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OA issue

by satishchandra » Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:05 am
The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

(A) it will try
(B) that it tried
(C) it had tried
(D) it would have tried
(E) that it would try

[spoiler]OA: D;
IMO: E [/spoiler]

However, E is not too convincing either.
Placement of 'that' should be before "despite the recent.... " What do you think?
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by patanjali.purpose » Fri Dec 23, 2011 1:05 pm
The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

(A) it will try
(B) that it tried
(C) it had tried
(D) it would have tried
(E) that it would try
Sentence talks about a future action by commissioner. Note this future is not with respect to present but from the time when commissioner made the statement. And the commissioner made the statement in past and therefore the future action (indicated by WILL TRY) is with respect to PAST. Therefore we would require WOULD. We can drop A/B/C.

Another way to drop A/B/C is the usage of THAT - commissioner making two statements and therefore we need THAT before IT to clearly show that the 2nd clause is a statement of commissioner.

THAT could come before or after "despite the recent illnesses" - DOES NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

IMO and THAT, despite the recent illnesses, IT ... or and, despite the recent illnesses, THAT IT.. - both is perfect.

IMO 'would have' indicated hypothetical construction contrary to known facts - NOT the intended meaning of the original sentence. Therefore D may not be correct

IMO E
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by satishchandra » Sat Dec 24, 2011 12:45 am
patanjali.purpose wrote: THAT could come before or after "despite the recent illnesses" - DOES NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

IMO and THAT, despite the recent illnesses, IT ... or and, despite the recent illnesses, THAT IT.. - both is perfect.
Why does not placement of 'that' make difference? Can you throw more light?


1)Commissioner said (that X) and (that, despite Y, Z)
2)Commissioner said (that X) and, despite Y (that Z)

I don't whther parallesism is correct in the 2)second one. However, 1)first one looks perfectly fine to me.
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by patanjali.purpose » Sat Dec 24, 2011 1:29 am
satishchandra wrote:
patanjali.purpose wrote: THAT could come before or after "despite the recent illnesses" - DOES NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE. IMO and THAT, despite the recent illnesses, IT ... or and, despite the recent illnesses, THAT IT.. - both is perfect.
Why does not placement of 'that' make difference? Can you throw more light?

1)Commissioner said (that X) and (that, despite Y, Z)
2)Commissioner said (that X) and, despite Y (that Z)

I don't whther parallesism is correct in the 2)second one. However, 1)first one looks perfectly fine to me.
Let's see Stacey's argument about how far we should take parallelism.
Stacey Koprince wrote:
I like white-haired cats with long tails rather than big dogs that bark a lot.

X = white-haired cats with long tails
Y = big dogs that bark a lot

Only the two main words (in this case, the nouns "cats" and "dogs") are required to be parallel. More parallelism is nice, but not required.
Source: https://www.beatthegmat.com/comparison-i ... 62444.html

Hope it helps.
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by sam2304 » Sat Dec 24, 2011 9:26 am
The OA is E and not D. As for your doubt about the usage of that, check the manhattan forum link. Same doubts answered.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/the ... t3948.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-health-co ... 75715.html
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by satishchandra » Sat Dec 24, 2011 9:05 pm
Hi Patanjali and Sam,
Thanks for your insights. They are good.

Unfortunately not enough discussion happened on the placement of that in both forums. However, I am quited amazed to see the below sentence-quoted by one poster as correct.
Here's an example:

The quarterback said, despite his recent successful season, that he would retire.
Here placement of despite his recent successful season might convey the following meaning.
Despite his recent successful season, The quarterback said XYZ

However, the indended meaning, I thought, is
The quarterback said that despite his recent successful season, he would retire
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by patanjali.purpose » Sun Dec 25, 2011 1:40 am
satishchandra wrote:Hi Patanjali and Sam,
Thanks for your insights. They are good.

Unfortunately not enough discussion happened on the placement of that in both forums. However, I am quited amazed to see the below sentence-quoted by one poster as correct.
Here's an example:

The quarterback said, despite his recent successful season, that he would retire.
Here placement of despite his recent successful season might convey the following meaning.
Despite his recent successful season, The quarterback said XYZ

However, the indended meaning, I thought, is
The quarterback said that despite his recent successful season, he would retire
Let me try in another way:

I am describing the statement made by Clinton in 2005.

Case A - Statement made by Cliton in 2005: Clinton says "I will try to improve US and India relationship". This he said when US and India are at logger heads about India's UN position. Both countries have recalled their ambassdors as a sign of protest.

In such a case I can say now:

Clinton said, despite the previous bitter experience, that he would try to improve US and India relationship - NOTE here the phrase "despite the prvious bitter experience" is not stated by Clinton.

Case B - If Clinton's statements were: Clinton says "despite the previous bitter experience, I will try to improve US and India relationship".

If I restate this statement now, I will say:
Clinton said that, despite the previous bitter experience, he would try to improve US and India relationship.

IMO we cannot say with certainity who said the adverbial phrase "despite the recent illnesses" in the original sentence. Looking at option E we can say with certainty that this phrase is added by the author of the sentence..and this phrase is not part of the statement made by the commissioner.

PS - Clinton did not made such statement. I just created it for discussion purposes. :shock:
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Dec 26, 2011 5:36 am
satishchandra wrote:The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

(A) it will try
(B) that it tried
(C) it had tried
(D) it would have tried
(E) that it would try

[spoiler]OA: D;
IMO: E [/spoiler]

However, E is not too convincing either.
Placement of 'that' should be before "despite the recent.... " What do you think?
To indicate the future-in-the-past tense -- an action taking place in the past after another past action -- we use WOULD:

The health commissioner SAID (in the past)...that [the government] WOULD TRY (also in the past but after the government SAID) to prevent the outbreak from recurring.

Eliminate A, B and C.

In D, would have tried implies that the government DIDN'T TRY, changing the intended meaning of the sentence. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

In E, the placement of despite indicates that it modifies the primary action of the sentence (SAID):
The health commissioner SAID, DESPITE THE RECENT ILLNESSES, that [the government] would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring.
The meaning here is that the recent illnesses did not prevent the health commissioner from saying what he SAID.

If despite were positioned after THAT, the modifier would refer to the action of the final clause (WOULD TRY), changing the intended meaning:
The health commissioner said that, DESPITE THE RECENT ILLNESSES, {the government] WOULD TRY to prevent the outbreak from recurring.
The meaning here is that the recent illnesses would not prevent the government from trying what it WOULD TRY.
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