Sentence Correction

Question Source: BTG Practice Question

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

a. on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
b. to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
c. which the agreement on was general, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
d. on which there was general agreement, that the Japanese could not receive any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and
e. and there was general agreement to it, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and

My question Is "that...., that...., but that...." construction is right or we need to have "that....,that...., and that..."?

Here but is necessary because the idea conveyed by the last clause - that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible. is in opposition to the idea conveyed by that we could not concentrate on a civilian area.

In simpler words, notice the two sentences -
1. We could not concentrate on civilian areas but we should create a huge psychological impression on the inhabitants.
2. We could not concentrate on civilian areas and we should create a huge psychological impression on the inhabitants.

Notice how statement 2 does not convey the disparity in ideas between the coordinating conjunction. Statement 1 does this well.

D and E have other errors as well (Passive to active switch in the three parallel clauses with that)

By the way, A looks the best answer. Whats the OA?

Yes, OA is A.

Isn't the sentence incorrect?
Whom does 'we' refer to?

The reason "that...., that...., but that...." is preferred "that....,that...., and that..." is that the former portrays contrast. What is the contrast that the author is trying to portray in this sentence? Paraphrased: "The lack of warning, not concentrating in civilian areas BUT we want to make a profound impression on the Japanese population." If we simply use that...that...and...that there will be a logical error because AND is not the proper conjunction that should b used to show contrast.

logically A might be correct but grammatically it is wrong. What "we" refers to ? Can we write a GMAt sentence like this ?

expert please.

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

a. on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
b. to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
c. which the agreement on was general, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
d. on which there was general agreement, that the Japanese could not receive any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and
e. and there was general agreement to it, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and

Ok lets do this : Eliminate the probable wrong options. Well in this case POE as well as direct choice both can work.

A) "On which" correctly refers to the conclusion on which agreement was on!. So ON is right in terms of prepositional meaning. I shall not be quite an expert in grammar terminology but will try to be as simple as I can.

Agreement was on Something(conclusion) ....and agreement To something is a slightly awkward phrase here because Agreement TO is always SOME ACTION(Verb). not SOMETHING (Noun)


Now the structure ."that we could not give the Japanese any warning"
That refers to agreement clearly so its fine
We could not -----> noun - verb -noun-verb..in all three parallel parts

B) To which - ----> Nay !! Cant be coz agreement is on something(Noun) not to someone action(Verb) - Eliminate ..no need to further check.


C) agreement was on General???? ----> i guess that's something which author doesnt mean to say. He rather wishes to say that there was a general agreement on the conclusion. Also it's construction is quite passive.
Can be eliminated.

D)On which .....correct ...that (pronoun or can be said noun) the Japanese (Noun) could (Verb)not receive any warning(Noun), that(PNoun) civilian areas(Noun) could not be(Verb) concentrated(Verb) on, and that(Noun) we should (Verb)seek to make a profound psychological impression(Noun) on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

There the structure of Noun -verb -noun verb fails ....in the non underlined part.

Also there has to be a contrast so instead of AND there should be BUT.

D eliminated

E: IT reference here is not ambiguous but the this phrase doesnt act like a modifier looks like 2 clauses joined by AND conjunction but the part after AND is having an error with usage of AGREEMENT.
it should be AGREEMENT ON not AGREEMENT TO IT..

And last but not least AND again is misused to depict the contrast. BUT is the word to depict contrast. So it can be eliminated.

Hence only A remains.

@ GMATMadeEasy,
Grammatically incorrect sentences would never be the right answer on GMAT.Anyways,WE refer to the group of people.The secretary of war,can't say "I could not give the Japanese any warning, that I could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that I should"..So,wE correctly placed here..

what about "there"?

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

i thought that this answer will be incorrect because of the use of "there", since it is not refering to a place.

i would appreciate it if anybody could clarify on this issue

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

a. on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
b. to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
c. which the agreement on was general, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
d. on which there was general agreement, that the Japanese could not receive any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and
e. and there was general agreement to it, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and

I have a question for you, experts:

the rules say that we can use either "agree with a person" or "agree upon/to something". That said I think that the correct answer should be

B)to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but

If the rule is true, we couldn't say " there was general agreement on a conclusion", but "to a conclusion".

What do you think?

A is better here

option A is the correct choice. All other choices are wrong including D which is not parallel in the three sub clauses.

this sentence sounds so awkward...

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

a. on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
b. to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
c. which the agreement on was general, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
d. on which there was general agreement, that the Japanese could not receive any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and
e. and there was general agreement to it, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and

IMO: A

Nice explanation

vatsalroxy wrote:

The secretary of war expressed the conclusion, on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

a. on which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
b. to which there was general agreement, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
c. which the agreement on was general, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that we could not concentrate on a civilian area, but
d. on which there was general agreement, that the Japanese could not receive any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and
e. and there was general agreement to it, that we could not give the Japanese any warning, that civilian areas could not be concentrated on, and

Ok lets do this : Eliminate the probable wrong options. Well in this case POE as well as direct choice both can work.

A) "On which" correctly refers to the conclusion on which agreement was on!. So ON is right in terms of prepositional meaning. I shall not be quite an expert in grammar terminology but will try to be as simple as I can.

Agreement was on Something(conclusion) ....and agreement To something is a slightly awkward phrase here because Agreement TO is always SOME ACTION(Verb). not SOMETHING (Noun)


Now the structure ."that we could not give the Japanese any warning"
That refers to agreement clearly so its fine
We could not -----> noun - verb -noun-verb..in all three parallel parts

B) To which - ----> Nay !! Cant be coz agreement is on something(Noun) not to someone action(Verb) - Eliminate ..no need to further check.


C) agreement was on General???? ----> i guess that's something which author doesnt mean to say. He rather wishes to say that there was a general agreement on the conclusion. Also it's construction is quite passive.
Can be eliminated.

D)On which .....correct ...that (pronoun or can be said noun) the Japanese (Noun) could (Verb)not receive any warning(Noun), that(PNoun) civilian areas(Noun) could not be(Verb) concentrated(Verb) on, and that(Noun) we should (Verb)seek to make a profound psychological impression(Noun) on as many of the inhabitants as possible.

There the structure of Noun -verb -noun verb fails ....in the non underlined part.

Also there has to be a contrast so instead of AND there should be BUT.

D eliminated

E: IT reference here is not ambiguous but the this phrase doesnt act like a modifier looks like 2 clauses joined by AND conjunction but the part after AND is having an error with usage of AGREEMENT.
it should be AGREEMENT ON not AGREEMENT TO IT..

And last but not least AND again is misused to depict the contrast. BUT is the word to depict contrast. So it can be eliminated.

Hence only A remains.