SC : Despite the growing number

[jp.jprasanna]

Dear Instructors, Could you please let me know why C and D are wrong?

D. fact that the number of people purchasing plane tickets online is growing, airline executives are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers as compared to automatic teller machines, that many travelers would
E. fact that the number of people who purchase plane tickets online are growing, airline executives are convinced that, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers compared with automatic teller machines, many travelers would

1. Is it because of Despite the fact that!?
2. Is it because of is/are growing not parallel to are convinced?

In these kind of scenarios when should i check for verb parallelism? I have seen few problems here in these forums, where few ans choices were eliminated because of verbs not being parallel....
Please help me eliminate C and D!

On a Side note is it - the number of people who purchase plane tickets online are growing or is growing? Just for future reference...! (just goggled - it's the number of blah blah SINGULAR so is growing is correct! )

[jp.jprasanna]

Few Basic doubts here...

1 . I have lived in the US for 3 years - Means he/she could still be living in the US ?

2 Fossils each has dated back atleast 1000 yrs - suggest that they no longer date back?

3. airline executives are convinced that many passenger would still use travel agents? - suggest that they are still convinced?

For the problem under discussion the I thought ARE CONVINCED implies some time in the past hence chose would over will from the ans choice!

For example : The CEO announced that the company would hire more employees!

VERY JADED! Please help.

Cheers
JP

[RonPurewal]

Few Basic doubts here...

1 . I have lived in the US for 3 years - Means he/she could still be living in the US ?

could, depending on context. (it could also mean that i've lived there for a total of 3 years over various smaller periods, but don't live there anymore.)

2 Fossils each has dated back atleast 1000 yrs - suggest that they no longer date back?

"has dated" isn't ever going to work, because the age of an object is a timeless fact. timeless facts are expressed in the present tense. (for the same reason, "a circle has been round" can't be correct, either.)

3. airline executives are convinced that many passenger would still use travel agents? - suggest that they are still convinced?

"are convinced" is present tense, so, yes.

For the problem under discussion the I thought ARE CONVINCED implies some time in the past hence chose would over will from the ans choice!

no. "were convinced" or "have been convinced" imply past situations. (the first isn't true anymore; the second may or may not be, depending on context.)

VERY JADED! Please help.

"jaded"? what do you mean?

[ever79]

Ron,

Can I eliminate D by wrong modification:

The number of people purchasing plane tickets online...
"purchasing plane tickets online..." doesn't modify "people" but modifies "The number of people".
The sentence expresses the meaning of "number is purchasing plane tickets online...".

Am I correct?

Thanks in advance!

Victor Yu

[RonPurewal]

Ron,

Can I eliminate D by wrong modification:

The number of people purchasing plane tickets online...
"purchasing plane tickets online..." doesn't modify "people" but modifies "The number of people".

no, it can modify "people".

if you have a construction that modifies nouns, following NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2, then that construction can modify either NOUN1 or NOUN2. to make the distinction, you have to use the context (intended meaning) of the sentence.

[ever79]

Ron,

Can I eliminate D by wrong modification:

The number of people purchasing plane tickets online...
"purchasing plane tickets online..." doesn't modify "people" but modifies "The number of people".

no, it can modify "people".

if you have a construction that modifies nouns, following NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2, then that construction can modify either NOUN1 or NOUN2. to make the distinction, you have to use the context (intended meaning) of the sentence.

Hi, Ron,

Thanks for your reply.
After going through a few posts about modifying NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2, I'm trying to summarize a 'rule' here. Correct me if I am wrong.
In general speaking, as you said,
The context determines which noun in "NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2" is modified by noun modification.
1. you can't write "of + NOUN + VERBing" if the action of VERBing is the focus of the preposition.
2. "Which" always refers to the Noun immediately preceding it, but can modify either Noun1 or Noun2 by manipulating single/Plural of Verb form in Which clause.

[RonPurewal]

The context determines which noun in "NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2" is modified by noun modification.

yes.

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.

2. "Which" always refers to the Noun immediately preceding it, but can modify either Noun1 or Noun2 by manipulating single/Plural of Verb form in Which clause.

you've contradicted yourself here -- "the noun immediately preceding it" would be what we are calling NOUN2.
the point of this whole "NOUN1+PREP+NOUN2,which" discussion is that "which" doesn't have to modify the immediately preceding noun (NOUN2); depending on context, it can, and often does, modify NOUN1 instead.

[ever79]

The context determines which noun in "NOUN1 + PREP + NOUN2" is modified by noun modification.

yes.

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.

2. "Which" always refers to the Noun immediately preceding it, but can modify either Noun1 or Noun2 by manipulating single/Plural of Verb form in Which clause.

you've contradicted yourself here -- "the noun immediately preceding it" would be what we are calling NOUN2.
the point of this whole "NOUN1+PREP+NOUN2,which" discussion is that "which" doesn't have to modify the immediately preceding noun (NOUN2); depending on context, it can, and often does, modify NOUN1 instead.

It's clear.
Thanks Ron!

[tim]

:)

[1434236162]

Can I ask a question that "the number of" should plus a singular verb? I can remember the book (MANHATTAN) tell us about that.

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

Can I ask a question that "the number of" should plus a singular verb? I can remember the book (MANHATTAN) tell us about that.

Thanks

that's correct, but you have to pay close attention to the actual correspondence between subjects and verbs -- in other words, you must be very careful to make correct judgments about which nouns are the subject of which verbs.

in the following sentence --
the number of people who purchase plane tickets online is growing
-- the singular noun "the number" is, in fact, the subject of the singular verb "is growing".
that noun is NOT the subject of "purchase". since the modifier ... who purchase plane tickets... is attached to (and is used to describe) the plural noun "people", it follows that "people" is the subject of "purchase".

[jp.jprasanna]

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 - Could you please elaborate this part pls? Im not able to understand.

I thought the placement of "that COMMA" is insignificant because the of the modifier "just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers to automatic teller machines" if dropped both the sentence would read

airline executives are
convinced that many travelers will still use travel agents.

Please help

Cheers

[klvsajay]

could some help explain why option D is incorrect?

Also: "Despite the growing number of people who..." this seems to lack a noun. wouldn't "Despite the growth..." make more sense?

[agarwalmanoj2000]

could some help explain why option D is incorrect?

Also: "Despite the growing number of people who..." this seems to lack a noun. wouldn't "Despite the growth..." make more sense?

Errors in option D -
1) Wordy, we can simply get rid of words "facts that".
2) "Would" is past tense, so will should be used.
3) "Compared to" is redundant. "Prefer human tellers with automatic teller machines" is sufficient.

HTH

[davetzulin]

Despite the growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online, airline executives are convinced that, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers to automatic teller machine, many travelers will still use travel agents

A) growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online, airline executives are convinced that, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers to automatic teller machine, many travelers will

B) growing number of people who purchase plane tickets online, airline executives are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers to automatic teller machines, that many travelers would

C) growing number of people purchasing plane tickets online, airline executives are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers as compared to automatic teller machines, many travelers will

D) fact that the number of people purchasing plane tickets online is growing, airline execituves are convinced, just as one-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers as compared to automatic teller machines, that many travelers would

E) fact that the number of people who purchase plane tickets online are growing, airline executives are convinced that, just as obe-third of bank customers still prefer human tellers compared with automatic teller machines, many travelers would

Source GMAT Prep
OA is A.
I picked B. Please explain ?

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.

Ron I just watched your latest video about modifiers (April 26) and I think you're saying the same thing as you said in that video -- i liked how you called the subordinating conjunction a "wall". Let me know if I'm correct. I also used that as a split initially and it killed B,C,D right away.

the "that" acts as a wall for the modifier because "that" starts another phrase with another subject/verb.

If "that" comes before the modifier, then the modifier acts on what follows "that", which is what we want.

if "that" comes after the modifier, the "1/3 of customers prefer.." could modify the beginning part of the sentence nonsensically.