The senator recommended that social security laws should be changed so

We don't use should with Recommend and other subjunctive mood words. Hence, A & E options are incorrect.
For C & D, the construction is pretty bad and lengthy. So, B is correct.

The senator recommended that social security laws should be changed so that women who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families do not suffer financially.


(A) should be changed so that women who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families do not suffer financially Incorrect

subjunctive form - 'should be' not required

(B) be changed so that women who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families do not suffer financially Correct

(C) change so as to not have women who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families suffer financially Incorrect

so as to not have - meaning change, awkward construction

(D) be changed in order not to have women suffer financially who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families Incorrect

in order not to - wrongly use, meaning change

(E) should change so women who have taken time off from paying jobs to raise families do not suffer financially Incorrect

subjunctive form - 'should be' not required

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

This question involves the use of the correct form the verb in a sentence in the subjunctive mood. There is a peculiar rule in English that, in sentences in the subjunctive mood (in which the verbs in the main clause are ‘ordered’, ‘commanded’, ‘stipulated’, ‘recommended’, ‘pleaded’ etc.), the verb in the subordinate clause must be in simple present tense. (Examples are: “ The court ordered that the prisoner be released” and not “ the prisoner should be released”; “ Vikram pleaded with his father that he be allowed to go on the class picnic” and not “ that he may be allowed to go on the class picnic”; “ The doctor prescribed that I take one pill each in the morning and in the afternoon”, and not “ I should take one pill each ....”).

Choices (A) and (E) can be discarded on the basis of this consideration.

Since laws cannot change by themselves, but have to be changed by people, (C) is wrong.

In (D), the pronoun ‘who’ has been unnecessarily shifted away from the word ‘women’ (which it stands for) thereby leading to an awkward construction.

(B) completes a grammatical, stylistic and unambiguous sentence, and is the answer.

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