Registered brokerage firms have been required to record details of all

Question

Registered brokerage firms have been required to record details of all computerized program trades made in the past year so that government agencies  will be able to decide whether they should be banned .

A. will be able to decide whether they should be banned

B. should be able to decide whether they should be banned

C. should be able to decide whether they can be banned

D. will be able to decide whether program trades should be able to be banned

E. will be able to decide whether program trades should be banned

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soumy22 · Answer

IMO E is the answer
It is about banning the computerized program tades.

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winterschool · Answer

A, B & C contain 'they', which has no clear antecedent; it could be government agencies, program trades or brokerage firms. 
D is wordy. E is best

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (E) . It took me 34 seconds.

(A) "they" can plausibly refer to "brokerage firms" or "computerized program trades". Such ambiguity eliminates (A). 
(BC) contains "they" as well.

Between (D) and (E), "whether program trades should be able to be banned" is wrong for three reasons, either of which is sufficient to eliminate (D).
1. "program trades" is not an agent that can take on the ability to ban or to be banned. 
2. "should be able to be banned" is longer than "should be banned".
3. Two consecutive "be able to" is an exceedingly bad style.

Bunuel · Answer

Princeton Review Official Explanation:

Here’s How to Crack It

Begin by identifying any of the common errors in the underlined portion of the sentence. We’ll go over the common errors later in this chapter, so for now just know that one of the common errors is ambiguous pronouns. In this case, the pronoun  they  in the underlined portion of the sentence is ambiguous as it is unclear whether  they  refers to registered  brokerage firms  or  computerized program trades . There is an error in the underlined portion of the sentence, so eliminate (A) and look for any obvious repeaters.

Choices (B) and (C) also used the ambiguous pronoun  they , so eliminate (B) and (C) as well. Evaluate the remaining answer choices individually, looking for a reason to eliminate each.

Choice (D) fixes the original error by changing the pronoun  they  to  program trades . Now, determine whether the answer choice makes any other errors. The verb  able to  modifies the phrase program  trade , meaning that the  program trades  are  able  to do something.

This is a misplaced modifier error, so eliminate (D). Choice (E) fixes the original error by changing the pronoun  they  to  program trades  and creates no new errors, so keep (E).

If it was not apparent that (D) contained the misplaced modifier error, then (D) could have been eliminated because it is not as concise as (E). Either way,  the correct answer is (E).

Registered brokerage firms have been required to record details of all

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Registered brokerage firms have been required to record details of all

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