RonPurewal]

Initially i picked E as the answer choice. But looks like i was wrong. I would like to confirm my understanding.

Why is E wrong ?
Currently 26 billion barrels a year, Oil is

Currently 26 billion barrels a year This is a modifier and is supposed to modify the first word/non appearing after comma. In this case, it is oil

Here is modifier does not tell much how are Currently 26 billion barrels a year and oil] related, hence this is NOT A CORRECT choice.

Why is A Correct ?
Currently 26 billion barrels a year, word consumption of oil...

Here there is a clear relationship between the modifier(Currently 26 billion barrels a year) and word consumption of oil

Hence A is the correct choice.

Is this a fair assesement ?

it's a fair assessment, yes.
these points were also discussed earlier in this thread:
post24909.html#p24909

[adt29]

A question on the phrase 'increasing rate'. Is this used correctly in the answer choices? The correct answer choice (A) does not use the word 'increasing' when talking about the rate. Thanks!

[jlucero]

A question on the phrase 'increasing rate'. Is this used correctly in the answer choices? The correct answer choice (A) does not use the word 'increasing' when talking about the rate. Thanks!

A red herring issue. The problem is that we need to say oil consumption is rising/increasing. Not the world is consuming oil at a rising/increasing rate. There are times when the words can't be used interchangeably, but not here.

[shivajibose@gmail.com]

"Currently 26 billion barrels a year" is what kind of modifier phrase?

Based on the word "currently", I presume it to be an adverbial modifier phrase. But, the modifying phrase does not seem to be modifying the verb, "is rising". Is it modifying the entire clause therefore needs to make sense with the subject?

The other understanding is "Currently 26 billion barrels a year" is an adjective phrase modifying the "world consumption of oil".

I would really appreciate if instructors drilled down into the role "Currently 26 billion barrels a year" plays in this sentence.

[elainetang92]

Answer choice E is below:

E) "oil is consumed by the world at an increasing rate of..."

Regardless of the preceding modifier, this is not a strong answer choice for 2 reasons:

1. It is in passive voice. The subject "oil" is being acted upon by the object "the world". The GMAT prefers active voice, so "the world is consuming oil..." would be a better structure.

Question regarding the first reason: if the prompt were "currently 26 billion barrels," even though the GMAT prefers active voice, would the passive voice be the right answer choice since the subject of the modifier should be "oil," not "the world"?

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

The GMAT doesn't actually "prefer" the active voice. That's a misconception that we've since removed from our materials. (Note that the post you're quoting is three years old.)

It's true that far more sentences appear in the active voice than in the passive.
However, when there is a split between active and passive constructions in an official problem -- which is the only time you should ever care about this issue at all -- it's exactly 50/50. Exactly.

In OG12, there are 34 splits between active and passive. In 17 of them, the correct answer contains the active construction. In the other 17, it has the passive.

[pravin22jd]

I thought "world consumption of oil" is incorrect, shouldn't it be "world's oil consumption".

I know this is very basic question but that is what I thought during exam and crossed off A.

Kindly clarify my doubt...

[RonPurewal]

Officially correct answers are correct!
Do not question them!

Don't fight the official answers. Complete waste of time.

"Is this correct?" is never a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers. The answer is always yes.

"Is this wrong?" / "Is this X type of error?" is never a productive question to ask about one of GMAC's correct answers. The answer is always no.

Instead, the questions you should be asking about correct official answers, if you don't understand them, are:
"Why is this correct?"
"How does this work?"
"What understanding am I lacking that I need to understand this choice?"

This is a small, but hugely significant, change to your way of thinking. You will find it much easier to understand the format, style, and conventions of the official problems if you retire the idea that they might be wrong.

[thanghnvn]

[quote="sinhavis"]Currently 26 billion barrels a year, world consumption of oil is rising at a rate of 2 percent annually

A) world consumption of oil is rising at a rate of

B) the world consumption is consuming oil at an increasing rate of

C) the world's oil is being consumed at the increasing rate of

D) the rise in the rate of the world's oil consumption is

E) oil is consumed by the world at an increasing rate of

Source is GMATPrep practice test.

OA is A

in choice A, "currently" is an adverb. this adverb should modify the verb, adjective or another adverb. where is the head word of "currently"? "currently " refers to what

pls, explain

[RonPurewal]

you can understand this sort of thing as a transformed version of a sentence with "is"/"are".

e.g.,

John is currently a high-school teacher.

Currently a high-school teacher, John is much less stressed than he was in his previous job as an investment banker.

[RonPurewal]

more importantly-- there's a reason why "currently" isn't in the underlined part.

[thanghnvn]

my question is not important for this problem but important to the total sc section.

currently is an adverb modifying "26 barrel a year" which is working, in this sentence, as an attributive. an adverb modifies an attributive. correct modification.

do you think so?

[RichaChampion]

"increasing rate of" → Isn't this redundant or perhaps Unidiomatic and can be treated as split for elimination here in this question.

[RonPurewal]

no. that's the WRONG meaning for THIS sentence, but, it's definitely possible for a rate to be "increasing".
for example, a stock investment can have an "increasing rate of return" if it yields greater % returns from one year to the next.

THIS sentence is talking about a rate of increase -- NOT a rate that's actually increasing -- so, that phrasing is wrong here because it's inaccurate, not because it's "redundant".

__

__by the way, your signature says you already have a 740 on the GMAT and you're still studying for a re-take. you almost certainly shouldn't do that; even if your were to get a higher score on a subsequent administration, the top schools would still most likely judge you negatively, for having misaligned priorities.
you may want to post a question in our "ask an admissions consultant" thread for more on that.