However much the students of this school may agree that the

Question

However much the students of this school may agree that   the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that

can somebody explain why is "much" ok in answer A although student is a countable name?

jumsumtak · Answer

this is because 'much' is modifying agreement of the students and not students themselves.

basically, the statement talks about 'average' agreement of all students taken together. Therefore:

however much the students agree = (all of the students may agree a lot to the idea XXX) or (all of the students may agree a little to the idea YYY)

yo?

anshunadir · Answer

And is a parallel marker => X and Y should be parallel.
X = the school should stay open
y = the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown

1. As Y (the non underlined part) starts with that, so X should also start with That. Eliminate B,C,D
2. the sentence has two contrasting statements. Eliminate E.

Sachin9 · Answer

Darmody, You could also use POE to reach the correct ans: B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact you need a that after fact C) Although the students of this school agree you need a that after agree as agree is a command subjunctive word D) Even though students of this school may agree you need a that after agree as agree is a command subjunctive word E) There is agreement among the students of this school that this would cause a run on sentence as there is a comma and not a semi colon; hence, this option is also ruled out.. Only A is left out and wins

Kindly press kudos if this helped.

chesstitans · Answer

I cannot believe however can be put in the beginning of the sentence.

daagh · Answer

Our beliefs may sometimes elude success in GMAT, as one can see from the following popular GMAT Prep question, which also merrily starts with however much in the correct choice.

However much United States voters may agree that  there is waste in government and that the government as a whole spends beyond its means, it is difficult to find broad support for a movement toward a minimal state.

(A) However much United States voters may agree that
(B) Despite the agreement among United States voters to the fact
(C) Although United States voters agree
(D) Even though United States voters may agree
(E) There is agreement among United States voters that

Ans; A.

Even the $2B- revenue Kaplan sanctimoniously follows the edict of GMAT through the given topic here; why can't we?

However much the students of this school may agree that  the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that
The correct answer is A in this question also.

techiesam · Answer

I think much of United States voters/students means the proportion of voters/students.As proportion is uncountable,the use of much is right.

DharLog · Answer

1. After "agree", and after "fact" we need the word "that".
First of all because in another case the sentence does not sound.
Second of all because we have second "that" and we have to maintain parallelism. Partly the sentence does not sound because of this anyway. But in any case we need "that".
B, C, D are out.

2. In E we have "that", we have parallelism. But. We there is no a normal clause.
 There is agreement among the students of this school that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown , the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.
The "red" part is the normal clause.
"the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts" - this one is needless. Makes no sense.
We have to have some connection between these two parts.
For example: "but" or semicolon
There is agreement among the students of this school that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown,  but  the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.
Or
There is agreement among the students of this school that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown  ;  the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.
So E is out.

A - good.

niyatisuri · Answer

Hello  GMATNinja   egmat ,

However much the students of this school may agree that the school should stay open  and  that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school's closure is unavoidable after the latest round of budget cuts.

Please note my analysis:

'and'   suggests parallelism --> the 2nd element of the parallelism is 'that ...' clause. So the first part of the parallelism structure should also have 'that....' clause

This eliminates B, C, D

Between A and E. E doesn't have any contrast keyword to emphasize the contrast between two clauses.

A) However much the students of this school may agree that
B) Despite the agreement among the students of this school to the fact
C) Although the students of this school agree
D) Even though students of this school may agree
E) There is agreement among the students of this school that

Please suggest any faults in my analysis.

Thank you in advance!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  niyatisuri ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your analysis is broadly correct, but there is a more important factor you seem to have overlooked.

The construction "However much..." in Option A implies a sense of degree, conveying that  regardless of to what degree  the students agree that the school should stay open and that the district's complaints of financial trouble are overblown, the school will shut down; this implication is missing from all other answer choices, leading to a meaning error in Options B, C, D, and E.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

niyatisuri · Answer

Definitely helps me understand better! Thank you

However much the students of this school may agree that the

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