A recent court decision has qualified a 1998 ruling_OG

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conquistador: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 266; Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 4 times

by conquistador » Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:14 am

A recent court decision has qualified a 1998 ruling that workers cannot be laid off if they have been given reason to believe that their jobs will be safe, provided that their performance remains satisfactory.

(A) if they have been given reason to believe that their jobs will
(B) if they are given reason for believing that their jobs would still
(C) having been given reason for believing that their jobs would
(D) having been given reason to believe their jobs to
(E) given reason to believe that their jobs will still

can someone explain why B is wrong.
Is it correct to use present perfect tense for "given reason"?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:14 am

VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Wed Oct 28, 2015 5:40 pm

Hi,

The verb "are given" is confusing in terms of Meaning.

Sentence: A decision HAS QUALIFIED a 1998 ruling that workers...if they HAVE BEEN GIVEN reason to believe that their jobs WILL be safe...

The workers want reason to believe their jobs WILL be safe. It's a guarantee. Why would they want reason to believe their jobs WOULD be safe? Also, since we have the work "if" preceding it, we already know this is a hypothetical, so the word "would" is redundant.

Also, notice the choice between the participle "believing" and the infinitive "to believe." When there's a 2nd verb following on the heels of a 1st verb, the GMAT almost always prefers the infinitive form over the participle form.

The answer has to be A.

Vivian Kerr
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MartyMurray: Legendary Member; Posts: 2135; Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:26 amFollowed by: 140 members; Location: https://martymurraycoaching.com/; Thanked: 955 times; GMAT Score:800

by MartyMurray » Sun Nov 01, 2015 7:32 pm

The sentence created using B does not make sense.

The court decision says that workers cannot be laid off if something. What is that something?

The sentence created using B basically seems to convey that that something is that they are given reason to believe that their jobs are safe. So let's get this straight. They can't be laid off if AT THE SAME TIME they are given reason to believe that their jobs are safe? That's what the present tense are given conveys, and that does not make sense.

Additionally, B does not make sense because the conditional would is used, but no condition for what would happen is mentioned. In other words, their jobs would still be safe if what? The answer to that question is not provided. If anything the sentence created using B seems to nonsensically convey that the workers cannot be laid off if they are given reason to believe that their jobs would still be safe even though they are being laid off.

What does make sense is, as the sentence created A conveys, that they cannot be laid off if ON AN ONGOING BASIS they have been given reason to believe that their jobs will be safe.

The present participle have been given makes sense, in that what is being conveyed is that on an ongoing basis the workers have been given reason to believe that their jobs will be safe.

So A is the best answer.

Marty Murray
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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Nov 03, 2015 7:29 pm

Additionally, the correct idiomatic expression is "reason to believe" rather than "reason for believing."

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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