Due to the highly selective nature of admissions, the admissions commi

A) has been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.

Correct. This choice correctly uses the singular “has been recommended” to refer to “admissions committee.” Moreover, the original sentence is clear and concise.

B) have been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.

This choice incorrectly uses the plural “have been recommended” to refer to the singular “admissions committee.”

C) has been recommended to prevent them from passing feedback to the students.

This choice correctly uses the singular verb “has been recommended,” but incorrectly adds the plural pronoun “them” to refer to the singular “admissions committee.”

D) have been recommended in an attempt to prevent them from passing feedback to the students.

This choice incorrectly uses the plural “have been recommended” to refer to the singular “admissions committee.” Additionally, the plural pronoun “them” incorrectly refers to the singular “admissions committee and the phrase “in an attempt” is awkward and unnecessary.

E) has been recommended that they prevent the passing of feedback to the students

This choice incorrectly uses the plural pronoun “they” to refer to the singular “admissions committee.”

Vercules

A. has been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.

Can recommended be used with 'to verb'. I thought recommend needs that.

E. has been recommended that they prevent the passing of feedback to the students

I understand there is a pronoun error in this choice.

Hello viji_s_s

There are two cases:

ACTIVE: X recommend that................
PASSIVE: X is recommended to do some thing...........

Hope it helps.

I have answered the question correctly. However, I had encountered a similar question in the GMAT Club tests where two similar options were provided and option starting with due to was eliminated due to modifier error.

I am posting the question and OE for the same.

Due to the highly sensitive nature of their work, all State Department staff members were instructed to store their files on secure servers.

A. Due to the highly sensitive nature of their work, all State Department staff members were instructed to store their files on secure servers.

D. Because of the highly sensitive nature of their work, all State Department staff members were instructed to store their files on secure servers.

I have chosen option A, but the OE says, "Whenever you see "due to", you'll want to ask: what does the phrase "due to _______" modify? In this sentence, "due to the highly sensitive nature of their work" is trying to describe "were instructed" -- but that doesn't work, since "due to _____" can only modify a noun. And it definitely doesn't make sense to say that "all State Department staff members... were due to the highly sensitive nature of their work." Eliminate (A)."

In option A, due to phrase is followed by a noun (all State Department Staff), meaning that due to is modified by a noun. But, OE states that it is modified by a verb "were instructed" which is not immediately followed by the phrase.

Here, in the above question, option A is very similar the question I encountered in the GMAT Club Tests. However, no error is mentioned here.

Can anyone explain the due to usage error elaborately?
daagh

Aditya
Let me address you doubt in the following few lines.

Due to the highly selective nature of admissions, the admissions committee has been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.

A) has been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.
B) have been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students.
C) has been recommended to prevent them from passing feedback to the students.
D) have been recommended in an attempt to prevent them from passing feedback to the students.
E) has been recommended that they prevent the passing of feedback to the students


First thing is that one should not bother about the non-underlined part unduly except to find some clues about the error. Whether 'due to' phrase was good or bad, you needn't worry because the author doesn't want you to worry. Otherwise, she would have certainly underlined it. This exercise is just to see whether you can get the S-V number and the pronoun number agreements right.

Now to come to the difference between 'due to' and 'because of', they are both prepositional phrases and what follows the two words will always be a noun or a gerund. This noun does not decide whether the modifier modifies a noun or a verb.

You must see what the nature of the sentence is after the entire modifier is separated from the modified main clause.

Due to the highly selective nature of admissions, the admissions committee has been recommended to prevent the passing of feedback to the students. --- The main clause here consists of a verb 'has been recommended'; therefore, the modifier starting with 'due to' wrongly modifies a verb. Therefore, this structure is grammatically wrong.

On the contrary, if you want write a sentence with 'due to' as a correct modifier in the same sentence, then you may rephrase it as follows.

Due to the highly selective nature of admissions, the admissions committee was given a recommendation to prevent…

Now you can see that 'due to' correctly modifies the noun 'recommendation'

Some more examples
His late arrival was due to the engine failure
Here the adjectival phrase 'due to' modifies the noun 'arrival.'
It will be wrong to say that the he arrived late due to the engine failure.
Similarly, it will be wrong to say that his arrival was delayed because of engine failure.

More examples of due to and because of usage

He could not eat due to digestive problems -- wrong
He could not eat because of digestive problems -- correct
He scored low due to carelessness - wrong
His low score was due to carelessness: correct

Mark correct or incorrect Self test - no answers

Her brilliant performance was because of her coach's rigorous training
Her brilliant performance was due to her coach's rigorous training

She performed brilliantly due to her coach's rigorous training
She performed brilliantly because of her coach's rigorous training

Some banks have heavily lost because of inadequate supervision
Some banks have heavily lost due to inadequate supervision

Some banks' heavy losses are due to inadequate supervision
Some banks' heavy losses are because of inadequate supervision

The last word -- 1. The use of 'due to' in students' admission committee question is grammatically wrong.

2. Gmatclub test example is okay as I see.

3. Adverbial modifiers can be anywhere in the sentence not necessarily close to the verb they modify.

3. Please practice the concept of due to and because of vigorously.

4. If I remember rightly, Magoosh has some good examples on this topic.

Hi daagh, AjiteshArun

Can we use subjunctive in the passive? Will using it instead of they in option E fix the issue?
https://gmatclub.com/forum/due-to-the-h ... s#p2368258

daagh
Thanks a lot for the clarification. This will certainly help me where both "due to" and "because of" are given in an SC.

anud
1. I think using 'it' would be ok.
2. The subjunctive can be in passive too. Look at this OG topic.

Several senior officials spoke to the press on condition that they not be named in the story.

(A) that they not be named
(B) that their names will not be used
(C) that their names are not used
(D) of not being named
(E) they will not be named
OA: A.

However, often it happens that the subordinate clause is in passive voice. Tha example above could have also been expressed equally correctly as--- Several senior officials spoke to the press on condition that the press not name them in the story.--

Can anyone help me with these questions..
1.can words like recommend ,advice mandates the use of subjunctive verbs?
2.can subjunctive verbs be used with 'To' or it can only be used with 'That' only?
3.does usage of subjunctive verbs differs with active or passive voice?

Thanks so much for the prompt response daagh. Really appreciate it

This makes sense. Thanks for pulling out this OG. I have seen you quoting OG questions umpteen number of times. How do you that?
As far as this OG question goes, I was initially skeptical, even though "on the condition" sounded bossy, to use the subjunctive. I eliminated options B & E because they used "will" and since this is being reported it would be incorrect to use will / future tense.

of not being named sounded wrong to me. The solid reason, I believe is that of, being a proposition, cannot take a clause. So, I went with A.

Was this the right POE? Or did I go wrong somewhere?

Thanks again Daagh.

Regards
Anudeep

Hi hridaybector

PF the response to your questions below:

1. recommend mandates the use of subjunctive. advice doesn't. advice takes the infinitive form of the verb (to + verb)
2. subjunctive verbs take that only.
3. This one is a little unclear to me but the rules don't change. This is something that even I was a little apprehensive about but Daagh just pulled out an OG question.

Hope this helped.

Cheers
AA

@hrid

Can anyone help me with these questions.

1. can words like recommend ,advice mandates the use of subjunctive verbs? ---

Yes, depends upon who recommends or advices. If the President or the Supreme Court or the PM does, then it is mandatory down the line. But if you are advising your friend, it need not be mandatory and hence not subjunctive. The takeaway is: it is all context, context and context.

2. can subjunctive verbs be used with 'To' or it can only be used with 'That' only?

Considering that the command subjunctive requires 'that' plus the bare infinitive, one may not therfore thechnically call the infinitive a subjunctive verb. We may call it an indicative verb than a subjunctive

3.does usage of subjunctive verbs differ with active or passive

Yes it does.

Several senior officials spoke to the press on condition that they not be named in the story. --- 'not be named' is passive
Several senior officials spoke to the press on condition that the press not name them in the story. -- 'not name' is active voice

anu
Your POE is on the dot. 'Of being' is not idiomatic. When reporting, we always use the reported part in a subordinate clause starting with 'that'.

While Vercules has a very good intention of teaching students with S-V agreement, and how the presence of an incorrect pronoun can help eliminate an answer choice(E), the question can further be improved to make it's quality at-par with tthat of the Official questions.

Here the usage of Due to is incorrect. And Due to as such is trying to convey that the admission committee is due to the highly selctive nature of admissions.




Vercules Please dont feel bad. I understand how difficult it is to develop questions, and it is far more easier to find errors.

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