This one is a toughie . Hopefully, I can make things clear.

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

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

Correctly uses the idiom, 'so...that'. While there are many intervening words between 'so' and 'that', most of those words are part of the noun phrase 'young recruits...'. Had there been another verb in the intervening phrase, then (A) would have been awkward. As is, it is idiomatically correct and conveys a clear meaning.

(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.
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hi ajit257,

Well you can start the sentence with "that clause" , I sad that it is not preffered.

so, why D is wrong here.

first look at "so poorly educated and trained" so needs a compliment "that" -for sexample "so many young recruits to the United States work force are so poorly educated and trained that"
- "so (adjective) that" - is correct usage
- "so .(adjective) why: -is wrong usage , please refer MGMAT SC chapter 9 "idioms" for more details.

second.
the intended meaning is the following
some people are worried about smth and the dependent clause explains why they are worried.
Ask yourself about what word is the most useful to explain this WHY relationship?

informally, very often people use the construction "that's why" to explain cause-effect relationship.
Formally the word BECAUSE is used fot that.

In our sentence anw D uses wrong, or informal construction "That .....why" with a lot of words between them.
It is much better to use BECAUSE.

Read the sentence vice versa.
"many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence (WHY?) BECAUSE many young recruits to the United States work force are [strike]so[/strike]poorly educated " and this is perfectly clear sentence.


Moreover, D starts with "That..." clause which is not the subject of the sentence.

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Choice D is close too; however, it has a problem.

The idiom is So X that Y where X and Y should be grammatically parallel. In D, so poorly educated and trained does not have the corresponding THAT.

D would have been right if it had been worded as follows -

That many young recruits blah blah are poorly educated and trained is why blah blah... (notice that SO has been removed).

A is right because it uses the correct idiomatic construction.

it is not preffered to start a sentence with relative clause, in our case with "That...."

A is best choice, becuase it contains idiomatic usage "so ...that"
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Hi Pkit,
Thanks for your reasoning. I have a small doubt though, I was told you can begin a sentence with 'that' if it introduces the clause that is the subject of the sc.
eg...

The fact of some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably on a spectrum of genetic relatedness.

A. The fact of some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably
B. That some fraternal twins resemble each other greatly while others look quite dissimilar highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely that they vary considerably
C. With some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar, it highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely considerable variation
D. With some fraternal twins resembling each other greatly and others looking quite dissimilar, it is a fact that highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely a considerable variation
E. Because some fraternal twins resemble each other greatly and others look quite dissimilar, this fact highlights an interesting and often overlooked feature of fraternal-twin pairs, namely they vary considerably

Here the correct ans is b.
So what is the difference. Please advise

In D there are two errors. 1. ‘That something is why’ is not an acceptable idiom. ‘That something is the reason why’ is the accepted version. 2. A comparative idiom that is started with ‘so’ has to be completed with a companion such as ‘that’ or ‘as’
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Answer: (A) So poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United States work
force that

(B) As poorly educated and trained as many young recruits to the United States work
force are
As [adjective] as .. is used to make comparison of two things... we ought not to compare many young recruits to anybody... the sentence is merely describing the many young recruits...

(C) Because of many young recruits to the United States work force who are so
poorly educated and trained.
This makes many young recruits the direct reason of the fear of the executives which changes the intended meaning of the sentence. The sentence merely points out to the poor education and training of the recruits not the recruits themselves.

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

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

(D) and (E) are just wordy. "is why" makes the sentence unnecessarily wordy.

Eliminate C,D,E because the "poorly trained" phrase modifies the "United States work force" and NOT "young recruits"

Eliminate B for incorrect idiom usage.

A is winner coz idiom is "so x that y" !!!
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Still unclear why D is out. I have seen quite a few gmat sentences beginning with 'That', and they turn out to be the right answer...

I was unable to find any example from OG that has this structure "That {clause} is why..."; could you site one. I found the following sentence in OG13 that does not use "that" at the beginning:

"The surprising finding under discussion is why certain juvenile horseshoe crabs do not have significant barnacle populations,"

Moreover the subject is the gerund "finding", not a complete clause as stated in option D.

IMHO (A) with this one

So X that Y is correct idiomatic usage and eGMAT states

Y explains/describes X

Here why many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence is explained by the poor education and training to the United States work force

Thus So X that Y works perfect here...
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So poorly educated and trained are many young recruits to the United States work force that many business executives fear this country will lose its economic preeminence.

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

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

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

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

(E) Many young recruits to the United States work force who are so poorly educated and trained explains why
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As per the meaning we need to show the degree such that it is causing another problem.

So, here we are saying as they are too much equipped, they are turning patients away.

So poorly equipped and staffed are many State-run hospitals in India that many of them routinely turn away patients with life threatening illnesses.

A) So poorly equipped and staffed are many State-run hospitals in India that
B) As poorly equipped and staffed as many State-run hospitals in India are, --> No presence of intensity/degree.
C) Because many State-run hospitals in India are so poorly equipped and staffed --> Changing the meaning. We need to show degree.
D) That many State-run hospitals in India are so poorly equipped and staffed is why --> "That is why" is awkward.
E) Many State-run hospitals in India are poorly equipped and staffed, which explain why ->Equipped and staffed explain why?? nonsensical.
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A) So poorly equipped and staffed are many State-run hospitals in India that

B) As poorly equipped and staffed as many State-run hospitals in India are,
= though many State-run hospitals in India are poorly equipped and staffed
meaningwise, this is wrong as there is no opposing ideas expressed here.

C) Because many State-run hospitals in India are so poorly equipped and staffed
A missing comma at the end seems to be the problem.

D) That many State-run hospitals in India are so poorly equipped and staffed is why
intended meaning: Many State-run hospitals in India are poorly equipped and staffed, that's why many of them routinely turn away patients with life threatening illnesses.

E) Many State-run hospitals in India are poorly equipped and staffed, which explain why
explains
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Correct answer must be (A) for the highlighted errors in other options...
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In C the missing comma is an issue as already mentioned by tireks above, but you would not see such an error in the real test. In real GMAT an answer is not wrong only because of punctuation error - there must be some other error.

A is correct, but considerijng the above, I do not see any problem in C either.

Consider the following:
He is so sick that he could not come.... correct (same structure as option A - subject verb inverted)
Because he is so sick, he could not come.... correct (same structure as option C - comma missed)

'A': correct usage of 'so that'. Correct answer.

'B': wrong modification of 'modern business executives'.

'C': 'who' modifies 'United States work force'.

'D': 'is why' sounds awkward

'E': 'who' modifies 'United States work force'.

GMATNinjaTwo MikeScarn GMATNinja hazelnut generis Bunuel VeritasKarishma Is the reasoning correct?

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