Sentence Correction

The newly elected baseball commissioner has asked that a federal arbitrator would mediate
negotiations between representatives of the umpire's union, which has threatened to go on strike,
and the lawyers representing major league franchise owners.

A. that a federal arbitrator would mediate negotiations between representatives
of the umpire's union, which has threatened

B. that a federal arbitrator mediate negotiations between representatives of the
umpire's union, which have threatened

C. of a federal arbitrator that he mediate negotiations between representatives
of the umpire's union, which have threatened

D. a federal arbitrator that he mediate negotiations between representatives
of the umpire's union, which has threatened

E. a federal arbitrator to mediate negotiations between representatives
of the umpire's union, which has threatened


OA: E

Why is option D wrong ?

IMO E. In D the pronoun "he" is ambiguous.

sg1978 wrote:IMO E. In D the pronoun "he" is ambiguous.

I am sorry but I dont agree that HE here is ambiguous . HE definitely refers to "federal arbitrator".

Here is my explanation for the question .


The question here is checking for command subjunctive .

ASK - here is the command subjunctive .

as per rule in command subjunctive VERB needs to be followed by THAT OR TO .


Some of the command subjunctives take both THAT and TO and ASK is one of them .

Also a point to note is words like WOULD and SHOULD are not allowed when using command subjunctive .

This eliminates A .

C is eliminated because ASKED need to be followed either by THAT OR TO .

B is eliminated since it uses HAVE (plural verb ) for singular subject umpire's union .

D . violates the subjunctive by putting the OBJECT in between ASKED and THAT .

E. Is correct and follows the subjunctive rule by using TO and not THAT .

The Infinitive is more flexible and the OBJECT can be put in between the VERB and TO (infinitive).


Ex : The verb REQUIRE .

EX : We REQUIRE THAT he be here .

We REQUIRE HIM TO be here .

Hi rockeyb, your explanation makes sense. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for the explanation rockey.

When doing this problem I chose B over E. I made this decision based on the second last word in the choices. It was the "representatives" of the union who threatened, a not the union itself. So shouldn't it be "have threatened" instead of "has threatened", making B the correct answer? Kaplan's says that B and E would work either way except for the "has" and "have" at the end. Could someone explain to my why E is the right choice here?

Thanks

Which will refer to the subject of the previous clause

union is the subject here hence has

When doing this problem I chose B over E. I made this decision based on the second last word in the choices. It was the "representatives" of the union who threatened, a not the union itself. So shouldn't it be "have threatened" instead of "has threatened", making B the correct answer? Kaplan's says that B and E would work either way except for the "has" and "have" at the end. Could someone explain to my why E is the right choice here?

I have the same problem guys. could anyone explain why Representatives of the union is not plural? Actually, the representatives go on strike not the union itself.

Anything that comes after the comma, is modified by what comes before.

Here it is the union and its singular so 'has'