Sentence Correction

Hey All,

Let's give this one a go. Avik, never tell people to cross off answer choices just for bad construction (and don't do it yourself!). You can always use grammar!:

That every worker has a clean criminal record is of some importance to investment banks which is why a stringent background check is a necessary prerequisite for all of their job applicants.

A)That every worker has a clean criminal record is of some importance to investment banks which is why a stringent background check is a necessary prerequisite for all of their job applicants
B)Clean criminal records of their employees is important to investment banks; hence, a stringent background check are necessary prerequisites for employment
C)Because they consider it important that all of their employees have a clean criminal record, investment banks require each job applicant to undergo a stringent background check
D)It is of some importance that all investment banks' workers have clean criminal records which is why many of them undergo stringent background checks
E)The reason that investment banks require background checks of their applicants is because they require clean criminal records of their employees

(A) "Which" requires a comma. "necessary prerequisite" is redundant.
(B) "Their" is bad because it refers to "criminal records". Subject-verb agreement of "check" and "are" is wrong. "Necessary prerequisites" remains redundant.
(C) NOW, to your issue about the pronoun. It is not ambiguous here at all. This is a legitimate construction, in which the pronoun refers to whatever comes directly after the comma. There is no other noun that could be "they/their," so it's totally logical.
(D) The "all" is unclear. Is it all the workers, or all the investment banks?. In correct usage of "which" again (no comma). Meaning is wrong. This is why the banks require background checks, not why the workers get the background checks.
(E) "They" is ambiguous here (banks? applicants?). As Avik said, "The reason...is because" is redundant. Also the meaning is totally off here. This isn't the reason they require background checks. It's because they think clean criminal records are important. The double "require" is illogical.

Hope that helps!

-t

Mitch is right that this pronoun is not ambiguous - the referent should always should always be the subject of the independent clause (the noun right after the comma).

I just want to emphasize here that pronoun ambiguity is a tricky subject on the GMAT, and one that you should ignore if at all possible. Very occasionally, the GMAT will directly test pronoun ambiguity. More often than not, though, the GMAT will allow seeming ambiguity if the meaning is clear enough. See more here: https://www.beatthegmat.com/declaration- ... tml#539397

Hey Soumita,

My understanding is that this type of construction is legal. I don't necessarily know if it's legal (used) on the GMAT, but it is grammatical in English:

That no one came to my party last was disappointing, but not surprising. All I want to talk about is grammar.

Is this the prettiest way to write this sentence? No. So I think the GMAT would avoid it, but the grammar is legal.

-t

Mitch, FTW! : )

-t