Despite protests from some shareholders, committee members

OA is E and perhaps the only answer choice that comes even close. But I have a doubt regarding E. You see this sentence depends on the parallelism between two clauses:

1. the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and that
2. the advertising program be undertaken.

There is a "that" in the sentence that introduces a command subjunctive. So, the 2 clauses sould be parallel in structure, meaning to say that they should begin with the same word right? So shouldn't the correct answer choice be: "that the levels of department head involvement be curtailed and that the advertising program be".

Or, we can leave out the "that" in the second clause as the "that" before the first makes it unnecessary?

correct idiom is ordered that. More over with command subjunctive be + verb base form has to be used.

out of C and E
E fits the bill,excepting the requirement of that after the and makes it perfectly parallel.

Your point is absolutely correct with ref to command subjunctive. What do you think of the parallelism?

that P be Q and that X be Y

or

that P be Q and X be Y

Let us face the issue of parallelism squarely. In theory we indeed accept those that are structurally and logically identical as parallel.

Ex: He wants ‘to’ drink and ‘to’ dance. Here the infinitive ‘to’ is used in both arms

We also may say: He wants to drink and dance. Here the 'to' is elliptical in the second arm. This is perfectly acceptable

Ex. 2. He cried ‘that’ the horse flung him and ‘that’ it dumped him in the pit.

Compare this to

He cried that the horse flung him and dumped him in the pit.

Do you think the second version is un//?

Example 3.

The captain cautioned the soldiers that they should sleep well, that they should eat well and that they should drink well before they make the final ambush on the enemy -- ‘This is parallel though too wordy.
The captain cautioned the soldiers that they should sleep well, eat well and drink well before they make the final ambush on the enemy -- This is also perfectly parallel and even more elegant; In the process we have dropped so many repeated words . Isn’t this a better version? In parallelism, structure is subservient to logic, If I may say so. For the sake of concision, we often do drop some words such as ‘that’ and rightly so.

But I also do not deny that GMAT might reject a case for not repeating the connector word ‘that’ , but I just don’t remember one handily, since I don’t maintain an archive.

@Daagh,

How about this statement: "The court ordered that the prisoner be released and his belongings be returned"

Is this statement correct ||ism wise?

+1 E

I think that you can ommit the first word in every element that is parallel, if that first word is the same in all the elements.

Also note.... ordered must be followed by subjunctive tense.

only E qualifies

I picked E because ordered takes THAT, but also am I correct in my reasoning that because it's a bossy verb that having 'to be' is incorrect and that it should be "ordered that X BE Y" in order to be correct (e.g., 'to' makes it incorrect)?

Yes, your understanding is correct - A subjunctive case (i.e., verb root only) is required with "order + that".

boiled down to C and E.
E is better b/c it is active and shorter.

Official Explanation

Correct Answer: E

The best answer is E. Choice E clearly and correctly uses parallel phrases: the levels of department head involvement be|| The advertising program be.

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