Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide worker

Question

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers  provide workers with unpaid leave so as to  care for sick or newborn children.

(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to

(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to

(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they

(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can

(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and

robinantony · Accepted Answer

Actually now I know why, 

so that makes it clear who "they" is referring to. 

eg: 

Use "so as" if there is only one noun which can be modified by "so as".
Ex. Jim worked hard so as to get promotion.  
Use "so that" if there are more then one noun, then go for "so that"
InCorrect: Jim divorced Jeniffer so as to marry.  
Correct: Jim divorced Jeniffer so that he could marry.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Numer of nouns has nothing to do "so as" and "so that". The usages are as follows:

"so as" is followed by an infinitive. .. I left early so as to reach on time.
"so that" is followed by a clause.... I left early so that I reach on time.

seofah · Answer

219.Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers  provide workers with unpaid leave so as to  care for sick or newborn children.
(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they
(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can
(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and

I am slightly confused in this question.
I thought we should have a bare form of a verb " to provide". 
E.g. Correct (IMO)- I require them do this.
 Incorrect (IMO)-I require them to do this.

Can someone clarify on this?

syamee_u · Answer

require X to do Y - idiom

with that B,D left.

but B is meaning that congress is caring about children

so D - correct

greenoak · Answer

My choice would be D.

‘a bill requiring employers’ should be followed by infinitive (with ‘to’). It means A, C, E are out.

Now, look at the remaining:

B:  Congress is debating a bill  requiring certain employers to provide workers with unpaid leave  so as to care  for sick or newborn children.

Who should care for children? Congress? Doesn’t look right.

D: Congress is debating a bill requiring certain  employers  to provide  workers  with unpaid leave so that  they  can care for sick or newborn children

Well, we still could say that ‘they’ may refer to employers as well as workers, but IMO, overall, the ambiguity is less here than in the case of B.

smartyguy · Answer

Good tricky question checks idioms and logical approach

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide workers with unpaid leave so as to care for sick or newborn children.

If you look the highlighted part in the sentence you will easily find out that after 'employers' 'to' is necessary.

'Require .... that' is correct idiom expression

(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to :Incorrect ( not starting with 'to')
(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to : Incorrect (Trap) ( so as to is not preferred much on GMAT , if you check 'AS' alone then as is used to compare clauses with similar actions which is also not correct here logically )
(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they : Incorrect ( not starting with 'to')
(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can : Correct ( also fulfills 'Require ...that' correct idiomatic expression usage and starts with 'to' ) here 'they' refers to workers because if you choose 'employers' logically it will be wrong because employers will not take care of sick and newborn children . Workers will take care.
(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and : Incorrect ( not starting with 'to') wrong usage of 'and'

Kindly clarify if i have missed anything

Regrads
SG :wink:

Mbawarrior01 · Answer

Can someone confirm on this usage. So as for one noun & so that for more than one ??

So as to & So that : implies "in order to". But not sure on the difference in their usage.

TommyWallach · Answer

Here "so as to" just means "in order to".

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers  provide workers with unpaid leave so as to  care for sick or newbom children.

(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
PROBLEM: Two issues. We need the idiom "requiring X to Y". This misses the "to". Also, "so as to care" makes it sound as if Congress is doing the caring.

(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
PROBLEM: This addresses the first issue mentioned above, but not the second.

(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they
PROBLEM: This lacks the "to". Also, the idiom is "in order to", not "in order that".

(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can
ANSWER: This has the "to", and correctly places the pronoun "they", so that we know it's the workers who will be caring for their children.

(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and
PROBLEM: Lacks the "to", and also sounds like Congress is doing the caring.

rsethi2690 · Answer

Doesn't the answer require the use of subjunctive (bare infinite form of verb)

EducationAisle · Answer

In general, the structure of  subjunctive  is:

that  + bare infinitive

In this sentence, since  requiring  is  not  followed by  that , this is a  big  clue that the sentence is  not  using subjunctive.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Subjunctive , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

sajalgargciv2805 · Answer

"I require them do this." is correct when the mood is subjunctive but in the given problem the mood is not subjunctive.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Sajal,  subjunctive  would actually be:

I require  that  they do this .

You can watch our  video  on  Subjunctive   here . Would especially draw your attention towards case-2 i this video.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Subjunctive , its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

kornn · Answer

Dear  GMATGuruNY   DmitryFarber   AjiteshArun ,

Q1. (C)  provide workers with unpaid leave  in order that  they

I just wonder whether you have ever seen "in order that" in the correct choice? Is it necessarily wrong?

Q2. According to MGMAT:
 
^ I just wonder why SO THAT is suspicious here. Because "she" is used twice in the sentence?

DmitryFarber · Answer

varotkorn  There's nothing wrong with using "she" in both parts of the sentence. The "suspect" phrases are simply constructions that are unlikely to be correct. It's hard for me to think of a good sentence with "in order that." Also, notice that in the sentence we provide in our guide, these phrases are paired with MIGHT: "so that she might stay awake" or "in order that she might stay awake." It's especially odd to use these goal-oriented phrases not with an actual goal (stay awake) but with a possibility (might stay awake). I don't want to MIGHT do something; I want to do it!

kornn · Answer

Dear  GMATGuruNY   DmitryFarber   IanStewart   MartyTargetTestPrep   AjiteshArun ,

Is SO AS TO necessarily incorrect? 
Have you ever seen SO AS TO in OA?

According to MGMAT:

IanStewart · Answer

There's nothing inherently wrong with "so as to"; it's perfectly good English. In the original question, answer A is wrong because, when it uses "so as to", the subject becomes unclear. Is it Congress caring for the children, or the workers? That kind of ambiguity is bad, and that's the kind of bigger-picture issue you should be focusing on when studying SC. The GMAT is not testing whether you can memorize which perfectly valid English phrases the test writers allegedly "like" and "do not like", and if any prep material is claiming you should memorize such phrases, that prep material is emphasizing the wrong things (and you'll probably rule out some right answers doing SC that way).

kornn · Answer

Dear  IanStewart ,

The reason you said above also appears in the correct choice.

OA :  Congress is debating a bill requiring   certain employers   to provide   workers   with unpaid leave so that  they  can care for sick or newborn children.

Does "they" stand for the employers, or workers?

If you were to say that the context dictates that "they" can only stand for "workers", then for the same reason you could also say that the context dictates that the subject of "so as to" in choice A. can only stand for "workers" as well.

In short, why do you see no pronoun ambiguity in choice D. but see such ambiguity (the subject for "so as to") in choice A.?

IanStewart · Answer

I should revise my earlier comments slightly. When you use the construction

"X is doing Y so as to Z"

then Z must explain the purpose of "doing Y". So in this sentence

"Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide workers with unpaid leave so as to care for sick or newborn children."

"to care for children" provides the reason why Congress is "debating a bill". That makes no sense. This sentence would make some sense:

"Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide workers with unpaid leave so as to ensure all points of view are heard."

Now the end of the sentence correctly describes why Congress might debate a bill. So it's not really that there's ambiguity in choice A; there's a meaning problem. I'd have a slight preference for an answer choice different from D that clarified the ambiguity with "they", but we don't have such a choice, and we can infer who it refers to by meaning.

CEdward · Answer

Is this specific to this idiom? i.e. the use of 'to' prior to the base verb? I have seen instances where using 'to' signals the intent of the doer thus rendering the sentence incorrect ( b/c it suggests the doer did X TO do Y, but that's not the intended meaning).

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide worker

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide worker

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