The labor agreement permits staff reductions through attrition with in

Question

The labor agreement permits staff reductions through  attrition with increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding it up .

(A) attrition with increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding it up
(B) attrition and provides increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program to speed the attrition process
(C) attrition, which will be speeded up by providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program
(D) attrition, which, by their providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program, will speed the process
(E) attrition, which provides increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding the attrition process

shridhar786 · Accepted Answer

(A) attrition with increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding  it  up
what does it refer to ---pronoun error

(B) attrition and  provides  increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program to speed the attrition process
The labor agreement  permits  and  provides ..........to speed the attrition process
this is perfectly parallel and no pronoun error  (correct)
 
(C) attrition,  which will be speeded up by providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program
 
 there is a parallelism error.....and also passive construction

(D) attrition, which, by  their  providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program, will speed the process
what does their refer to?.........awkward construction

(E) attrition,  which  provides increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding the attrition process 
which incorrectly modifies attrition and conveys meaning attrition provides pension benefits and program for speeding attrition which is not correct

ann1111 · Answer

The intended meaning of the sentence is: The Labor Agreement allows staff reductions through attrition and provides certain benefits (increased pension benefits & a special early retirement program)
The only option that incorporates the meaning is B
A- 'with' alters the meaning. Also 'it' is ambiguous.
B- The LA  permits .... and  provides .... Elements are parallel.
C,E- 'which' refers to attrition and clearly alters the meaning. Attrition cannot provide increased pension benefits and retirement program.
D-'which' refers to attrition and alters meaning. Usage of 'their' is ambiguous.

Dipenz · Answer

Hi All....

Option B looks good, but i have one slight confusion. Isn't it a little odd with the phrase "to speed the attrition process". Shouldn't it be "speed up" or is it fine. How is it wrong/right ??

Thanks.

Abhi077   GMATNinja

Victz · Answer

agreement does 2 things here:
- permits staff reduction through attrition
- provides increased pension & early retirement program

coreyander · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Parallelism; Verb Form 
 
The original version of the sentence has multiple ambiguities that make it impossible to tell just what meaning the author intended to convey. The entire portion of the sentence after  attrition  could modify  attrition . The portion after  benefits (and a special early-retirement program)  could refer to the second of two things that the agreement permits. Furthermore, the structure of the sentence makes it unclear whether  it  in the final phrase for  speeding it up  refers to the agreement or the attrition. The sentence needs to be restructured in a way that expresses a clear meaning. The best answer choice is B because it will be the one in which the wording resolves the ambiguities in the wording without creating any additional issues.
 
A As explained above, this has multiple ambiguities that make it impossible to tell just what meaning the author intended to convey. The entire portion of the sentence after  attrition  could modify  attrition , or the portion after  benefits (and a special early-retirement program)  could refer to the second of two things that the agreement permits. Furthermore, the structure of the sentence makes it unclear whether  it  in the final phrase for  speeding it up  refers to the agreement or the attrition.

B Correct. This clearly expresses the idea that the agreement calls for two things, expressed by two noun phrases in parallel: increased pension benefits and an early-retirement program whose purpose is to speed up the attrition.

C This makes either  attrition  or  staff reductions through attrition  the subject of both  will be speeded up ; and providing, thus appearing to say, illogically, that the attrition or the staff reductions will provide increased pension benefits and an early retirement program and will thereby speed up.

D This wording is incoherent. The intended referents of  which  and  their  are unclear. The only grammatically plausible antecedent for the plural  their  is the plural noun phrase  staff reductions . Thus, the sentence appears to say, illogically, that the staff reductions will provide increased pension benefits and an early-retirement program and will thereby speed some unspecified process.

E This makes  which  appear to refer illogically to attrition, thus saying that attrition provides increased benefits and an early-retirement program to speed itself up. Alternatively,  which  could be read as referring to the fact that the labor agreement permits staff reductions through attrition, but this reading would also be illogical—that fact could not plausibly provide pension benefits or an early-retirement program.
 
The correct answer is B.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:

The original version of the sentence has multiple ambiguities that make it impossible to tell just what meaning the author intended to convey. The entire portion of the sentence after  attrition  could modify  attrition.  The portion after  benefits  ( and a special early-retirement program ) could refer to the second of two things that the agreement permits. Furthermore, the structure of the sentence makes it unclear whether  it  in the final phrase  for speeding it up  refers to the agreement or the attrition. The sentence needs to be restructured in a way that expresses a clear meaning. The best answer choice is B because it will be the one in which the wording resolves the ambiguities in the wording without creating any additional issues.
 
 Option A:  As explained above, this has multiple ambiguities that make it impossible to tell just what meaning the author intended to convey. The entire portion of the sentence after  attrition  could modify  attrition , or the portion after  benefits  ( and a special early-retirement program ) could refer to the second of two things that the agreement permits. Furthermore, the structure of the sentence makes it unclear whether  it  in the final phrase  for speeding it up  refers to the agreement or the attrition.

Option B:  Correct. This clearly expresses the idea that the agreement calls for two things, expressed by two noun phrases in parallel: increased pension benefits and an early-retirement program whose purpose is to speed up the attrition.

Option C:  This makes either  attrition  or  staff reductions through attrition  the subject of both  will be speeded up;  and  providing , thus appearing to say, illogically, that the attrition or the staff reductions will provide increased pension benefits and an early retirement program and will thereby speed up.

Option D:  This wording is incoherent. The intended referents of  which  and  their  are unclear. The only grammatically plausible antecedent for the plural  their  is the plural noun phrase  staff reductions . Thus, the sentence appears to say, illogically, that the staff reductions will provide increased pension benefits and an early-retirement program and will thereby speed some unspecified process.

Option E:  This makes  which  appear to refer illogically to attrition, thus saying that attrition provides increased benefits and an early-retirement program to speed itself up. Alternatively,  which  could be read as referring to the fact that the labor agreement permits staff reductions through attrition, but this reading would also be illogical—that fact could not plausibly provide pension benefits or an early-retirement program.
 
The correct answer is B.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

Basshead · Answer

The labor agreement permits staff reductions through  attrition with increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding it up .

(A) attrition with increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding  it  up

-- 'it' has no clear antecedent.

(B)  attrition and provides increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program to speed the attrition process

-- Looks good. Keep.

(C) attrition, which will be speeded up by providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program

-- attrition itself does not provide increased pension benefits.

(D) attrition, which, by  their  providing increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program, will speed the process

-- 'their' has no logical antecedent.

(E) attrition,  which  provides increased pension benefits and a special early-retirement program for speeding the attrition process

-- attrition itself does not provide increased pension benefits.

Answer is B.

sammmmyb · Answer

How can B. be correct if it doesn’t use the idiom correctly? To “speed up” is the idiom, not “to speed” – that’s a nonsensical statement

Posted from my mobile device

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The labor agreement permits staff reductions through attrition with in

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The labor agreement permits staff reductions through attrition with in

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