The computer company reported strong second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and announced the first in a series of price cuts intended to increase sales further.
Meaning Analysis
- The computer company
- reported strong second-quarter earnings
- that surpassed Wall Street’s estimates and
The sentence begins by telling us that a certain computer company declared that its revenue for a particular business period was very good; it was more than what it had been predicted by Wall Street. Reading further:
- announced the first in a series of price cuts
- intended to increase sales further.
This part of the sentence presents another action done by the computer company. Along with reporting a strong revenue, the company declared a number of cuts in the prices of its products with the intention to boost the sales even more.
To sum up, the sentence talks about two announcements made by a certain computer company. The announcements are regarding the following:
- experiencing a solid revenue for a particular business period – more than certain estimates
- introducing a number of cuts in the prices of its products to increase its sales even further.
Error Analysis
This sentence clearly conveys the intended meaning of the author and doesn’t contain any grammatical errors. All the SV pairs are accounted for. The two actions done by the company have been written in perfect parallel structure. The modifier intended clearly modifies the correct entity. Therefore, this choice is correct as is.
POE
Choice A
Correct
This choice is correct as stated in the error analysis.
Choice B
Incorrect
1. Modifier Error
The comma + verb-ing modifier surpassing… doesn’t make sense with the subject of the previous clause The report.
From the intended meaning, it is clear that it is not the report that surpassed the estimates but the earnings.
2. Pronoun Error
This choice incorrectly uses the plural pronoun they to refer to the singular noun entity the computer company.
Choice C
Incorrect
1. Modifier Error
The opening verb-ing modifier surpassing… illogically modifies the subject of the following main clause the report.
2. Pronoun Error
This choice repeats the pronoun error of Choice C.
Choice D
Incorrect
Modifier Errors
- The use of comma + verb-ing modifier surpassing is incorrect since it doesn’t make sense with the subject of the previous clause The computer company. From the meaning analysis it is clear that it is the earnings that surpassed the estimates and not the report itself.
- Use of comma + verb-ing modifier announcing… is incorrect because this choice enforces the cause-and-effect relationship between reporting the strong earnings and announcing the price cuts. Per the original sentence, these two are independent actions by the computer company. Hence, this forced cause-and-effect relationship changes the meaning of the sentence.
Choice E
Incorrect
Modifier Error
The verb-ing modifier surpassing… modifies the preceding noun entity the computer company. This modification is illogical because per the original sentence, the earnings surpassed the estimates, not the company.
