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taxpayers confronted

by vishalwin » Mon Oct 05, 2015 9:50 pm
Never before had taxpayers confronted so many changes at once as they had in the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

(A) so many changes at once as they had in
(B) at once as many changes as
(C) at once as many changes that there were with
(D) as many changes at once as they confronted in
(E) so many changes at once that confronted them in



How to choose between D (AS MANY AS) and E (SO THAT) in the above question?
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by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:33 am
SO MANY ______ THAT _______ is a construction that you may have seen in grammar guides, and can be perfectly grammatically correct. It's used to show cause and effect structure. For example:

There were SO MANY people at the party THAT I had to leave.

This is another way of saying "BECAUSE there were so many people at the party, I had to leave."

In this sentence, there is no cause-and-effect relationship. The taxpayers confronted many changes, but that didn't cause anything else to happen. If we reword option E the way I did above, it would read "BECAUSE taxpayers confronted so many changes at once... confronted them." That makes no sense! Because there is no cause-effect relationship, the SO MANY / THAT construction doesn't work.

What we want to say in this sentence is that taxpayers confronted more changes than ever before. "Never before had they confronted AS MANY AS..." is the correct construction to express this.
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:09 am
vishalwin wrote:How to choose between D (AS MANY AS) and E (SO THAT) in the above question?
E: taxpayers confronted...changes...that confronted them
This sentence is redundant.
Eliminate E.
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by aflaam » Mon Jan 18, 2016 3:08 am
hello Mitch,
What is the problem with C?
I have seen "there", when used in situations similar to one under discussion, is usually incorrect.
is there any way to be sure rather than going by gut feeling?
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Jan 19, 2016 7:21 am
aflaam wrote:hello Mitch,
What is the problem with C?
C: taxpayers confronted...as many changes that
Here, the usage of that is unidiomatic.
Correct idiom:
as many X as Y.
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by vishalwin » Tue Jan 19, 2016 11:30 pm
GMATGuruNY wrote:
vishalwin wrote:How to choose between D (AS MANY AS) and E (SO THAT) in the above question?
E: taxpayers confronted...changes...that confronted them
This sentence is redundant.
Eliminate E.

Hi Mitch,


E: taxpayers confronted...changes...that confronted them

Why is above redundant?
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Jan 20, 2016 7:19 am
E: taxpayers confronted...changes...that confronted them

Why is above redundant?
One could write, "The taxpayers confronted many changes." Or one could write, "Many changes confronted them [the taxpayers.]" Both convey the same basic idea. But we wouldn't want to write, "The taxpayers confronted many changes that confronted them," as we're then unnecessarily (and clumsily) communicating the same notion twice in one sentence.
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