GMAT Question of the Day – 15/6/2021

(A) The rising of costs

(B) Rising costs

(C) The rising cost (THIS IS CORRECT!)

(D) Because the rising cost

(E) Because of rising costs

ANSWER EXPLANATION

The phrase “rising of costs” is wordy and makes “rising” a verb in gerund (i.e., -ing) form, which the GMAT tries to avoid.

(B) and (C) remove the preposition “of,” which turns “rising” into an adjective that describes the costs. (D) and (E) do the same but add the word “Because” at the beginning.

Because there’s a wordiness issue, (A) is incorrect. Adding the word “Because” at the beginning creates a dependent clause (i.e., a sentence that cannot stand by itself). Without a comma to transition to an independent clause, there would just be a sentence fragment. Thus, (D) and (E) can be eliminated.

(B) and (C) are both acceptably concise, but (B) uses a plural subject (“costs”) while (C) uses a singular subject (“cost”). The non-underlined verb in the sentence is “means.” That needs to be paired with a singular subject (the cost … means) rather than a plural subject (costs … means). That eliminates (B), making (C) the correct answer.

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