Verbal Doubt on Subjunctive Usage

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nishanth.kadi: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 10:59 pm

by nishanth.kadi » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:27 am

Q) The new government requires employers to inform an employee of their legal right to holidays and overtime pay.

a) employers to inform an employee of their
b) employers to inform employees that he has a
c) employers to inform employees that there is a
d) that employers inform an employee of their
e) that employers inform the employees that they have a

The OA is c...But I don't understand it. Is this not a case where we need to use the Subjunctive mood?(Because there is "request")In that case the answer should have been d or e. I chose e.

Please explain.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:27 am

Kasia@EconomistGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 646; Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 7:08 amFollowed by: 143 members; Thanked: 322 times

by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:44 am

Answers A, B, D and E are ambiguous because of pronouns used.
A - pronoun "their" seems to be referring to the noun "employers", so this answer is illogical
B - "he" - apart from ambiguity the pronoun is singular and the preceding nouns are plural, so this answer is also grammatically incorrect
D - the pronoun "their" seems to be referring to the noun "employers" which makes this answer illogical
E - "they" is used and the answer is ambiguous

Thus c is correct.

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Kasia@EconomistGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 646; Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 7:08 amFollowed by: 143 members; Thanked: 322 times

by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:45 am

As to the Subjunctive it is only a distractor here.

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Bill@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1248; Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:57 pmFollowed by: 192 members; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 503 times; GMAT Score:780

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:58 am

nishanth.kadi wrote:Q) The new government requires employers to inform an employee of their legal right to holidays and overtime pay.

a) employers to inform an employee of their
b) employers to inform employees that he has a
c) employers to inform employees that there is a
d) that employers inform an employee of their
e) that employers inform the employees that they have a

The OA is c...But I don't understand it. Is this not a case where we need to use the Subjunctive mood?(Because there is "request")In that case the answer should have been d or e. I chose e.

Please explain.

Require is one of the verbs that can be used in subjunctive but only if we have a dependent clause: require that _________. The verb that expresses the requirement would then be subjunctive.

D and E create a dependent clause, but both answers have other issues: "an employee" and "the employees." As Kasia said, subjunctive options are simply included here to distract us.

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rajcools: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 80; Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:00 am; Thanked: 4 times

by rajcools » Wed Jun 27, 2012 2:03 pm

is the use of "there" correct in c??

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Kasia@EconomistGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 646; Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 7:08 amFollowed by: 143 members; Thanked: 322 times

by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Thu Jun 28, 2012 1:47 am

The use of "there" is correct. "There" refers to the fact that the law mentioned in the sentence EXISTS SOMEWHERE (in this case probably in the Labor Code or another legal act).

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hey_thr67: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 299; Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 9 times

by hey_thr67 » Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:03 am

what is the source of this problem ?

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