# 21 mgmt cat

[coolvishu11]

Alpacas' fleece is worth surprisingly little compared to their market value; a top breeding specimen bringing upwards of $100,000 even if five pounds of fleece fetches only $80 to $240.

a Alpacas' fleece is worth surprisingly little compared to their market value; a top breeding specimen bringing upwards of $100,000 even if five pounds of fleece fetches

b Alpacas' fleece is worth surprisingly little in comparison with its market value; a top breeding specimen bringing upwards of $100,000 while five pounds of fleece fetches

c The fleece of the alpaca is worth surprisingly little compared to its market value, while a top breeding specimen can bring upwards of $100,000 even though five pounds of fleece fetch

d The fleece of the alpaca is worth surprisingly little compared to the animal's market value; a top breeding specimen can bring upwards of $100,000 while five pounds of fleece fetch

e The worth of the alpaca's fleece is surprisingly little compared to the animal's market value; a top breeding specimen can bring upwards of $100,000 even though five pounds of fleece fetches

The original sentence contains several errors. First, the pronoun "their" logically refers to alpacas; however, since the word alpacas' is in possessive form, it is an awkward antecedent for any pronoun (although it is technically legal to refer to a possessive noun with a possessive pronoun such as "their"). Second, the singular verb "fetches" is paired with the plural noun phrase "five pounds of fleece." Third, the use of the semicolon is improper. A semicolon can correctly be used to separate two independent clauses (subject + verb). Here, however, what follows the semicolon is not a clause since it can not stand alone as a sentence. Lastly the word "while" is preferable to "even if" or "even though" for showing contrast.

The correct answer is D.
I have two questions
1. - I think even though is better for contrast
2. how is five pounds plural.. I thought five pounds is singular
eg - five hundred pounds is a huge amount of money
five pounds of rice is more than enough

[esledge]

I have two questions
1. - I think even though is better for contrast
2. how is five pounds plural.. I thought five pounds is singular
eg - five hundred pounds is a huge amount of money
five pounds of rice is more than enough

"Even though" basically means "despite the fact that" or "in spite of." In fact, the dictionary I reference indicates that "although" and "even though" originally were emphatic forms of "though," and can still be used interchangably.
The rain leaked into the house even though the roofers covered the hole in the roof with a tarp.

"While" can mean various things: "during" (to indicate time), "although" or "even though," or something like "whereas," which is (I believe) it's meaning in (D).
The job goes faster when you whistle while you work. ( = during)
While I am very interested in the topic, I cannot attend the lecture today. (= even though)
I prefer ketchup, while my sister tends to chose mustard. (= whereas)

As you can see, "while" is multipurpose, and therefore more likely to work here. In addition, the implication that a top breeding specimen brings upwards of $100,000 despite the fact that five pounds of fleece fetches only $80 to $240 isn't quite right. While it might be surprising for the breeding specimen to cost so much, it is not so "despite" the price of fleece.

As for the fetches (singular)/fetch (plural) split; play it safe. There is reason to think that five pounds is plural: five is more than one, and pounds itself is plural. While your examples are valid, I think it is too difficult to justify a singular pick on a GMAT question split that clearly hinges on this issue. However, I do think that "Five pounds of rice for $2 is cheap" would work in real life, because we are thinking of a single transaction to purchase a single batch of rice, as if we mean "a five pound bag of rice for $2" as the subject. In your example, "five pounds of rice is more than enough" I think you really mean "the amount (i.e. five pounds)... is more than enough." Be careful! On the GMAT, the subject is the actual words written for the subject, not what you have in mind as the subject.