By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligenc

would pick A

D and E use the word 'they' which is incorrect for CIA which is singular
the reason i eliminated B and C is because 'powers for' doesn't sound correct to me..but i could be wrong here as i dont know the correct idiom officially

I also want to know that why "it" is not ambiguous here.

Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency - Supreme Court is active and CIA is passive, so SC gives CIA discretionary powers , which enable it (CIA) to withhold from the public.
"it" is not ambigous here at all

Even i don't get why "B" is incorrect. Could anyone explain ?

When there is a pronoun ambiguity in GMAT, one of the best ways of solving the muddle is to apply logic rather than mere structure.

In the given context, there are two eligible contenders for the pronoun’ it’ i.e., Supreme Court and the CIA, but the question is why will Supreme Court award the CIA something in order to enable itself? Isn’t logic missing then? That is the reason to conclude without further doubt that the pronoun refers to the CIA.

The answer is certainly A

Take this sentence
I love my girlfriend laughing at the chimps.
Here the bolded part is sufficient to frame the sentence. But adding a modifier [highlight]laughing at the chimps[/highlight] helps in adding information. Something similar has happened in this question:
The correct usage is “A award B X(enabling …)” where (enabling ...) is acting as modifier.

Here enabling is modifying powers, where [highlight]A award B X[/highlight] is fully complete even in absence of modifier
HTH

In my opinion, A is correct NOT because of active/passive usage. If the author wanted to refer to SC, then the sentence should have 'reflexive' pronouns rather than ' simple pronoun'. As that is not the case, the 'it' here refers to CIA only but not SC.

Eg: He solved the problem HIMSELF; they caused the trouble THEMSELVES.

Hope this is clear.

Hi WinWinMBA,

Thank you for your question.

Let's start by looking at the first major difference I saw when looking over the question quickly: it vs. they/them. Since the pronoun is referring back to the Central Intelligence Agency, which is a singular noun, the pronoun should match - so let's keep answers A, B, and C because they use the singular "it" or no pronoun at all. Therefore, we can eliminate answers D & E because they use the plural "they" or "them," which is wrong.

Answer C should also go because it doesn't clearly state WHO gets to do the withholding, and it sounds awkward. This leaves us with answers A & B. Let's look at what is different about each one:

A: enabling it to withhold from the public
B: for it to withhold from the public

In answer B, using the word "for" changes the meaning of the sentence and the intentions of the Supreme Court. By saying they are awarding the CIA powers "for" a purpose, they are saying that the Supreme Court awarded the CIA more power knowing they would use it for that purpose and ONLY that purpose. This isn't true - they just gave the CIA more power, but it's not clear WHY they did so.

The word "enabling" is a much stronger choice to show that the Supreme Court is giving the CIA power, and that power allows them to withhold information. Using "enabling" shows that the court decision is a cause, and withholding information is an effect, which is the intended meaning. The court didn't give them the power to withhold information directly - they did that indirectly by awarding them more power. Therefore, this is the right answer.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public -- correctly modifying.

(B) for it to withhold from the public --- use of for,

(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of -- use of for, withholding disclosure - wordy

(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure --- pronoun error

(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of -- pronoun error

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public - Correct
(B) for it to withhold from the public - 'for' is incorrect usage
(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of - 'for withholding' is incorrect usage
(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure - 'enable them' is incorrect usage
(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of - "powers that they can withhold" , we are not withholding powers here - Incorrect

Ans: A

this is a weird one. Does gmat really test you with these kinda questions?

Clearly the usage if *it* in option A is ambiguous!

Hi VeritasKarishma aragonn

"from the public the identities" sounds awkward but is that correct? I am feeling like some connecting word is missing.

It is important to note that pronoun error is not a deterministic error in GMAT, especially in cases in which you can logically determine what noun that pronoun refers to. The error arises when you're confused with what exactly the pronoun stands for.

Eg; A bird can eat a mango even though it is not very large in size.
Now the ambiguity arises - is it used for bird or the mango?

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public - it's quite evident that SC will not grant powers to itself to withhold from the public the identities. Therefore, we will keep this answer choice and look for a better one. But we will not eliminate it.

(B) for it to withhold from the public - the usage of for here implies that SC granted this power so that the CIA could withhold from the public.... The intention of the original sentence is certainly not so. The original sentence intends to describe the powers.

(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of - same as B

(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure - SV Agreement error. Them is incorrect here. CIA is clearly a single noun entity.

(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of - SV Agreement error.

Thanks

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public -- correctly modifying.

(B) for it to withhold from the public --- use of for,

(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of -- use of for, withholding disclosure - wordy

(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure --- pronoun error

(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of -- pronoun error

The question can be solved on the basis of of pronoun mismatch , and Idiom.

"They and Them" cannot be used for Supreme court , hence option D and E are eliminated.

The correct usage is "With Hold FROM",option c is eliminated

we are left with option A and B.

Option B is awkard "For it to ....." hence eliminated.

Correct answer is A.

Enabling is modifying "powers" --> enabling should modify CIA. Is my understanding incorrect?

Hi Payal, basically:

i) CIA was awarded powers
ii) Those powers enable CIA <to do something>.

So, enabling correctly modifies powers in the original sentence.