Even though many local residents disagree with the decision, the town

Even though many local residents disagree with the decision, the town council has ordered that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage built.

A. that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage built.

B. the downtown parking rules to be changed, with a new parking garage being built.

C. that the downtown parking rules should be changed and a new parking garage built.

D. that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage to be built.

E. that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage is built.

Good question, I think the underlined sentence is in command subjunctive form. However, I don't remember the specifics of sentence construction in this form. I will be glad if anyone could share a link to blog post for this sentence form.

Hi,
Can you please explain why we shouldn’t repeat be/is in E option?.

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Hi Iamnowjust ,

The usage of 'Order' (a trigger word) followed by 'that' must ensure a subjunctive verb (i.e a plural verb) , and hence, the usage of singular word 'is' is incorrect.
Also as daagh mentioned " Here built means ‘ be built’ "

Veritas official explanation:-


Explanation: In assessing this difficult sentence correction problem, you should first consider the obvious decision points between the answer choices. The most obvious is the choice between “order x to be y” vs. “order that x be y…” The key is not the choice of idioms (which the GMAT rarely tests unless it is a very well known idiom) but rather the parallelism that follows. Answer choice (A) is correct, as it is the only one that maintains parallelism with one of the two idioms: “the town council has ordered that the rules be changed and a new garage ( be) built.” The trick (and what keeps most students from picking it) is that the second “be” is understood and does not have to be written to maintain parallelism. Even if you do not like (A) at first, the other choices contain fatal flaws that would bring you back to the original. In (B), the prepositional phrase “with a new parking garage being built” has nothing to logically modify and does not convey the meaning that the town council has ordered two different things. Also, the “being built” is illogical: the town council cannot order something being built. In (C) the “should” is redundant: you can never say “order that x should do y” - the verb “order” already implies should/must. In (D), the first portion is correct but the “to be” in the second portion is not parallel with the original structure of “be”. In (E) the verb “is” in the second portion needs to be the verb form “be”. You say: “the town council ordered that the garage BE built” not the “town council ordered that the garage IS built.”

I don't think I'm 100% onboard with this question

When I approached this question, I noticed that we were testing parallelism with our answer choices that begun with "that."

In order to test the parallelism in these answer choices, I read the "that" and then what came after the "and" to see if the second item made sense. I eliminated all answer choices.

(A) "the town council ordered... that a new parking garage built"

(C) "the town council ordered... that a new parking garage built"

(A) and (C) are the same in the second item. (C) has redundancy in the first item with the use of the word "should"

I see how the word "that" is understood in the second item after the "and", and isn't necessary to be listed. But I don't know if I subscribe to the explanation that "be" is understood.

I would be happy to be convinced otherwise if someone can provide a similarly formed Official Question.

(D) "the town council ordered... that a new parking garage to be built

(E) "the town council ordered... that a new parking garage is built

The word "ordered" should ring subjunctive mood bells here and it did. Took me 43 seconds for this.

(A) that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage built -- Don't see any error here. Lets keep it.

(B) the downtown parking rules to be changed, with a new parking garage being built -- Incorrect. "to be" changed "being built". When you have the subjunctive marker (ordered, asked, etc), you don't use "to be", only "be" is used with the simple past verb-tense. Usage of Gerund "being" is also incorrect here. You can't order for something that is being built.

(C) that the downtown parking rules should be changed and a new parking garage built -- Incorrect. "should be" changed is just incompatible here with the subjunctive mood "ordered".

(D) that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage to be built -- Incorrect. "to be" is not parallel with "be changed". We can have either be built or built (think ellipses -- it still makes sense if be is skipped)

(E) that the downtown parking rules be changed and a new parking garage is built -- Incorrect. "is built" is just atrocious. Breaks parallelism as explained in D above.

Hello experts,
I have a question regarding answer choice A, is the absence of be after a new parking garage acceptable? So, The town council has ordered that the downtown parking rules be changed and the town council has ordered that a new parking garage (built)
How is this possible?

How do we know, in Option A, built means ‘be built’? I rejected this option only because of the absence of "be". Request experts to please throw some light on this.

How do we know that, in Option A, built means ???be built???? Is there some form of parallelism that "be" has been used in the earlier phrase with the verb "changed" before "and", that has led to omission of "be" before "built"?
I rejected this option only because of the absence of "be". Request experts to please throw some light on this.

While I see a lot of posts have the same mentioned, but none seems to explain the logic.

Hi Pankaj

It always helps to remember that our job on the GMAT is to select the best possible and not the prefect answer option. You are right - "be built" in option (A) would have been ideal and the clear choice. But the exclusion of "be" follows the rules of ellipsis and not wrong. There is no other answer option that is error-free. The only option with "be built" uses the infinitive form, which is clearly incorrect in a subjunctive. Therefore, option (A), though not ideal, is the best available answer option and is also free of errors.

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks a lot Srinivasan! This is very helpful. svasan05

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