Stock levels for domestic crude oil are far lower

[vietst]

Stock levels for domestic crude oil are far lower than in past years, leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supplies being disrupted in the Middle East or to any unexpected consumer demand growth possibly prompted by colder-than-normal temperatures.
A. leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supplies being disrupted in the Middle East or to any unexpected consumer demand growth possibly
B. leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supply disruptions in the Middle East or any unexpected growth in consumer demand that might be
C. leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supplies that are disrupted in the Middle East or to any unexpected growth in consumer demand as was possibly
D. resulting in the fact that domestic oil prices are vulnerable to any hints of oil supplies being disrupted in the Middle East or to any unexpected consumer demand growth possibly
E. resulting in the fact of domestic oil prices that are vulnerable to any hints of oil supply disruptions in the Middle East or to any unexpected growth in consumer demand that might be
OA is B.
What is wrong with A?
Thanks

[StaceyKoprince]

As a general rule, be very skeptical of a choice which includes the word "being." If you have two choices, both of which seem grammatically correct, and one uses "being" and one doesn't, cross off the one that uses "being."

"Being" can be used correctly, but it almost never is on the GMAT.

[eyunni]

Stacey, Can you please explain the general rule for 'being' mentioned above, with respect to this link in which 'being' is correctly used?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post7481.html

I don't have this one particular GMATPrep question right now, but there is one SC where there were 4 answer choices with 'being' and one choice without the use of 'being'. I blindly chose that one option without even reading the other 4. You have guessed it right!! That was a trick by GMATPrep and I was wrong.

[RonPurewal]

Stacey, Can you please explain the general rule for 'being' mentioned above, with respect to this link in which 'being' is correctly used?

http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post7481.html

not sure quite what you're querying here.

the discussion in that post summarizes the situation nicely: the passive voice is just about the only context in which 'being' can be used with impunity. about what else are you asking?

[hmgmat]

I just wonder whether "promoted" modifies the growth.

I thought that it made more sense to have "something promotes X's growth" than "something promotes X's demand". If it is the case, does it mean that "promoted" in B modifies "any unexpected growth"?

Thanks in advance.

[RonPurewal]

I just wonder whether "promoted" modifies the growth.

yes.

by the way, it's "prompted", but your analysis still stands.

for an official problem in which "that" is used to refer to a pronoun that's similarly far away, see #50 in the DIAGNOSTIC section (not the normal sentence correction section) of either og11 or og12 (the diagnostic sections are the same).

[hmgmat]

Thanks Ron!

[JonathanSchneider]

: )

[tankobe]

B. leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supply disruptions in the Middle East or any unexpected growth in consumer demand that might be

Why change the possibly into might be? is there any differenct?
since might be might be redundant.

[nuggins16]

Hi Stacey,Ron

I would have normally gone in for the option B . But isn't there a to missing. Shouldn't it be vulnerable to x or to y.

[RonPurewal]

B. leaving domestic oil prices vulnerable to any hints of oil supply disruptions in the Middle East or any unexpected growth in consumer demand that might be

Why change the possibly into might be? is there any differenct?
since might be might be redundant.

nope, not redundant.

"might be" and "possibly" have largely similar meanings, so they can be interchanged with each other. (you can actually take this problem as proof of this fact, since the correct answer takes out "possibly" and replaces it with "might...".)

the sentence would only be redundant if it contained BOTH of these (i.e., if it contained both "possibly" AND "might").

[RonPurewal]

I would have normally gone in for the option B . But isn't there a to missing. Shouldn't it be vulnerable to x or to y.

first of all, you're asking the wrong question -- you're asking "isn't the official answer wrong?"
as always, the answer is "no, the official answer is not wrong."

the correct way to ask this question is "WHY IS THIS OK?"
that may not seem like too much of a different question at first, but it totally is: it betrays a completely different attitude toward the problem. namely, if you ask this different version of your question, that you understand that it's pointless to question the official problems -- and you understand that the official problems are a fertile source of understanding things that you have not yet learned.

for a thorough synopsis of why the parallelism in this choice is just fine, check out the following post:
post25465.html#p25465

that post deals with the same sort of construction -- just replace the discussion of "in" with the current discussion of "to". the principles are the same.

[poonamchiK]

Hi there Stacey / Ron,
I took a C. Not sure why B is better than C. Could u pls help explain the subtle difference?

Thx a ton in advance.

P

[tim]

the prices are not vulnerable to hints of supplies; they are vulnerable to hints of disruptions. and the end of answer choice C is problematic as well. when you are deciding between two answer choices, you should focus on their differences, and this will help you identify what's wrong with one choice once you know what the correct answer is..

[trang.kieu.phung]

Are choice D and choice E incorrect because the usage of "resulting in the fact that/of blah blah blah" is considered redundant?

By the way, "due to the fact that blah blah" is always wrong on the GMAT, isn't it?

Thanks in advance!