It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of the Washington

Dear IanStewart,

However, according to MGMAT SC guide 6th edition:

I'm very confused here.

The important word in that sentence is "can". It does not say "must", and for a reason: we don't use the subjunctive tense simply because we use some other word like "command". We use the subjunctive tense because it conveys a certain meaning; it conveys that something is possible, not actual. If you take a sentence like "The King commanded he go to the store", which uses subjunctive, and change the verb phrase so "command" becomes a noun, so change the sentence to something like "The king gave the command that he go to the store", you again need the subjunctive, because this sentence has the same meaning as the previous one. That's the situation your book is referring to, one where "command" becomes a noun but could just as easily have been used as the verb if the sentence were written more economically.

These two examples don't resemble at all the sentence in this thread. The newspaper is under Graham's command, and the paper won praise, in actuality (not as a possibility, which is what the subjunctive would convey). Graham did not command that something happen, so it would be wrong to use subjunctive here.

The point is, we don't use subjunctive tense as an automatic reflex just because certain words appear in a sentence. We use it to convey a certain meaning, and do not use it when it would convey the wrong meaning. If you know what subjunctive tense is for, you don't need to memorize lists of words that typically require its use, and you won't make the mistake of thinking it's required in questions like this one.

I received a PM requesting that I comment.

One purpose of the subjunctive mood is to express an action that is HYPOTHETICAL: an action that might not actually happen.
When we demand an action, we cannot be certain that our demand will be met.
Because the demanded action might not actually happen, we use the COMMAND SUBJUNCTIVE.
The structure of the command subjunctive is as follows:
BOSSY WORD + that + NOUN + BARE INFINITIVE.
Examples of bossy words: demand, dictate, mandate, etc.
The bare infinitive is the infinitive form of a verb with the to omitted.

Examples:
The attorneys demanded that the new contract be implemented.
The attorneys issued a demand that the new contract be implemented.
In the sentences above:
Bossy word = demanded and a demand
that + NOUN = that the new contract
Bare infinitive = be implemented (to be implemented with the to omitted)
The blue portion is expressed in the subjunctive mood because the demanded action is not a known fact but is only HYPOTHETICAL: it is possible that the new contract will NOT be implemented, despite the demand.



Here, the blue portion is NOT hypothetical but ACTUALLY HAPPENED: it is a known FACT that the paper won high praise.
Thus, the usage of the subjunctive mood would be unwarranted.
In this context, under her command = under her leadership.
Conveyed meaning:
Under Katharine Graham's leadership, the paper won high praise.

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

(A) It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises Correct answer - no apparent errors.

(B) It was only after Katharine Graham's becoming publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and under her command it had won high praises "Katharine Graham's becoming publisher..." is awkward. Past perfect "had won" is incorrect since it does not refer to the earlier of two events in the past. Eliminate.

(C) Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963, and only after that did it move into the first rank of American newspapers, having won high praise under her command Noun modified by "having won high praise..." is unclear - is it Graham or the Post? Eliminate.

(D) Moving into the first rank of American newspapers only after Katharine Graham became its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post, winning high praise under her command Sentence fragment. Eliminate.

(E) Moving into the first rank of American newspapers only after Katharine Graham's becoming its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post won high praise under her command "Katharine Graham's becoming..." is very awkward. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

In option A "It" has two referent, here first "It" is used as place holder whereas second "It" used as pronoun referent for Washington post, why this is correct here ??

Hi vipulgoel,

A sentence can use multiple its. That is, there is no rule that restricts us to just one antecedent for a pronoun.

vipulgoel AjiteshArun
It's true that there is no strict English rule preventing the use of the same pronoun to refer to different antecedents. For instance, I might say "My wife asked her boss about the new position, and she told her that she was overqualified." I think a careful reader will understand that the following is intended:
she = my wife's boss
her, she = my wife

However, the GMAT really does tend to avoid this kind of usage, since it will often depend on context or outside information for clarity. So it makes sense for this to be something that we do (with discretion) in real-world English and avoid in the single-sentence world of the GMAT.

However, this "rule" or tendency has no bearing on the use of "it" as a placeholder. The first "it" in the sentence doesn't refer to a noun in the sentence, so there's no problem using a second "it" to refer to The Washington Post.

Hi DmitryFarber,

I agree, and I could have been clearer in my earlier post. I tend to use the word rule to refer to an absolute rule (absolute is how I describe such rules to my students, but what I really mean is ~ "a pattern that is very reliable"). So if the question is whether something is possible, I would hesitate to call what we are discussing here a rule. However, I completely agree with this point (emphasis mine):


vipulgoel

I normally don't recommend looking at most pronoun issues as absolute rules because of questions like this one (different forms of they: possessive their, subject they, similar to possessive its, subject it):

I know the GMAT doesn't test punctuation, but why the comma before and?

Hi Vishalcv,

Using a comma before a coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses is usually a good idea. It helps the reader pause at that point, the way a speaker might.

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

You're right about the fact that the GMAT (generally) doesn't test punctuation (it does test a few issues, like comma splices).

AjiteshArun GMATGuruNY IanStewart

Can you please explain the usage of "that" in option A. Is it working as an idiom or as a relative pronoun referring back to a noun?

The sentence is using an idiom here, though it's a common one that test takers probably should be familiar with. The idiom looks like this:

It was only after X happened that Y happened.

which can be rephrased, without using "that", in this way:

Y happened only after X happened.

The two sentences mean the same thing; they both suggest X preceded and was the cause of Y. There's a slight difference in emphasis in the two phrasings above, though. The first, using "It was only after X happened..." emphasizes the cause X, while the second emphasizes the effect Y. This is a fairly common idiom, because it is used with related wordings too, e.g.:

It was because X happened that Y happened.

which means the same thing as

Y happened because X happened.

but again there is a difference in emphasis. In the original question in this thread, the sentence is trying to draw more attention to Graham's accomplishments, and less to the improved standing of the Washington Post, which is why the writer used a construction that highlights Graham rather than the newspaper.

Of course, we can still decode idioms grammatically, but I rarely give much though to the part of speech common words like "that" and "for" play in constructions like this, because those words can play dozens of different roles in English sentences, and I don't derive any value from classifying those roles. Someone who gives more thought to that kind of issue will give you a more reliable reply, but it appears to me on quick reflection that the "that" here is introducing a "that-clause", so the usage is related to the relative pronoun function "that" can play.

I'd add that there's a typo in the correct answer (and original sentence) in the opening post that seems to have gone uncorrected for 14 years. The sentence should say "high praise", not "high praises". When "praise" is used as a noun, I can't think of any circumstance where it is correct to pluralize it, unless one is using the idiom "sing someone's praises" (which would almost certainly never appear in a GMAT question). The sentence "she received praise for her performance" is natural English, while the sentence "she received praises for her performance" is not, and is not something that would be considered correct on the GMAT. That's not the kind of issue GMAT SC tests, but it's because of this that I can be sure, without referring to the source, that the question in the OP has not been transcribed correctly.

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One purpose of that is to allow a CLAUSE to serve as a NOUN.

Clause:
The universe began in an explosive instant.
OA to SC8 in the OG12:
The widely accepted big bang theory holds THAT THE UNIVERSE BEGAN IN AN EXPLOSIVE INSTANT.
Here, the that-clause in blue functions as a NOUN.
More specifically, the blue that-clause serves as the direct object of holds.
Question: WHAT does the theory hold?
Answer: that the universe began in an explosive instant
that the universe began in an explosive instant = the EVENT that the theory holds

Case 1:
It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers.
Here, the first it is standing in for the that-clause in blue.
Conveyed meaning:
That it moved into the first rank of American newspapers was only after Katharine Graham became publisher.
In this case, the blue that-clause serves as a SUBJECT -- more specifically, the subject for was.
Question: WHAT was only after Katharine Graham became publisher?
Answer: that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers
that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers = the EVENT that was only after Katharine Graham became publisher

Case 2:
It was under her command that the paper won high praise.
Here, it is standing in for the that-clause in blue.
Conveyed meaning:
That the paper won high praise was under her command.
As in Case 1, the blue that-clause serves as the subject for was.
Question: WHAT was under her command?
Answer: that the paper won high praise
that the paper won high praise = the EVENT that was under her command

Hi DmitryFarber

Here we see the pronoun "it" has been used as a placeholder and as a pronoun referring to a noun in the same sentence. I remember in one of your explanations ( of some other question) , you mentioned that the GMAT would never allow such ambiguity. The correct answer choice may not have a glaring ambiguity but I eliminated it because the usage of "it" in every place was not crystal clear.

What am I missing ?

Hello expert,
I went with E cuz I think (1) it has no grammatical error (Katharine Graham's becoming is a little bit awkward though) ; (2) it conveys the same meaning like A but is more concise than A.
Besides, I’m m struggling with this kind of question which is no grammatical error in every choice. I see some people said “It is critical to understand the intended meaning, and the original wanted to emphasize Graham's accomplishments”, yes I agree this rule but I can’t catch what the writer wanna empathize before I know the OA. Could you shed some light on how to deal with such questions? Thanks

Perhaps you are referring to the following rule:
Generally, when forms of the same pronoun are repeated WITHIN A SINGLE CLAUSE, the referent should be the same in each case.

OA: It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.
Here:
The first it is contained within the blue clause.
The second it is contained within the red clause.
The third it is contained with the green clause.
The possessive form -- its -- is contained within the orange clause.
Since each usage is contained within a different clause, the rule does not apply.

A VERBing that serves as a noun is called a GERUND.
For the purposes of the GMAT, consider the following construction incorrect:
POSSESSIVE + GERUND + NOUN or NOUN PHRASE
E) only after Katharine Graham's becoming its publisher in 1963
Here:
Katharine Graham's = possessive
becoming = gerund
its publisher = noun phrase
In accordance with the rule above, the construction in red is not viable.
Eliminate E.

Note that the following construction is acceptable:
POSSESSIVE + GERUND + PREPOSITIONAL MODIFIER
For an OA with this construction, check here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-world-wi ... 03470.html