In 1994 the white house named Dr Ruth R. Faden chairperson of the

Question

In 1994 the white house named Dr Ruth R. Faden chairperson of the federal advisory committee of experts they assigned to do a report on the history and ethics of the government’s radiation experiments on humans in the 1950’s and 1960’s .

(A) they assigned to do
(B) to be assigned doing
(C) that was being assigned doing
(D) assigned for doing
(E) it assigned to do

(A) they assigned to do 
(B) to be assigned doing 
(C) that was being assigned doing 
(D) assigned for doing 
(E) it assigned to do

arirux92 · Answer

Found this gem on the net:

The expressions differ both referentially and grammatically: in terms of reference, '(in order) to do' specifies the purpose of an action, while 'for doing' specifies the purpose/use of a thing (typically an object). They differ grammatically in that 'in order to do' functions as an adverbial modifier to a verb phrase, whereas 'for doing' functions simply as a complement. Thus we say e.g.

He picked up his pen in order to write a letter.

(not *...for writing....), answering the question WHY did he pick up his pen?,

but

A pen is for writing.

(not *...(in order) to write), answering the quite different question WHAT is a pen FOR?.

IMO

for doing : What is the general purpose?
to do : Specific purpose.

The committee was formed with a specific purpose; hence to do beats for doing. Even though there's a slight chance of ambiguity and I don't agree wholeheartedly with the question.

E.

thangvietname · Answer

a characteristic feacture of englis is that a verb can go with another verb or a noun through idiom expression.

we have the following idiom

asigne somebody to do something.

b and c are wrong. assigne somebody doing , not idiomatic. D is also wrong. assigne for doing. no idiom.

between a and e.

"they" can not refer to " whitehouse". "it" can.

e is correct

Madhavi1990 · Answer

All of them sound strange, but D is the best fit in terms of meaning and pronoun placement

DhruvPatelD10 · Answer

Can you please explain what is wrong with OE - E ?

I feel E should be the correct response, but other answers indicate D.

sayantanc2k · Answer

E is alright.
D is wrong because "for doing" has been used to depict purpose. To depict purpose, infinitive "to + verb" is to be used.

ucb2k7 · Answer

Please clarify as to why D cannot be an effective choice.
E doesn't sound correct with the use of ''it''.

Please explain.

Thanks,

ucb2k7

poul_249 · Answer

Can someone clarify if it should be D or E? Coz I find no reason to choose E..as "it" has no clear antecedent.

Nightmare007 · Answer

We need intention I guess To wins over for....

MissionWin · Answer

A can be discarded, immediately, due to a pronoun error. ‘the White House’ is singular and should not be referred to by the plural pronoun ‘they’. B is not a great choice since it is passive and that is not preferred on the GMAT. C is much too wordy and is poorly constructed. ‘assigned for doing’ is definitely not properly constructed and is even more awkward than C. The correct answer should be E. ‘it’ in E may seem a little ambiguous but the parallelism makes it clear that ‘it’ refers to ‘the White House’ and not ‘the federal advisory committee’.

Debashis Roy · Answer

GMATNinja

In my opinion (D) is better than (E)...there is no problem in using ing form of the verb here. In (E) the structure it assigned seems odd and needs a that before to erase any ambiguity.

Please give your thoughts.
Thanks in advance

Duongluong · Answer

I know that option D has the problem of conveying the purpose that sticks with "to Verb". But I also have the problem with option E because it lacks conjunction FANBOYS and comma between 2 independence clauses. 
Can someone help me out?

Appler · Answer

I don't know why there is so few discussions about this sentence. In my opinion, the test maker "deliberately" dropped a vital word "that" in the sentence.

In 1994 the white house named Dr Ruth R. Faden chairperson of the federal advisory committee of experts  that  (refers to committee)   it   (white house)  assigned to do a report on the history and ethics of the government’s radiation experiments on humans in the 1950’s and 1960’s .
However, I would like to ask for someone's expert opinion: why the word "that" is dropped here? Without it the sentence can become really confusing.

Please comment whether my understanding is correct. If it is, please help explain why "that" is dropped here? Many thanks!!!

AjiteshArun · Answer

You're right. The  that  has been dropped from the sentence. However, this is quite common, and is not incorrect.

For example, take a look at  this official question .

A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

Here the  that  after  books  has been dropped. 
More (short) examples:
1.  I like the movie you made. 
2.  I accidentally broke the instrument you gave me.

Here is  another question  you could try.

GmatPrime · Answer

Split 1:
'doing' vs  'to do' 
'to do' denotes purpose and is apt here

Split 2:
'they' vs  'it' 
'it' refers to the White House. Singular form.

Option  E is the right answer.

Rajeet123 · Answer

Remaining D and E. 
The reason why I eliminated D is that it uses "doing" (continuous tense) when the sentence talks about 1950's (past).

However, I'm not sure if this logic is right. Comments?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Rajeet,  doing  does  not  have any tense at all; in fact, in this sentence,  doing  is used as a  noun  (gerund).

As you would appreciate, a  Noun  does  not  have any  tense .

Rajeet123 · Answer

Absolutely! That makes so much sense. My bad, thank you for correcting me

Posted from my mobile device

pradeepgontla · Answer

Hi Windy please provide official explanation.

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In 1994 the white house named Dr Ruth R. Faden chairperson of the

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In 1994 the white house named Dr Ruth R. Faden chairperson of the

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