Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its

Question

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots,  it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past.

(A) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past

(B) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and must compete more effectively than in the past for customers

(C) the airline's board of directors must now determine both how to make the airline increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past

(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past

(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and also how to make it compete more effectively than in the past for customers
 (C) the airline's board of directors must now determine  both  how to make the airline increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past
(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past
(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can  both  increase profits  and also  how to make it compete more effectively than in the past for customers

Who "Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots" modifies? the airline's board of directors. So the subject must follow the comma: out A B.
In C both is misplaced, so we can eliminate this option. The correct idom is "both X and Y" not "both X and also Y", D wins: it also more clear and coincise then E.

daagh · Accepted Answer

The simple process of elimination of C is that the singular airline is being pronouned as 'they' which is a subject - pronoun number error.

pqhai · Answer

Modifier problem.
Having...... with   its   company's pilot,   the airline's board of director   must now determine how the airline can   both increase  ....   and compete  ..........

So E is correct.

Hope it helps.

daagh · Answer

E is not correct becos of 'both and also' redundancy; D is the one. May be a typo

Aristocrat · Answer

Its 'D'

the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can  both increase profits and compete more  effectively for customers  than  it did in the past

opening modifier correctly modifying the airline's board.
'both'..'and' parallelism marker correctly made increase profits and compete more effectively
two adjective phrases parallel

past and preset performance separated by 'than' also right

sdas · Answer

IMO D
A and B are out due to pronoun referent issue
C has incorrect placement of "both"
E has incorrect use of "also" along with "both" - making unnecessary double comparison

blueseas · Answer

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots, it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past.

(A) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past
(B) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and must compete more effectively than in the past for customers
(C) the airline's board of directors must now determine both how to make the airline increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past
(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past
(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and also how to make it compete more effectively than in the past for customers

MEANING:
Airline's board of directors can now determine how :
1.to increase profit
2.to compete more effectively 
in the same way board was doing before.

CATCH:
Airline's board: collective noun
Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots: THIS IS A MODIFIER...so ask question WHO?....So as per the meaning of sentence answer will be airline's board which is noun.
whenever modifier modifies a noun then it should touch the noun ,so on the basis of this we can eliminate A,B...as modifier is not touching noun.

now we have C D E
(C) the airline's board of directors must now determine both how to make the airline increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past(In this "they" is incorrect because as per the meaning "they" should represent board ....but airline's board is singular so this pronoun is incorrect.
(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past(correct)
(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and also how to make it compete more effectively than in the past for customers(in this there are 2 errors:(a).and also together is redundant
(b)parrallelism error---how the airline can both increase profits AND also how to make it compete more effectively
both sides of and is not parallel.

hope i correctly explained.
experts please suggest if i am wrong somewhere.

SKM

abrakadabra21 · Answer

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots, it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past.

(C) the airline's board of directors must now determine  both  how to make the airline  increase profits and compete  more effectively for customers than they did in the past
(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past
(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and also how to make it compete more effectively than  in the past for customers

Skywalker18 · Answer

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its company's pilots,  it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past.

(A) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past - opening modifier issue 
(B) it must now be determined by the airline's board of directors how the airline can both increase profits and must compete more effectively than in the past for customers - same as A
(C) the airline's board of directors must now determine both how to make the airline increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than they did in the past- they should logically refer to airline ; both X and Y -- parallelism issue
(D) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and compete more effectively for customers than it did in the past - Correct
(E) the airline's board of directors must now determine how the airline can both increase profits and also how to make it compete more effectively than in the past for customers - Both X and also Y is incorrect

Answer D

adkikani · Answer

GMATNinja   GMATNinjaTwo   VeritasPrepKarishma

Can experts comment if usage of - BOTH A and B- is correct in (C)

A : how to make the airline increase profits (verb)
B: compete more effectively (verb)

AliciaSierra · Answer

I am not expert but i can say usage of BOth A and B in C is not correct. A is interrogative clause and B is phrase.

In simple words..Both How Bblah Blah and How Blah Blah.... will make more sense.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Having finally reached a tentative labor agreement with its

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards