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Sentence Correction Question from Kaplan

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Sentence Correction Question from Kaplan

by [email protected] » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:52 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


OA: E

Why is option D wrong ?
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by sg1978 » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:58 pm
IMO E. In D the pronoun "he" is ambiguous.
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by rockeyb » Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:15 am
sg1978 wrote:IMO E. In D the pronoun "he" is ambiguous.
I am sorry but I dont agree that HE here is ambiguous . HE definitely refers to "federal arbitrator".

Here is my explanation for the question .


The question here is checking for command subjunctive .

ASK - here is the command subjunctive .

as per rule in command subjunctive VERB needs to be followed by THAT OR TO .


Some of the command subjunctives take both THAT and TO and ASK is one of them .

Also a point to note is words like WOULD and SHOULD are not allowed when using command subjunctive .

This eliminates A .

C is eliminated because ASKED need to be followed either by THAT OR TO .

B is eliminated since it uses HAVE (plural verb ) for singular subject umpire's union .

D . violates the subjunctive by putting the OBJECT in between ASKED and THAT .

E. Is correct and follows the subjunctive rule by using TO and not THAT .

The Infinitive is more flexible and the OBJECT can be put in between the VERB and TO (infinitive).


Ex : The verb REQUIRE .

EX : We REQUIRE THAT he be here .

We REQUIRE HIM TO be here .
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by sg1978 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:06 am
Hi rockeyb, your explanation makes sense. Thanks a lot.
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by [email protected] » Sun Apr 04, 2010 10:30 am
Thanks for the explanation rockey.
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by anthoj » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:40 pm
When doing this problem I chose B over E. I made this decision based on the second last word in the choices. It was the "representatives" of the union who threatened, a not the union itself. So shouldn't it be "have threatened" instead of "has threatened", making B the correct answer? Kaplan's says that B and E would work either way except for the "has" and "have" at the end. Could someone explain to my why E is the right choice here?

Thanks
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by subgeeth » Fri Apr 16, 2010 2:19 pm
Which will refer to the subject of the previous clause

union is the subject here hence has
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by kashefian » Wed Oct 06, 2010 11:20 pm
When doing this problem I chose B over E. I made this decision based on the second last word in the choices. It was the "representatives" of the union who threatened, a not the union itself. So shouldn't it be "have threatened" instead of "has threatened", making B the correct answer? Kaplan's says that B and E would work either way except for the "has" and "have" at the end. Could someone explain to my why E is the right choice here?
I have the same problem guys. could anyone explain why Representatives of the union is not plural? Actually, the representatives go on strike not the union itself.
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by Yanat » Fri Oct 08, 2010 11:52 am
Anything that comes after the comma, is modified by what comes before.

Here it is the union and its singular so 'has'
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