SC: Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than[/u] hal

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

Can any instructor what is wrong with D?
OA is E, altough in E I thought that it is not as parallel as is D (rate...rate)

Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail, the failure rate for businesses in the Amish community hovers around 5 percent.
A. Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail
B. Unlike mainstream American businesses, in which the failure rate is more than half
C. Unlike mainstream American businesses, where more than half of them fail
D. While the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is more than half
E. While more than half of mainstream American businesses fail

[RonPurewal]

Can any instructor what is wrong with D?
OA is E, altough in E I thought that it is not as parallel as is D (rate...rate)

Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail, the failure rate for businesses in the Amish community hovers around 5 percent.
A. Unlike mainstream American businesses, more than half of which fail
B. Unlike mainstream American businesses, in which the failure rate is more than half
C. Unlike mainstream American businesses, where more than half of them fail
D. While the rate of mainstream American businesses failing is more than half
E. While more than half of mainstream American businesses fail

the major problem with (d) is the incorrect construction "of + NOUN + VERBing".
i wrote extensively about this topic here:
post18293.html#p18293

also, it's unidiomatic to say that a RATE is "half" (or "more/less than half"). you could say that a rate is 50%, but not "half".

[sairamramkumar]

Ron,

Sorry for opening the thread after 2 years. My doubt is:


You have quoted that the construction,

of+noun+ verb- ing is wrong... I have a sentence structure in mind.

The number of cars moving in the city has increased...


Is this logical??


Kindly help..



Thanks,
Sairam

[RonPurewal]

The number of cars moving in the city has increased...


Is this logical??

that construction is fine, because it's actually the number of cars. therefore, the prepositional phrase makes sense.

on the other hand, if you said something like the thought of cars moving through the city would have been unbelievable to people 150 years ago, that would be wrong -- because that construction would attempt to have the action (moving) as the object of the preposition.

[tanyatomar]

Hi Ron,
i am totally confused with option E.. i ll never be able to chose E when this comes i exam (some similar question)...

i want to know is that in E "While more than half of mainstream American businesses fail, the failure rate of british..."..
here i thought the american business is being compared with failure rate and so this is wrong...

but is it that since we are using "while" here, its actually not a comparison... it can also be treated as a normal statement.
but if we use "Unlike".. then it becomes a proper comparison based thingy..

Tanya

[RonPurewal]

but is it that since we are using "while" here, its actually not a comparison... it can also be treated as a normal statement.
but if we use "Unlike".. then it becomes a proper comparison based thingy..

Tanya

yes.

"unlike NOUN" is a modifier that has to describe/modify another noun -- thus creating a comparison between those two nouns. (you can eliminate the first 3 options very quickly by using this idea.)

"while CLAUSE" isn't a modifier -- it's an entire clause -- so it doesn't attach to any particular noun or element in the main clause. so, in that case, you are covered as long as there's some sense of contrast between the 2 clauses (as there is here).

[ravimba]

[quote="RonPurewal"][quote="sairamramkumar"]The number of cars moving in the city has increased...


Is this logical??
[/quote]

that construction is fine, because it's actually the [i]number of cars[/i]. therefore, the prepositional phrase makes sense.

on the other hand, if you said something like [i]the thought of cars moving through the city would have been unbelievable to people 150 years ago[/i], that would be wrong -- because that construction would attempt to have the action (moving) as the object of the preposition.[/quote]

Hi Ron,

I still didn't understand the difference between "The number of cars moving" and "The thought of cars moving". Please explain this with much detail.

Thank
Ravi

[RonPurewal]

I still didn't understand the difference between "The number of cars moving" and "The thought of cars moving". Please explain this with much detail.

Thank
Ravi

read here:
post26678.html#p26678

[YuweiZ819]

Hi!Ron
I agree with your explanation about"of +N+ving''.But I have a question——can we regard the 'falling' as N,which is equal to failure?So ''mainstream American businesses failing'' is integeral.It is not a construction like "of+n+ving''Is my thought wrong?
Thanks a lot:）

[RonPurewal]

Hi!Ron
I agree with your explanation about"of +N+ving''.But I have a question——can we regard the 'falling' as N,which is equal to failure?So ''mainstream American businesses failing'' is integeral.It is not a construction like "of+n+ving''Is my thought wrong?
Thanks a lot:）

nope.
that construction would have to be written as "... of american businesses' __ing".