Despite forceful legal pleas for the restitution of expropriated cultural artifacts to the place of their origin, the British Museum continues to rebuff the Greek authorities
requesting that it should return the Parthenon marbles removed from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin in 1806.
(A) requesting that it should
(B) requesting them to
(C) and its request to
(D) who request that it
(E) who request them to
hi
smartyguy,
firstly lets look at what this question tests and what likely errors can be there,
1) it is using the subjunctive mood so 'that'(preferrable) and basic form('return' is already in non underlined portion) of verb is required.
2) rebuff requires a noun as a recipient.. that is either the greek authorities was rebuffed or the greek authorities request was rebuffed , so we cannot have an 'ing' form.. Also the construction of sentence is such that requesting refers back to british museum...
3)pronoun error is very common on GMAT.. british museum requires singular 'it'..
lets look at the choices..
(A)
requesting that it should
requesting refers here to the british museum and not to intended greek authorities.... had it been '
request that it should' would have been correct since refers to 'the greek authorities request'...
(B) requesting them to
same as A... plus pronoun error , also absence
(C) and its request to
this means that the british museum rebuffed 'authorities' and also 'its request', a meaning that is not intended in original ...
(D)
who request that it
correct... who refers back correctly to greek authorities...
(E) who request them to
pronoun error..'them' is wrong.. that is preferrable..