Catherine travels a great deal with her

Question

Catherine travels a great deal with her mother and  this is the reason she isn´t available to lead  the city Finance Committee.

a) this is the reason she isn´t available to lead
b) this is why she isn´t available in leading
c) this is the reason that Catherine isn´t available to lead
d) this is the reason Catherine isn´t available to lead
e) might this be the reason that she can´t lead

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

Dear chaudhurysr , I'm happy to respond. :-)

First of all, this question was already posted in this thread, so I am answering this question here, where it should have been posted. Once again, remember to search first, before starting a new thread. I will also say, this is a truly atrocious question, very un-GMAT-like. In US colloquial speech, (D) would be perfectly correct. The GMAT, though, has higher standards. The GMAT demands a level of formalism. In colloquial speech, the word " that " is often dropped, but on the GMAT the " that " need to be retained after verbs of speaking/thinking as well as Idea-related nouns such as " reason ." he said that . . . she thought that . . . he argued that . . . she was surprised that . . . the reason that . . . the idea that . . . the concept that . . . etc. In every single example here, the word " that " would be dropped in US colloquial speech, but it needs to be retained on the GMAT. This is precisely why (D) is wrong in this question. This question is of very low quality. It has a storybook subject matter never seen on the GMAT. All five answer choices have a pronoun mistake: the pronoun " this " cannot refer to an action. This question is a complete disaster. As a professional question writer, I would give this question a grade of F . Here's a high quality SC practice question: Charles Sumner Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

Abhishek009 · Answer

I think we share the same doubt why (C) over (D) , when (D) looks more concise. Here is what I got while I searched the Internet - Source : https://www.grammar-quizzes.com/clause8.html I think experts will be better able to explain the issue in detail...

baaniNitin · Answer

a) this is the reason she isn´t available to lead
b) this is why she isn´t  available in  leading
c) this is the  reason that  Catherine isn´t  available to  lead
d) this is the reason Catherine isn´t available to lead
e) might this be the reason that she can´t lead

"Reason that" is correct use eliminate A,D
E>> This refers to ??
"Available to" is correct usage eliminate B 
IMO C

sananoor · Answer

--ugghh ugly choice (why might?) we are sure that traveling is the reason

chaudhurysr · Answer

Thanks Mike for the explanation. It makes sense now.

stne · Answer

My 2 cents:

The sentence "Catherine isn't available to lead the city Finance Committee "is a full clause contains a subject " Catherine" and a verb " lead" .
Catherine travels a great deal with her mother is another clause in the first half of the sentence.
Two independent clauses cannot just be joined , both the clauses need to be joined either with a semi colon, a coordinating conjunction or a subordinating conjunction . 
"THAT" is a subordinating conjunction hence it can be used to join two independent clauses as done in C. 
That is why IMO C is correct.
Mike please correct me if there is any error in my reasoning , Thank you.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear stne , I'm happy to respond. :-)

My friend, your analysis completely the problem of the pronoun " this ." A pronoun CANNOT have as its antecedent the action of a clause. This mistake remains unchanged through all five answer choices, so all five are wrong. We have two clauses, and we want to show that one is the reason for the other. Here are two possible correct versions of the sentence. Catherine isn't available to lead the city Finance Committee because she travels a great deal with her mother. Catherine isn't available to lead the city Finance Committee: she travels a great deal with her mother. The latter uses a sophisticated structure involving a colon. Either of those would be grammatically correct, because they avoid the pronoun mistake. None of these address the problem that the topic is in storybook form, something that never is the case on the GMAT. I don't know the source of this question. If it came from a book, then the very best thing a student could do for her GMAT preparedness would be to douse the book in gasoline and set it on fire. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

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Catherine travels a great deal with her

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Catherine travels a great deal with her

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