Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits, the state legislature h

Question

Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits, the state legislature  had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor submit  a balanced budget.

A. had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor submit
B. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor must submit
C. had no choice except to pass a law mandating that the governor should submit
D. was left with no choice except passing a law mandating the governor to submit
E. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor has to submit

Source: McGraw-Hill's GMAT

shekyonline · Answer

Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits, the state legislature had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor submit a balanced budget.

that the governor must submit. strong word.
that the governor should submit - moral obligation. wrong.
b, c out
was left with - too wordy. D out.
governor has to submit- wrong . E out.
 A  is best of the lots.

A. had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor submit
B. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor must submit
C. had no choice except to pass a law mandating that the governor should submit
D. was left with no choice except passing a law mandating the governor to submit
E. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor has to submit

TejasD · Answer

I think A is best because of the correct use of subjunctive verb. Trigger word + that + noun + subjunctive verb in base form.

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Abhishek009 · Answer

Subjunctive rule :   mandate + that + NOUN + BASE FORM of the VERB

Correct answer must be (A) for correct , subjunctive usage....

jagangmat760 · Answer

Please help me understand how is the usage of 'had' correct in the sentence

ju9549 · Answer

How is the usage of had justified here?

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ju9549 · Answer

How is the usage of had justified here?

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ArupRS · Answer

I think "had" is not past perfect tense. This is simple past tense. 
present tense: I have no choice.
Present perfect tense: I have had no choice.
Past tense: I had no choice.
Past perfect tense: I had had no choice

Regards,
Arup

nkme2007 · Answer

Hi,

Here "had" does not refer to past perfect tense. It is talking about past tense od has.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi jagangmat760 ,

The verb ‘had’ is not used as a helping/auxiliary verb in this sentence. It is the main verb in the main/independent clause – “the state legislature had no choice but to pass a law”. The subject is ‘the state legislature’ and the verb is ‘had’.

To tackle the question of whether it should be in the past or the present tense, we do not have any indicator in the modifier at the beginning of the sentence – “Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits”. As the modifier begins with the past participle ‘Faced’, and participle phrases do not have a tense, we should look at the main/independent clause for the tense.

There is no information in the main/independent clause to guide us regarding the correct tense. So, the main clause could be in any tense and the verb could be ‘had’, ‘has’ or ‘was left’. That means that we have to now look for another error to help us eliminate options and arrive at the best one.

Option D has an idiomatic error. After the preposition ‘except’, the infinitive form ‘to pass’ must be used instead of the ‘gerund form ‘passing’.

The remaining options have errors of subjunctive usage. After verbs such as ‘mandate’, recommend’, ‘decide’, ‘determine’, ‘suggest’ etc, there is a specific construction that is used.

The construction is as follows:
 ………mandating + a clause beginning with the relative pronoun ‘that’ (The verb within the clause should be in the base form or present subjunctive, as it is called).

…….. mandating   that  the governor  submit  ……..

I’m giving below another example:
E.g.: The manager  recommended   that  the employee  take  leave as he was ill.

In such constructions, there is no need for a helping verb in the clause beginning with the relative pronoun. So, ‘must’, ‘should’, and ‘has’ are redundant. The infinitive ‘to submit’ is also wrong in such a construction. 
Jayanthi Kumar.

Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits, the state legislature h

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Faced with repeated crippling budget deficits, the state legislature h

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