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by manihar.sidharth » Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:36 pm
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

Easy one!!
CAn somebody explain what is wrong with B
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by Mike@Magoosh » Mon Apr 23, 2012 4:30 pm
Hi, there. I'm happy to contribute to this one. :-)

This is a tricky one.

Construction #1: ask + "that" + subjunctive

(verb may be "ask", "desire", "hope", etc.)

For example,

The baseball commissioner asked that the plans for the new stadium be reviewed.

There is something unspecified about this --- in this case, we don't know exactly who will do that reviewing. Similarly, if I said:

I hoped that a federal arbitrator would mediate the conflict.

The use of this construction suggests that, while I would like to see it happen, I don't really have any say in the process.

So, if we use answer choice (B) ...

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

... what we get is a weak, mealy-mouth, milquetoast of a sentence. One pictures the poor baseball commissioner saying, "Gee, Mr. federal arbitrator, it really would be neato if you would come and resolve our little baseball dispute, if you had some time and if it weren't much trouble." The construction with the subjunctive carries all kinds of uncertainty and tentativeness.

Construction #2: ask + actor + infinitive + direct object
By contrast, this is a direct and powerful construction.

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

BAM! This sentence pains the baseball commissioner as an authority figure, a person with prerogative who has the authority to ask people to do things. There are times the tentative construction is correct, but when we talking about any authority figure issues orders from his authority, we want that reflected in direct powerful grammar. That's exactly what the infinitive construction gives us.

Does that make sense? Here's a blog I wrote about the subjunctive, that you may find helpful.
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... ive-tense/

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :)
Last edited by Mike@Magoosh on Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by GmatKiss » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:50 am
Please underline the part of the question under study before posting.
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by GmatKiss » Tue Apr 24, 2012 12:51 am
Please underline the part of the question under study before posting.
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by manihar.sidharth » Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:23 am
Mike@Magoosh wrote:Hi, there. I'm happy to contribute to this one. :-)

This is a tricky one.

Construction #1: ask + "that" + subjunctive

(verb may be "ask", "desire", "hope", etc.)

For example,

The baseball commissioner asked that the plans for the new stadium be reviewed.

There is something unspecified about this --- in this case, we don't know exactly who will do that reviewing. Similarly, if I said:

I hoped that a federal arbitrator would mediate the conflict.

The use of this construction suggests that, while I would like to see it happen, I don't really have any say in the process.

So, if we use answer choice (B) ...

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

... what we get is a weak, mealy-mouth, milquetoast of a sentence. One pictures the poor baseball commissioner saying, "Gee, Mr. federal arbitrator, it really would be neato if you would come and resolve our little baseball dispute, if you had some time and if it weren't much trouble." The construction with the subjunctive carries all kinds of uncertainty and tentativeness.

Construction #2: ask + actor + infinitive + direct object
By contrast, this is a direct and powerful construction.

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

BAM! This sentence pains the baseball commissioner as an authority figure, a person with prerogative who has the authority to ask people to do things. There are times the tentative construction is correct, but when we talking about any authority figure issues orders from his authority, we want that reflected in direct powerful grammar. That's exactly what the infinitive construction gives us.

Does that make sense? Here's a blog I wrote about the subjunctive, that you may find helpful.
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... ive-tense/

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :)
I have one question about the end part of the sentence i.e whether it should be "which (have or has) threatened".I thought that it should be have as we are talking about representatives.
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by manihar.sidharth » Tue Apr 24, 2012 5:24 am
GmatKiss wrote:Please underline the part of the question under study before posting.
I apologize for the same.Will take care in future.
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by sam2304 » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:27 am
manihar.sidharth wrote: I have one question about the end part of the sentence i.e whether it should be "which (have or has) threatened".I thought that it should be have as we are talking about representatives.
which here refers to the umpire's union - singular and 'has' should be used.
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by minhchau1986 » Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:32 am
Besides That, answer B is incorrect because " which" should immediately follow The umpire" union (singular), not follow the representatives ( plural). Totally agree answer E is more direct and powerful statement. Thanks mike
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:26 am
sam2304 wrote:
manihar.sidharth wrote: I have one question about the end part of the sentence i.e whether it should be "which (have or has) threatened".I thought that it should be have as we are talking about representatives.
which here refers to the umpire's union - singular and 'has' should be used.
I think Subjective verbs will be PLURAL
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by spartacus1412 » Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:54 pm
B. that a federal arbitrator mediate negotiations between representatives of the umpire's union,which have threatened

I could see these two issues with the sentence which makes it wrong!

"that" introduced a sub-ordinate which distorts the meaning of the sentence.
"Have" should be replaced with "has" as it points towards the unpires' union and not the umpires.
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by GmatKiss » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:08 am
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

IMO: E

Please post OA
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by veenu08 » Fri Jul 26, 2013 12:45 pm
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

Can someone please explain me in this sentence which is modifying union or representatives, and how to identify it?
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by [email protected] » Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:00 pm
Hi veenu08,

The rule with modification (whether it's a modifying "word" or a modifying "phrase") is that the modifier be placed right next to the thing that it's modifying. The comma gives us a placement point, so the word "which" modifies the word "union" and leads to the verb "has."

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