OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)
THE PROMPTQuote:
In 2014, the United States Postal Service (USPS) released a report recommending post offices to provide their customers banking services such as refillable debit cards, check cashing, and offering small loans.
The really short answerIf
recommend is used in its bossy sense (
recommend can also mean
endorse), it must be part of the command subjunctive construction.
Options A, B, C, and E do not use the command subjunctive structure.
Game over. Option D wins.
Back to our regularly scheduled program.
• IssuesCommand subjunctive→ recommend is a "bossy" verb that requires the "command subjunctive" (or "mandative subjunctive") construction:
bossy verb + THAT + subject/noun + bare infinitiveThe infinitive:
to provideThe
bare infinitive (just drop the word "to"):
provideParallelism→ the list of three examples of "banking services" must be parallel
Such As Vs. LikeTo introduce examples, use
such as, not
like.THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) [THAT] post offices to provide their customers banking services such as refillable debit cards, check cashing, and offering small loans.
• improper construction
→
recommend requires the command subjunctive structure (see above)
→ recommend
THAT post offices
provide their customers XYZ
• The list of examples is not parallel
Offering small loans, refillable debit cards, and
check cashing are not parallel (gerund, "normal"/concrete noun, gerund).
ELIMINATE A
Quote:
B) that post offices should provide their customers such banking services as refillable debit cards, check cashing, and giving small loans
• do not use
should in the bossy verb command subjunctive construction.
→
Recommend and
should are redundant; recommend already suggests "should."
→ Speakers of British English, be a bit careful. In B.E., "should" is allowed.
• not parallel:
refillable debit cards, check cashing, and
giving small loans ("regular"/concrete noun, gerund, gerund)
→ the first list item is a regular noun, whereas the third item is a gerund (a verbING).
Ignore "check cashing." It's hard to decide quickly what
check cashing is: a regular noun? a gerund?
We can ignore "check crashing" because item #1 and item #3 are not parallel.
ELIMINATE B
Quote:
C) post offices to provide their customers such banking services like refillable debit cards, check cashing, and small loans
• the command subjunctive construction should be used
• The use of
such . . . like to introduce examples is incorrect
ELIMINATE C
Quote:
D) that post offices provide their customers banking services such as refillable debit cards, check cashing, and small loans.
• Correct
→ the command subjunctive is used (recommend THAT post offices provide)
→ the list items are all "regular" nouns and are parallel
→ examples are introduced by
such asKEEP
Quote:
E) post offices that provide their customers banking services such as refillable debit cards, cashing of checks, and giving small loans
• the command subjunctive is not used
• the use and placement of
that provide distort the meaning of the sentence.
• a verb is missing from the main clause because
that "eats up" the verb
provide.•
debit cards, cashing of checks and
giving small loans are not parallel
ELIMINATE E
The answer is D.COMMENTS ravigupta2912 you asked a good question:
Quote:
Small question here - are both the below constructions correct in subjunctive constructions?
a) " <<bossy verb>> that......" (eg: recommend that aid be provided)
b) "<<bossy verb>> <<noun entity / doer / subject>> to do.." (eg: recommend John to provide aid)
This is often the split in subjunctive and I often trip on this. If both are correct, what are the rules that determine which structure should be preferred?
No, both constructions are not correct in this instance because of this verb.
Recommend cannot be followed by the infinitive, so (b) is incorrect, though its structure is spot on.
Other bossy verbs can take both
that and the infinitive.
Require can take both constructions.
Correct: The Act requires that employees be restored to their positions after taking a leave.
→ bossy verb + THAT + subject/noun [employees] + bare infinitive (be)
Correct: The Act requires employers to restore employees to their positions after taking a leave.
→ X + bossy verb + subject/noun + infinitive
I could
require John to provide aid.
I could
order John to provide aid.
Recommend cannot be followed by the infinitive.
I could not
recommend John to provide aid.
I recently wrote a post about
commands, here.In that post, I list some verbs that can take both the command subjunctive and the infinitive forms.
We must learn the verbs; how they can be used in the command form is idiomatic.
Take a look at
this post, here and
this post, here.
These answers range from good to excellent. Kudos to all who explained.