Women are expected to be the majority

[vik]

Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing more women in leadership position in politics and business.
A Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
B The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place
C The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
D It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
E It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place

Please explain

This is GMAT prep question

Now Why B is correct. My question is "the majority " in B is singular or plural

Also in A " A trend ... placing" is wrong beacuse it is expected so it should have "will" as mentioned in B

[RonPurewal]

well, b is the correct answer, so there you have it: 'majority' is considered plural, at least when it refers to the majority of countable items/entities (like women).

notice that this isn't an issue in this particular problem (there are no choices using 'majority' in the singular), but take note (for future problems) that the plural is acceptable usage here.

by the way, make sure you copy problems correctly (you've rewritten several plural nouns as singular, without the -s on the end).

[Vik]

One more question :- Is in A " trend ... placing " is wrong why?

[Saurabh Malpani]

Hi

Can anyone of you please disect the problem and explain why is B prefered over A & C.

Saurabh malpani

[Saurabh Malpani]

Hi

Can anyone of you please disect the problem and explain why is B prefered over A & C.

Saurabh malpani

[vanD]

Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing more women in leadership position in politics and business.
A Women are expected to be the majority of student entering law school this fall, a trend ultimately placing
B The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, a trend that will ultimately place<<CORRECT
C The majority of students entering law school this fall are expected to be women, which will ultimately place
D It is expected that the majority of students entering law school this fall will be women, a trend ultimately placing
E It is expected for the women to be the majority of students entering law school this fall, which will ultimately place

[RonPurewal]

Hi

Can anyone of you please disect the problem and explain why is B prefered over A & C.

Saurabh malpani

well, b is preferred because it isn't wrong. :)

a is wrong because of the participle 'placing', which wrongly indicates that this trend is already placing more women in leadership positions.
c is wrong because the relative pronoun 'which' is placed in a position where it must refer to 'women'. this is wrong for 2 different reasons: (a) 'which' can't refer to people, and (b) according to the sentence, women don't place themselves in leadership positions; the trend does.

[Guest]

what are wrong with D and E?
Thanks

[RonPurewal]

choice d has the same problem as choice a (the participle 'placing' is used in the same incorrect manner).

the error in choice e is very similar to that in choice c: the pronoun 'which' is used incorrectly again. the noun closest to this relative pronoun - 'this fall' - makes no sense in context.

[Sputnik]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the explanation.
Could you please explain why B is not a run on sentence or a comma splice.

I thought its joining 2 independent clauses with just a comma.

Thanks
Sputnik

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the explanation.
Could you please explain why B is not a run on sentence or a comma splice.

I thought its joining 2 independent clauses with just a comma.

Thanks
Sputnik

nope, the second part is not an independent clause. try reading it by itself; it's not a sentence (a trend THAT will ultimately...)

this second part is an example of an appositive noun modifier, a type of modifier that NEVER appears in spoken language but that appears on the gmat a lot. the reason is that, unlike relative pronouns such as 'which', these modifiers don't have to touch their referent.
for instance:
the general tried to get his troops to retreat before being surrounded, a strategy that ultimately failed.

same idea here.
lots of students don't like this structure at all when they first see it, but you have to get used to it - it's commonplace on the exam.

[vivekwrites]

Ron, in the following post you say that appositive must modify the noun that comes IMMEDIATELY before the comma.

the-number-of-people-flying-first-t5600.html

Can you please explain, in which cases appositive can modify nouns appearing anywhere in the sentence.

[RonPurewal]

Ron, in the following post you say that appositive must modify the noun that comes IMMEDIATELY before the comma.

the-number-of-people-flying-first-t5600.html

Can you please explain, in which cases appositive can modify nouns appearing anywhere in the sentence.

good point.

if you have an appositive modifier that's an abstract noun - such as "strategy", "figure", "statistic", "findings", "situation", "change", "difference", etc. - then such an appositive may be allowed to describe the entire situation described in the previous clause.

for instance, the example i gave above with "a strategy..."

also, for further examples, see #59 and #79 in the purple verbal supplement OG book.
in #79 this modifier is part of the underline and is useful in choosing the correct answer. in #59 it's not part of the underline, so you don't have to use it, but you're exposed to it so that you can use it later.

hmm.

[vishalsahdev03]

While attempting the question I got stuck between B and D and had no knowledge to move ahead, I could figure out the "placing" and "place" is one of the differences but did not know what to mark or whats the difference between them and which one is correct!!

I have seen this happening in some other similar cases as well.

Please recommend some steps to improve this weakness, it is effecting my score by miles !!

Thanks in advance !

[vishalsahdev03]

choice d has the same problem as choice a (the participle 'placing' is used in the same incorrect manner).

the error in choice e is very similar to that in choice c: the pronoun 'which' is used incorrectly again. the noun closest to this relative pronoun - 'this fall' - makes no sense in context.

I could not find action doer if B so B seemed passive; we do not know who is expecting .

Also, in D "placing" seems better it seems to be a continuous process and also the give statement has the same verb form, which is not incorrect, why should we choose to change it !!

Please explain !
Thanks !