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Brutal SC #17

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by jangojess » Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:36 am
One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind President Carter’s directive that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries.

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries
(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States
(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States
(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries
(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries

OA : C
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by dpatwa » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:00 am
I agree that this one is confusing, but C seems the most clear and it is the only one that correctly uses the idiom "prohibit .. to"
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Ans....

by jangojess » Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:48 pm
isnt prohibited from the correct idiom??? more details on why C was chosen wud be helpful...
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by dingo001 » Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:40 am
hmm.. i chose A over C. Should have stuck with C
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by ranji » Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:04 pm
the right idiomatic form is 'prohibit from + gerund'

prohibit from sale is wrong in such a case.

Hence C.
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by Danielle » Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:13 pm
'prohibit from sale' is why A isn't the best choice. Must go with C because it's grammatically correct.
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WHY IS A incorrect

by khurram » Sat May 10, 2008 2:07 pm
directive is subjunctive, so that and infinitie without to.

directive that X be prohibited from Y.

But A is wrong becuase rescind is an order, so order X to Y,
so rescind XXX.

I am still sort of confused. If someone can please explain.


Thanks
Khurram
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WHY IS A incorrect

by khurram » Sat May 10, 2008 2:11 pm
directive is subjunctive, so that and infinitie without to.

directive that X be prohibited from Y.

But A is wrong becuase rescind is an order, so order X to Y,
so rescind XXX.

I am still sort of confused. If someone can please explain.


Thanks
Khurram
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by sukrant26 » Sat May 10, 2008 7:05 pm
Option C that starts with 'prohibiting' seems to modify the whole sentence rather than modify only the directive....

Hence an option that starts with directive that..... seems more logical as it modifies only the directive.


My pick is option A
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by khurram » Sat May 10, 2008 10:33 pm
ans is c

idiom prohibit x from Y ing.

Forbid X to do Y

Both are not present in ans choices.

I guess here prohibiting X to Y is same as prohibit X from Y ing.

But what about subjunctive use here.

Any GMAT instructors who can shed light on this idiom issue.

Thanks
Khurram



A has be prohibted from sale
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by s_raizada » Sun May 11, 2008 12:57 pm
Option A is written in passive voice 'be prohibited' and therefore wordy
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by chidcguy » Mon May 12, 2008 8:32 am
My 2 cents

Idioms irrespective of tense, gerunds, participles take the same form.

prohibit X from Y, forbid X to do Y

E is out for using being

Of the remaining 4 it comes down to whether subjunctive is needed or not. I initially thought the same sentence can be expressed with out subjunctive as the action has been completed. IMO, Subjunctive is used to express wish or actions that we want to see happen.

I thought I would take out A & B, lets go with C & D. But neither C & D use the correct idiom "prohibit X from Y"

That took me back to A & B. B reverses the order of prohibition and banning.

Hence A.
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by uptowngirl92 » Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:40 pm
Experts please comment between A and C.
Directive is an order>>Subjunctive..How is C correct?It's such a twisted sentence!!
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by Stacey Koprince » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:11 am
Received a PM asking me to respond. The PM also specified that this is a GMATPrep problem; thanks for citing the source!

One of Ronald Reagan's first acts as President was to rescind President Carter's directive that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries.

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries
(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States
(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States
(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries
(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries
Yes, it's a twisted sentence - that's what makes these hard!

"directive" is a noun. That might be hidden because of the "President Carter's" bit, but try stripping that out and see how you'd have to write it:

"was to rescind [the] directive..."

So, it's a noun, right?

Generally, command subjunctive is constructed:
<demand signal> + that + <agent> + <base form of verb>

There are a couple of ways to give that "demand signal." The most basic way is a "bossy" verb:

I propose that uptowngirl92 be made class president.

That's not what we've got in this sentence, because "directive" is a noun.

We could also use "It is X," where X is an adjective conveying urgency (important, essential, crucial, imperative...)

That's not what's going on in this problem either.

Finally, certain conjunctions could also be the signal. I agree to vote for uptowngirl92 on condition that she pay me $5. :)

Still not what's going on in this problem.

So: we don't have a proper subjunctive set-up for this problem. Therefore, we're not required to use subjunctive. Therefore, we shouldn't use subjunctive.
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elaborate please

by navdeepbajwa » Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:54 pm
still could not get it what difference "Directive" being a noun makes it is an order so why cant be it in subjunctive mood
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