SC question from Sentence Correction Guide

[jayant.apte]

Hi,

I spotted this question in the Manhattan Sentence Correction Guide.

Unlike its competitors, Globex and Mondecorp, the revenues of Galactic Enterprises increased by cornering the widget market in the fourth quarter, thus making Galactic Enterprises the world’s most profitable company and a darling of Wall Street.

1) same
2) Globex and Mondecorp, its competitors, the revenues of Galactic Enterprises increased by cornering the widget market in the fourth quarter, thus making
3) its competitiors, Globex and Mondecorp, Galactic Enterprises increased its revenues by cornering the widget market in the fourth quarter , by making
4) Globex and Mondecorp, its competitors, Galactic Enterprises increased its revenues by cornering the widget market in the fourth quarter , thus making
5) its competitiors, Globex and Mondecorp , the revenues of Galactic Enterprises cornered the widget market in the fourth quarter , thus makinging

I think it is D but that is purely because I feel the comparison is being made between the companies and not the revenue and the company (as suggested by B and E).

But D also seems to change the reference of 'its competitors' from Globex and MondoCorp to Galactic Enterprises.

Any idea what the answer is and please also provide an explaination.

Thanks.

[monicayeung]

Good explanation of answer here:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/manhattan-sc ... t9045.html

[RonPurewal]

But D also seems to change the reference of 'its competitors' from Globex and MondoCorp to Galactic Enterprises.

nope, impossible. globex and mondocorp are clearly still the competitors, and "its" still clearly refers to galactic.

the reason why there are no problems here is the clear demarcation between SINGULAR and PLURAL.
* "competitors" is plural, and so is precluded from referring to the singular galactic enterprises (note that this is the name of one company, and so is singular.)
* "its" is singular, and so must refer to galactic enterprises (you CANNOT use a pronoun to refer to one-half of "X and Y").

therefore, no ambiguity.

hope that helps