pnk wrote:

kvcpk wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

granted...does it require 'allow'!! I think usage of 'allowing' is redundant as granted communicates the same. Not convinced with OA. IMO B - can some expert help pls

Hi kvcpk,

This is an important structure that comes up often in the SC. Once function a word ending in --ing serves is to describe an entire preceding clause. (This kind of --ing is the present participle.)

Take a look at the following example:

Forty-four species of flowering plants became extinct this year, leaving the the diversity of the Earth's fauna in a dangerous state.


The word "leaving" is actually a descriptive word about the entire scenario depicted up until the comma.

The same structure appears in the problem above (although a comma MUST appear):

The city council granted the school board autonomy, allowing it to make spending decisions.

The entire scenario-- of the council granting autonomy to the school board-- is described as "allowing..."

Best,
Sarai

(Intensive 21-hour Live Online Verbal-Only Course starting soon!)[/i]

can someone explain option B and C and why they are wrong?

Both meaning and proximity indicate that it refers to the school board.

The council granted the school board autonomy. What kind of autonomy? Autonomy allowing the entity granted the autonomy to make spending decisions without council approval.

Logic dictates that the council would not grant itself autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without its own approval.

Meanwhile, it is closest to the school board, and the autonomy was granted to the school board. So it makes sense that the autonomy would allow the school board, rather than the council, to do something.

I didnt completely understand the logic here. How is the use of "for" incorrect in options B & C?

"autonomy for it to " seems fairly correct to me

I didnt completely understand the logic here. How is the use of "for" incorrect in options B & C?

"autonomy for it to " seems fairly correct to me

Hey Marty,

you didn't explain why B and C are wrong or possibly I didn't get what is the grammatical problem in B & C.

Moreover, can you please explain the usage of "FOR" in B and C.