Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than non union members to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend less time with each. (A) imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend (B) imposing stricter limits on medical services , requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending (C) that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend (D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending (E) that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/us/race-gap-seen-in-health-care-of-equally-insured-patients.html The authors of the study offered multiple explanations for the disparities, among them quality of insurance. Members of minorities are more likely than whites to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans that impose stricter limits on medical services, and that require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each. I see such constructions very often, but still cant crack them correctly, do you know the trick, the rule or sm else that can help in such questions? ? It is all about parallelism and modifiers, C or E that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending

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Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than non union

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jabhatta2

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GMATGuruNY

jabhatta2

Infinitives themselves are not verbs

The statement above is misleading: an infinitive (to + VERB) is in fact a verb form.
For proof, check my most recent post here.
The American Heritage dictionary defines an infinitive as follows:
A verb form that functions as a substantive while retaining certain verbal characteristics.

GMATGuruNY : Per my understanding – all English verbs (Except to-be verbs) have 5 forms of verbs only

• Namely - base, past tense, past participle, present participle, and third-person singular.
• So, for example – the verb “sing” -- has 5 verb forms sing, sang, sung, singing or sings

You mention - "To + Verb" is a verb form.

I am not sure what that means. Does that mean "To + Verbs + Object nouns for verb within the Infinitive" are THEMSELVES verbs ?

Not per my understanding.

So for example -

Quote:

Samantha wants to marry John
o Subject = Samantha
o Wants == verb
o To marry John = infinitive (to + Verb + object noun for verb - Marry)
o To marry John = infinitive is playing role of object for verb "Wants"

In the above sentence – is the infinitive “To marry John ” really a verb IN ADDITION to the existing verb “Wants” ?

Not per my understanding.

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jabhatta2

You mention - "To + Verb" is a verb form.

I am not sure what that means.

A verbal is a word that combines the characteristics of a verb with those of a noun or modifier.
The infinitive (to + VERB) is a type of verbal.

Samantha wants to marry John soon.
Here, to marry functions as a NOUN in that it serves as the direct object for wants.
WHAT does Samantha want?
She wants TO MARRY.
At the same time, to marry retains the characteristics of a VERB in that it has a DIRECT OBJECT (John) and is modified by an ADVERB (soon).
A basic noun cannot take a direct object or be modified by an adverb.

OA: Insurance plans...require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.
Here, COMMA + spending correctly refers to the infinitive in blue, which -- as noted above -- retains the characteristics of a verb.
Conveyed meaning:
When doctors SEE more patients, they will -- as a result of this action -- be SPENDING less time with each patient.

Raman109

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Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than non union members to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend less time with each.

Option Elimination -

(A) imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend - ING modifier without comma modifies the immediate noun. So, imposing modifies "plans." But then "and" demands parallelism. Before and we have a clause, and after and is a phrase. Also, the intended meaning is that "plans" impose stricter restrictions and require doctors to see more patients (list of 2 items with parallel structure - clauses on both sides - plans impose and plans require), and as a result of requiring to see more patients they spend less time with each. So, the ideal structure is "plans impose ...and restrict, spending less ...."

(B) imposing stricter limits on medical services , requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending - wrong parallelism.

(C) that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend-trap parallelism as if all three items are parallel. "plans impose....plans require ....and plans spend less time with each. Ridiculous meaning. Meaning understanding is key to eliminating this option.

(D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending - ok

(E) that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending - wrong use of ING modifiers. "requiring" and "spending" modify "plans impose," conveying plans impose a restriction, and as a result, plans require doctors to see more patients and plans spend more time with the patients. Ridiculous meaning.