The second question may seem tricky because with all those modifiers, it is hard to sift out what the actual meaning of the sentence is! Try to mentally "cross off" a few modifiers to see the underlying structure of the sentence. Sales rose in August, and this had some effect on expectations about spending in the summer quarter compared to spending in the previous quarter. Although the first verb you encounter in the sentence is in the simple past tense ("rose") you cannot use a simple past tense verb to describe expectations. The August sales had an effect on expectations about July through SEPTEMBER, so during August those expectations were forward-looking--lose A and C, which are in the simple past tense.
In choice D, the word "doubling" is modifying the incorrect thing. An "-ing" word that is NOT preceded by a comma is a noun modifier (versus an "-"ing" word that does follow a comma). Here are some silly examples to illustrate:
The man chased the mouse eating my cheese. (Noun modifier--which mouse? The mouse eating my cheese.)
The man chased the mouse, eating my cheese. (Adverbial modifier--how did the man chase the mouse? While the man was eating my cheese.)
There are many issues with choice E. One big one is that the comma breaks up the first part of the sentence into the following basic structure: "retail sales rose..intensifying expectations of personal spending" (the same problem exists in choice C). What exactly are more intense "expectations of personal spending?" They could be expectations of a high level, low level, whatever-- it's unclear.
That leaves B. It's still an unwieldy sentence; personally, I think it's a little awkward to say that spending in one quarter doubled the *growth rate* of spending in the previous quarter, but unfortunately all 5 answer choices make this same comparison. B is the best of an awkward group.
JP Park | Manhattan GMAT Instructor | Los Angeles
Manhattan GMAT Discount | Manhattan GMAT Reviews