One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind Presiden

Question

One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind President Carter’s directive  that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries .

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries

(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States

(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States

(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries

(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries

daagh · Accepted Answer

Why C and not A? ----- The problem lies in the use of the word ‘ prohibit ’. In the main, the word prohibit can not be used to prohibit a dead thing or a concrete thing; It can only be used to prohibit an action or a person

Ex; The table was prohibited from being moved to the other place. This is wrong because that a table itself cannot move unless somebody does that action. We can only prohibit that action 
Right: The movement of the table to the other place was prohibited.
WE can similarly prohibit someone from doing something ex; I prohibited Tom from going to his hometown under frivolous reasons.

This is the reason A is wrong; A seeks to say the chemicals be prohibited, whereas C says that the sale is prohibited, which is the right thing

sudeep · Answer

I opted for C for following reasons:

1) One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind President Carter’s directive ==> is in itself is a complete sentence, we can classify the "directive" by using the participle phrase (using 'prohibiting')

2) Even if we want to use 'that' after directive, we need to say  directive that prohibits  ....blah..blah.. 
'that any chemical bond ...' doesn't seem correct to me after directive in this case.

Will greatly appreciate the opinions!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem: 
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that President Carter’s directive prohibited the sale of chemicals banned on medical grounds in the United States to any other nation.

Concepts tested here: Subjunctive Mood + Redundancy/Awkwardness

• The verb “prohibit” can only be used to refer to an action or a person; inanimate objects cannot be “prohibited”.
• “bossy verb (“prohibiting”) + that + something be done” is a correct, subjunctive usage.

A:  Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the verb phrase “be prohibited from sale” to refer to the inanimate noun phrase “any chemical"; please remember, the verb “prohibit” can only be used to refer to an action or a person.

B:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the verb phrase “be prohibited from sale” to refer to the inanimate noun phrase “any chemical”; please remember, the verb “prohibit” can only be used to refer to an action or a person. Further, Option B incorrectly uses “that” to refer to “countries”; remember, “that” refers to the noun immediately before it; hence, this usage incorrectly suggests that certain countries were banned on medical grounds in the United States; the intended meaning is that certain chemicals were banned on medical grounds in the United States.

C:   Correct.  This answer choice appropriately utilizes the verb modifier “prohibiting” rather than the verb "prohibit" to modify the noun “directive”, correctly conveying that the directive prohibited the sale. Further, Option C correctly modifies "chemical" with "banned on medical grounds in the United States", conveying the intended meaning - that certain chemicals were banned on medical grounds in the United States. Additionally, Option C correctly utilizes the noun phrase “to other countries” rather than the verb phrase “sold to any other nation”, avoiding the issue of subjunctive mood use seen in Option D. Besides, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

D:  This answer choice fails to maintain a correct subjunctive mood usage, as it uses the phrase “is sold to other countries”; please remember, “bossy verb (“prohibiting”) + that + something be done” is a correct subjunctive mood construction.

E:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the verb phrase “is prohibited from being sold” to refer to the inanimate noun phrase “any chemical”; please remember, the verb “prohibit” can only be used to refer to an action or a person. Besides, this answer choice is in passive voice and is thus needlessly indirect and wordy.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "3 Key Subjunctive Mood Constructions" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv-VK7GkSbU

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

bigoyal · Answer

IMO C.

I think, use of "that" here is incorrect. Here "any chemical banned on...." is modifying "directive". This modifier can be placed directly "directly prohibiting the sale...."

hasham222 · Answer

there is a big difference in the meaning between choice A and choice C

Choice A says : some previous president implemented X and the new president came and revoked it. So, if X were STOPPED HAPPENING in the previous president's regime, the new president has revoked it (that means he STARTED IT)

Choice C says: it completely talks this opposite.

The new president came in and revoked a previous rule. The new rule is actually STOPPING something from happening.

Now, talking in language of the question

If both option A and option C were to be the same, we would need a 'comma' after 'carter's directive'. In this case, 'prohibiting' will modify 'carter's directive'.

Without the comma 'prohibiting' is modifying 'Ronald Regan's first act'

bigoyal · Answer

My reasons for selecting C over A are:

1. option A and B are using subjunctive mood. I don't think we should use subjunctive mood here, since the option is just explaining or narrating what President Carter’s directive was. Its not that President Carter is giving his direction now itself.

2. In option C, "prohibiting" is correctly modifying "President Carter’s directive" since there is no comma.
Introduction of comma here would create ambiguity, as in that case "prohibiting" would be modifying either "President Carter’s directive" or "Ronald Reagan’s first acts" :roll:

shrutisingh · Answer

Guys found the below at https://gmattoughies.blogspot.com/

Participle Modifier (w/ and w/o comma)
If the comma is not there, the participial modifier must modify whatever noun directly precedes it. If the comma is there, then the participial modifier is taken to modify the preceding clause as a whole (or particularly the verb of that clause).
to wit:
tom received the court order [NO COMMA] restricting his movements outside the city --> the court order itself restricts tom's movements. we can infer that tom's movements are already restricted by the court order, regardless of whether he has received it.
tom received the court order, restricting his movements outside the city --> tom's movements were not restricted until he received the order.

by the way, the second of these sentences isn't that great: tom is the subject of that sentence, so the modifier implies that tom restricted his own movements by receiving the order. to convey the meaning more precisely, you'd say something like tom received the court order, thus activating orbringing into effect restrictions on...'

Ex: One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind President Carter’s directivethat any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries.
(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries
(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States
(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States
(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries
(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries

Ans C

BM · Answer

A - Subjunctive is used here. Incorrect.
B - Seems that "banned" describes countries. Also, "was" is ambigous or simply wrong. Also, see A above. 
C - Correct. 
D - The second word, "that," is excessive.
E - "Is . . . being" sounds terrible. Also, see A above.

I agree with Bigoyal; subjunctive mood is used for options A, B, and E. We can use -ing words to directly describe nouns:

The man  standing  on the porch.
The car  passing  the store. 
The star ship  floating  in outer space.

This question was quite nasty!

tingle15 · Answer

Here is another reason why A is incorrect (taken from https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/one ... t2126.html)

* you don't use "X is prohibited from ..." unless X is a person.
the chemical is prohibited from being sold --> wrong
chemical companies are prohibited from selling the chemical --> correct

temp33 · Answer

Every time u see a prohibiting doesn't necessarily mean it would be followed by "from" .. Don't base your reasoning like that..

g4gmat · Answer

Action nouns such as "Prohibiting" are prefered after Verbs. Also in this case we have "that" clause just after the Idea noun.Idea nouns are basically words which introduce an idea namely hypothesis, idea, evidence, indication, directive, suggestion etc.

Hence for the above reason I stick with B

carcass · Answer

Because the first thin to do is to reduce the sentence to the core.

Now step by step: bla bla bla the ACTS (or what was the intention to do by these) was to do something (to rescind a directive) NOW what follow ?? No a " that " is impossible for the meaning of the sentence. We need a VERB so we go straight to C or D

But D is ackward and wrong for a convoluted construction. prohibiting  what  ??? that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries NO.

prohibiting  what  ?? the sale and bla bla bla.............

C is the best

TGC · Answer

One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind President Carter’s directive that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries.

What is wrong with this one:

One of X's acts as Prez was to rescind Prez Y's directive. (to rescind is already a verb)
What was the directive "directive that .................."

What is wrong with the above construction,I am sure the reasoning behind this one will be Idioms of "directive" not the one as explained in the above post .

souvik101990 · Answer

- 'directive that ... be prohibited' is more awkward than 'directive prohibiting ...', and may in fact be considered incorrect. (from what i've seen, the use of 'directive' is similar to that of 'law', and you can't say things like 'prohibition was a law that the sale of alcohol be prohibited'.) 
- 'prohibited from sale': i'm pretty sure that's wrong. the correct use of the idiom in this case would be 'chemical companies were prohibited from selling chemicals...' 
you could also say that the sale of such chemicals is prohibited.
-MGMAT

Raihanuddin · Answer

A and B are wrong.
Prohibited from sale - is wrong. Prohibit from + noun is incorrect
Prohibit from selling is correct.

D is wrong because prohibiting that is the wrong idiom. Prohibit that is incorrect.

E is wrong because prohibited from being sold is incorrect.
For correct usage of Being look at the following article by e-gmat
being-really-the-black-sheep-in-the-gmat-family-166106.html

Ans C. The core of C is---- prohibit the sale of any chemical banned............

Correct use of Prohibit.
Prohibit X from ver+ing Y. or
Prohibit x. As in C

DmitryFarber · Answer

This is a tricky issue of meaning. Some would say that for E, we'd need the subjunctive: "the directive THAT any chemical banned in the United States BE prohibited." After all, the directive isn't saying that things already are prohibited. Rather, it's saying that this is what should happen.

But wait, that's not quite right, either. The directive is not telling us to prohibit things. It's *making* them prohibited. In other words, the directive directly prohibits the sale. It doesn't tell some unknown party to prohibit the sale later.

Divyadisha · Answer

Underlined portion is to explain what Carter's directive was.

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries  'that any chemical....' is not providing the information that is intended. 
(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States ' that' refers to 'countries'. Singular form 'was' is not right. 
(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States.  'prohibiting' correctly gives additional information. 
(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries.  It must be 'prohibiting the sale of something'  
(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited.  'prohibiting sale' is required

kishblossom · Answer

Even I marked A at first then after seeing the OA realized my mistake. Correct me if I am wrong:

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be  prohibited from sale to  other countries -  The use of subjunctive is ok but the highlighted text is wrong grammar 
(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States -  Same as A and also its wordy 
(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States -  Prohibiting the sale sounds right 
(D)  prohibiting  that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States  is sold to other countries -  The highlighted text is wrong grammar 
(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries -  This seems correct but it is a wrong usage of subjunctive form.

kitipriyanka · Answer

(A) that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States be prohibited from sale to other countries- this option says chemical banned is prohibited while sentence wants to convey the The sale of chemical is prohibited.

(B) that any chemical be prohibited from sale to other countries that was banned on medical grounds in the United States - Same as A

(C) prohibiting the sale to other countries of any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States - Correct

(D) prohibiting that any chemical banned on medical grounds in the United States is sold to other countries - 'prohibiting is sold' is incorrect

(E) that any chemical banned in the United States on medical grounds is prohibited from being sold to other countries - Same as A

Hence C

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One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts as President was to rescind Presiden

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