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

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.

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.

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" !!!

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"

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.

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

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...

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...

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.

Correct answer must be (A) for the highlighted errors in other options...

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.

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!

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

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.

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