Section 301 of the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness

Question

Section 301 of the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act enables the United
States Trade Representative to single out a country as an unfair trader, begin trade
negotiations with that country, and, if the negotiations do not conclude  by the United
States government’s being satisfied, to impose  sanctions.
A. by the United States government’s being satisfied, to impose
B. by the United States government’s satisfaction, impose
C. with the United States government’s being satisfied, imposing
D. to the United States government’s satisfaction, impose
E. to the United States government’s satisfaction, imposing

atletikos · Answer

IMO D

C,E - imposing - out
A,B - do not conclude by - bad construction, A = also has redundant 'being'

cityjoy92 · Answer

IMO - D as well

...Representative to single out...., (to) begin.... and (to) impose...

lgon · Answer

conclude that x --> when reaching to a conclusion
conclude with --> When you are concluding with some remark or something
conclude by --> to be finished.. eg..an event concludes by 2008

bigfernhead · Answer

This is a good explanation.

But how do you define conclude to?

prasun84 · Answer

OA is  B .

ritula · Answer

C and E are out bcos of usage of imposing. A is out bcos of being(which is normally avoided in GMAT). That leaves B and D. I googled conclude to and could not find any sentence with this phrase. Now coming to B, though usage of conclude by is mostly for time period eg conclude by year end. but we also have sentence like " we conclude this chapter by a discussion on....". So B is the best choice.

atletikos · Answer

prasun84, what is the source?

OA can't be B, it contains an error, 'conclude by...'

bigfernhead · Answer

Can you show us the source that conclude by is incorrect please?

atletikos · Answer

I think in THIS context 'conclude by' is not correct. For this reason I asked for the source - I'm in doubt that this source isn't credible

icandy · Answer

I agree. conclude by is wrong here. Conclude to the US satisfaction is correct.

prasun84 · Answer

this one is from the GMAT Verbal Sets..and no OE

'conclude by' is an acceptable idiom but i cudnt find any references to 'conclude to' .

gameCode · Answer

This question sure looks tricky. I would have gone for D as well.

Jallen, Can you explain how to approach this one pls ?

jallenmorris · Answer

If it makes anyone feel better, I'm 100% certain I would have gone for D as well. I have looked at different grammar sources and none say that "conclude to" is incorrect, and many times I found that "conclude by" is correct. The main point is the context of the usage.

Example #1:
After reviewing the scouting report, our coach will conclude to use trick plays.

Example #2:
According to the state Constitution, the Oklahoma legislature must   conclude by   the last Friday in May.

Example #1 uses "conclude" like making a decision.

Example #2 uses "conclude" in the manner of "wrap up" or "finish", and this is the same usage as in our question.

Example #1 is incorrect. When used in the context of thoughts or decisions, "conlucde to" is not correct. A person will "conclude that" he should use trick plays.

Example #2 is correct because the manner of usage is to wrap up. This requires some event. Like, the game will conclude when an event takes place, or by some event taking place. "The innining will conclude when the defensive team has made 3 outs."

In the example sentence of the question, the negotiations will conclude when an event takes place. The event is when the U.S. Government is satisfied. So we need "conclude by".

So here, B is correct because it uses the phrase "conclude by" in the same manner as "wrap up". I hope this helps.

For full disclosure, Mrs. Jallenmorris helped out a lot with answering this question.

ykaiim · Answer

Conclude by >>>> followed by verb/action

Conclude that >>>> conclusion is based on an analysis/judgement

Conclude to >>>> means settle/determine/resolve

Conclude with >>>> to bring some decision in the end

Conclude from >>>> conclusion in based on facts

noboru · Answer

Could you provide an example for each one? That would help a lot.
Thanks in advance.

frankida · Answer

I chose d. I was thrown off a little by the parallel construction part of because I expected the "to" to be in front of each phrase.

Concision and clarity narrowed it down to D, E. 
Then I liked D mo' better.

noboru · Answer

It is clearly between B and D, but I cant choose the best one.
Please help!

Section 301 of the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness

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