The Commerce Department Reported that the Nation's Economy Grew at a Brisk Annual Pace of 3.7 Percent in the Second Quarter

Question: The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economy grew at a brisk annual pace of 3.7 percent in the second quarter, but that while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply. 

1. Unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply
2. Unsold good were piling up on store shelves as consumer spending slowed sharply
3. Unsold goods had piled up on store shelves with a sharp slowing of consumer spending 
4. Consumer spending was slowing sharply, with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves
5. Consumer spending has slowed sharply, with unsold goods piling up on store shelves

“The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economy grew at a brisk annual pace of 3.7 percent in the second quarter, but that while businesses were expanding their production, unsold goods piled up on store shelves as consumer spending is slowed sharply.”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Parallelism, Comparison of two elements and Modifiers. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: B
Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Meaning
2. Tenses

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase “consumer spending is slowed sharply”. The passive construction of this phrase implies that some other entity is the reason behind the sharp slowing in consumer spending, which is incorrect. The intended meaning is that the spending slowed on its own. Also, it incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb “piled” to refer to some action that has happened over a period of time in the past. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Correct
This option is correct because it uses the phrase “as consumer spending slowed sharply”, which conveys the intended meaning. Also, this option correctly uses the simple past continuous tense verb “were piling” to refer to some event that took place over a period of time in the past. So, Option B is correct.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it twists the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase with a sharp slowing of consumer spending”, it implies that the unsold goods on the store shelves alongside a sharp slowing of consumer spending, which is illogical and does not make sense. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase “ with the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves”. It implies that consumer spending slowed sharply because of the piling up of unsold goods on store shelves, which is totally illogical. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the given sentence by using the phrase “with unsold goods piling up on store shelves”. It illogically implies that consumer spending slowed because of the unsold goods piling up on store shelves. Also, it uses the present perfect tense verb “has slowed” to refer to an action that has already been concluded in the past. So, Option E is incorrect.

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