So poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United

Hi jindaliitr,

This is the sentence option D leads to:

That many young recruits to the United States work force are so poorly educated and trained is why many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence.

Although a that-clause can function as the subject of a sentence, it is best to avoid using it this way if we have better options available to us. Also, D is somewhat longer and more indirect than option A because D uses a why instead of the so and that that it already contains to introduce a reason/result statement.

That said, it is worth pointing out that the OE for this was something like "X is why is unidiomatic". X is why Y sounds fine to me, so I don't recommend using that (idiomatic) approach to remove this option. Option D is not the best of the 5 options given to us, and that is why I think we should remove it.

GMATNinja KarishmaB egmat mikemcgarry
Could you please explain why choice C is wrong?
I think that it clearly communicates the cause-effect relationship by using the word 'because of'. But, why is A a better one?

Good question. This one is mostly about logic and clarity, and not exactly a question of right vs. wrong.

Consider the following two examples:

1) Because Tim forgot to pick his kids up from school, they're wandering around the neighborhood, weeping and asking strangers for Skittles.

2) Because of Tim, who forgot to pick his kids up from school, they're wandering around the neighborhood, weeping and asking strangers for Skittles.

The first sentence has a clear causal relationship. The kids wandering around the neighborhood is a consequence of what Tim did, namely, forgetting to pick them up.

The second one is a little murkier. Now the reason the kids are wandering is Tim himself, and the fact that he forgot his kids is just incidental information. That isn't wrong, exactly. Tim is the person who screwed up, after all. But it isn't Tim's existence that's the problem. (Not the whole problem, at least.) It's what he did. So while, I wouldn't say this one is wrong, it's not quite as clear or logical as the first sentence.

Here, (C) is more like the second example, making it sound as though the young recruits themselves are why executives fear for the economy, and the stuff about the poor training is incidental.

And (A) is more like the first example, conveying the idea that the problem is that the young recruits are "so poorly educated and trained."

Because the emphasis in (A) is more logical, and the construction is cleaner and more concise, it's a better choice than (C), which I don't think is inherently wrong. Really tough, subtle decision point there.

I hope that helps!

The reason I crossed option C and E because i thought "WHO" modifies United States work force. Is it correct reasoning? If not then what WHO modifies here and how? Some experts please guide me here.

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Hi AbhishekDhanraJ72,

I wouldn't recommend taking C and E out because of the placement of who, as who refers reasonably clearly to many young recruits to the United States work force. Treat this as a minor (possible, but not absolute) error.

More generally, it's not absolutely essential for a who/that/which-clause to be right next to the noun that it modifies. We should take such calls on a case-by-case basis, after we've gone through the other options.

Hello AbhishekDhanraJ72,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, please consider the construction of the phrase "recruits to the United States work force"; here, "recruits" is the main noun in this phrase and modified by the prepositional phrase "to the United States work force"; in such cases, modifiers such as "who" and "that" refer to the main noun of the phrase.

For example, "The King of Thailand, who was beloved by his people, died recently."

Here, "who" correctly refers to "King".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hello AjiteshArun,

I want to understand the reason for rejecting Choice C , D and E.

As you mentioned that who in choices C and E are not wrong. It refers back to many young recruits.
Then why Choice C is wrong ? use of Because of is wrong as mentioned by GMATNINJA ?

Why Choice D is wrong ?


If X is why Y is fine , then Option D is wrong because it is inferior to Choice A ? is there any other reason ?

Why Choice E is wrong ?


Use of WHY at the end of Choice E makes it inferior to Choice A ? I cannot find any other reason.

Thanks

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 this sentence is that many young recruits to the United States workforce are so poorly educated and trained that many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence.

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Meaning + Idioms

• "so + cause + that + effect" is the correct, idiomatic usage.
• "due to" is used to modify nouns, and "because of" is used to modify verbs and clauses.
• “A is the reason why B” is correct, idiomatic usage.

A: Correct.
1/ This answer choice correctly uses the plural verb "are" to refer to the plural noun "recruits".
2/ Option A correctly uses the idiomatic construction “so + cause (“poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United States workforce”) + that + effect (“many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence”), conveying the intended meaning of the sentence- that many young recruits to the United States workforce are so poorly educated and trained that many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence.
3/ Option A avoids the idiomatic error seen in Option C, as it uses the "so + cause + that + effect" construction rather than the "Because of" construction to refer to the cause-effect relationship between many young recruits being poorly educated and trained and many business executives fearing that the U.S will lose its economic preeminence.

B:
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the modifier phrase “As poorly educated and trained as” to modify “many young recruits...are”, leading to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning of this sentence is that many young recruits to the United States workforce are so poorly educated and trained that many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence.

C: Trap.
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses "Because of" to refer to the noun phrase "many young recruits...who are so poorly educated and trained"; remember, "due to" is used to modify nouns, and "because of" is used to modify verbs and clauses.

D: Trap.
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “that + cause + so + effect” rather than the idiomatic construction "so + cause + that + effect"; please remember, "so + cause + that + effect" is the correct, idiomatic usage.
2/ Option D uses the unidiomatic construction “A is why B” rather than the idiomatic construction “A is the reason why B”; please remember, “A is the reason why B” is correct, idiomatic usage.

E:
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the singular verb “explains” to refer to the plural noun “recruits”.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

ChrisLele
That should modify the preceding word right?

Hello Sahil2208,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here "that" is part of the idiomatic construction "so cause that effect", so it refers to the entire preceding clause "poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United States workforce".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

focus on so...that idiom

(A) So poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United States work force that

Correctly uses the idiom, 'so...that'.

(B) As poorly educated and trained as many young recruits to the United States work force are,

The 'as' implies that the part that comes after the comma (the non-underlined part) will be something suggesting that business executives are not wary of the young recruits.

(C) Because of many young recruits to the United States work force who are so poorly educated and trained,

The 'of' and the 'who' make things wordy. If we eliminate both, the answer choice becomes more valid.

(D) That many young recruits to the United States work force are so poorly educated and trained is why

Reverses the 'so' and the 'that.'

(E) Many young recruits to the United States work force who are so poorly educated and trained explains why

Violates the 'so...that' idiom.