In an attempt to attract more tourists, the Swiss government

Also, there is a second them referring to cows at the end of the sentence. Remember that all pronouns in a sentence must point to only one antecedent!! By structure we can conclude cows. Also keep ambiguity as the very last resort if nothing works. Structure and parallelism allow us to use pronouns where multiple antecedents are present.

D and E incorrectly place “the statues” next to the modifier ” in an attempt to attract tourists”. It was the “Swiss government” that performed the actions of the sentence in an attempt to attract tourists. Eliminate D and E.
The verb “ set” is not underlined, so all the actions of the government have to be parallel with this verb. Only C offers the parallel verbs commissioned, had and set. Eliminate A and B.
The correct answer is C.
Please note that the verb "to have" has many uses and meanings. The perfect tenses are only one use of the verb to have. Had them decorated is just simple past tense. In this construction, the meaning of the verb to have is to cause to happen by command. Had them decorated means that the government caused them to be decorated by ordering someone to decorate them.

mikemcgarry : Mike, I had a quick question. I knocked off C because it had this phrase" had them decorated", which signifies past perfect. I thought maybe this option means that the decoration happened before the act of commsioning , which actually does not make sense. Is this really a past perfect or simple past? are there any errors in E apart from the fact that the word "they" refers to the artists and should refer to the government?

Dear bkpolymers1617,

My friend, I'm happy to respond.

Precision, my friend, precision. The structure "had decorated" would be past perfect, and indeed that wouldn't work in this context. By contrast, the structure "had them decorated" is NOT past perfect! This is a 100% entirely different structure entirely.

This structure takes the form:
to have {noun][participle]
The mayor has had all the trees trimmed for the parade.
The teacher has her students trembling for fear.
I had the present wrapped at the store.
In all cases, the implication is that the subject provided the intention or directive or command for the action to take place.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

mikemcgarry: YOU ARE THE BOSSSS

I went for A mistaking "having..." part as modifier but now I notice it.
Btw, would the part between commas function as modifier correctly, if it was like:
...several life-size fiberglass cow statues, having [b]been[b] decorated by local artists, and ...

D & E are out as they have the misplaced modifier issues, its the government that wants to attract the tourists.
Between A, B & C we need to check parallelism.
Only C is parallel.

In an attempt to attract more tourists, the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and set them up on the streets of Zurich.

(A) the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, having them decorated by local artists, and

(B) the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, they were decorated by local artists, and then

(C) the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues, had them decorated by local artists, and

(D) several life-size fiberglass cow statues were commissioned by the Swiss government, decorated by local artists, and then

(E) several life-size fiberglass cow statues, commissioned by the Swiss government, were decorated by local artists, and they

A. Parallelism error : commissioned several life-size... not parallel to having them decorated by.

B. They were decorated by local artists has different subject (cow statues). This clause cannot be joined with a comma to the preceding clause Swiss govt commissioned...

C. Correct answer as it maintains correct parallelism.

D. The subject of "In an attempt to attract more tourists" should be the Swiss govt. Even if cow statues is the subject then also there is parallelism error:

cow statues 1. commissioned by the swiss govt 2. were decorated by local artists 3. set them up on the (error)

E. same kind of parallelism error as D. cow statues they set them up is a clear error.

Pls, explain why 'C' vs. A.
As per my reasing,
A- Clause, Modifier, Clause structure
C- ,and makes 3 phrases in parallel OR if 'had' explains the timeline, only one event is understood to be so, whereas A also tells us about cow statues with 'having'..

This question is based on Parallelism of verbs.

The sentence is about three things that the Swiss government did in order to attract more tourists.

The participle modifier in Option A modifies “the Swiss government”. However, since it is one of the actions done by the government, the participle form ‘having’ should be parallel to the verb forms ‘commissioned’ and ‘set up’. So, the correct form would be the verb form ‘had’. Option A can be eliminated on the basis of lack of parallelism.

There is a comma splice in Option B. There are two independent clauses - the Swiss government commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues and they were decorated by local artists – one after the other joined only by a comma. Two independent clauses can only be joined by a semi-colon or conjunction. So, Option B can be eliminated.

Options D and E have a modifier error. The sentence begins with a modifier, the subject of which is “the Swiss government”. In these two options, the noun placed after the modifier is ‘cow statues’. So, Options D and E can be ruled out.

Option C maintains parallelism. The three actions done by the government are – commissioned, had and set up. Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

EducationAisle in correct choice (C) is "had them decorated" passive voice? could you elaborate on the parallelism out here

That is correct; had them decorated by local artists is passive voice.

The parallelism is:

...the Swiss government:
i) commissioned several life-size fiberglass cow statues,
ii) had them decorated by local artists, and
iii) set them up on the streets of Zurich

commissioned, had decorated, and set are all verbs.

Experts,

I got the correct answer, but I wanted to clarify a point that's suggested by almost all the responses under this post.

For (D) and (E), isn't it okay for "cow statues" to follow "in an attempt to attract more tourists"? I thought introductory phrases with a preposition do NOT have to modify the subject of the sentence or the immediately following clause (e.g., simply setting the stage for the main clause).

Below is an OG example of correct usage of such case.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-assessing ... 82290.html

CORRECT ANSWER: "(D) In an assessment of the problems faced by rural migrant workers, the question of whether they are better off materially than the urban working poor is irrelevant."

You are right and this observation reflects your advanced level of understanding of Sentence Correction.

Generally prepositional phrases ("in an attempt to...") at the beginning of a clause/sentence act as adverbial modifiers and hence, do not have to necessarily modify a noun.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana mentions this property of "prepositional phrases". Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Can some one explain why the use of had is correct?

because had them means that the statues were decorated in the past. But, commissioning was done first as it is in Simple Past. So, if the act of commissioning was done first, decoration of the statues will happen after commissioning.
The sequence is as such: commissioning———decorating.

Is Simple past is used for commissioning, why are we using had for decorating if it is happening after commissioning. Ideally, it should be the other way around that is had commissioned and decorated.