Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses ea

The pronoun "them" in the phrase "prevent them from moving" clearly refers to "businesses," the immediately preceding plural noun. However, when the pronoun "them" is used again in the phrase "consider them vital economic development tools," its antecedent is unclear; logically, the pronoun refers to the "tax breaks," but based on its position in the sentence (near the plural noun "businesses" and the first "them" which refers back to businesses) "them" here illogically refers to the businesses. Moreover, the phrase "award to businesses" (award to x) is wordy and could be shortened to the more concise and idiomatic "award businesses" (award x).

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) In placing "consider" at the beginning of the sentence, this choice is able to avoid a second use of the pronoun "them," thereby correcting the pronoun issue. It also correctly replaces "award to businesses" with the more idiomatic "award businesses." However, the use of the phrase "to be" in this context is unidiomatic. The proper idiom is "consider x y" not "consider x to be y." In this case "consider tax breaks . . . vital tools" is idiomatic, while "consider tax breaks to be . . . vital tools" is not.

(C) This choice correctly replaces "award to businesses" with the more idiomatic "award businesses." However, it does not solve the pronoun problem from the original sentence. The pronoun "them" in the phrase "prevent them from moving" clearly refers to "businesses," the immediately preceding plural noun. Yet, when the pronoun "them" is used again in the phrase "consider them vital economic development tools," its antecedent is unclear; logically, the pronoun refers to the "tax breaks," but based on its position in the sentence (near the plural noun "businesses" and the first "them" which refers back to businesses) "them" here illogically refers to the businesses.

(D) CORRECT. In placing "consider" at the beginning of the sentence, this choice is able to avoid a second use of the pronoun "them," thereby correcting the pronoun issue. It also correctly replaces "award to businesses" with the more idiomatic "award businesses."

(E) This choice avoids any pronoun ambiguity by replacing the second "them" in the original sentence with the phrase "tax breaks." However, the repetition of "tax breaks" (which is repeated again later in the sentence) makes this choice somewhat wordy. More significant, the use of the phrase "to be" in this context is unidiomatic. The proper idiom is "consider x y" not "consider x to be y." In this case "consider tax breaks vital tools" is idiomatic, while "consider tax breaks to be vital tools" is not.
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D it is.

consider X to be Y is no no in GMAT.

Supporters consider........while critics denounce......

OA is D

In placing "consider" at the beginning of the sentence, this choice is able to avoid a second use of the pronoun "them," thereby correcting the pronoun issue. It also correctly replaces "award to businesses" with the more idiomatic "award businesses."

A and C use 'them' two times to refer to two different nouns.
.. to prevent them [businesses] from moving consider them [tax breaks] vital economic development tools.

rule: a pronoun, if repeated, can refer to only one antecedent.

I believe D is the answer based on the following reasoning:

A. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools Not parallel (Supporters of tax breaks....while critics denounce the tax breaks)

B. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving to be vital economic development tools Incorrect idiom (consider to be)

C. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools Not parallel (Supporters of tax breaks....while critics denounce the tax breaks)

D. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools Correct

E. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools Incorrect idiom (consider to be)

Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.

A. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools
B. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving to be vital economic development tools
C. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools
D. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools
E. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools

Not able to decide between C and D.
Someone please provide convincing reasons to pick one ....
donno the source...

Hi,
since you are asking about the difference between Cand D, i will just touch upon these two..
D should be the correct answer and reason you should pick that up is due to parallelism.. look at the coloured portion below
Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.

the second reason would be pronoun error..
Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools.... pronoun them wrongly points towards 'businesses'..

hope it helped
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Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.

A. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools

B. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving to be vital economic development tools

C. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools

D. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools

E. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools

A is incorrect because the second 'them' is having pronoun ambiguity.
B is incorrect because the usage of 'to be' which is unidiomatic
C same as A as the first them clearly refers to the business but the second them has pronoun ambiguity.
D is correct choice
E is incorrect because the usage of 'to be'

Consider X to be Y....
Is this always incorrect in GMAT?

I thought "supporters" should be specified in the sentence. that's why i didnt select D.

Yes, the correct idiomatic form of consider is

Consider X Y.

Also, in D we are given

D. Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools

Notice pronoun them has a clear antecedent here. So, there is no error in D.
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Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.




• Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools -- the first 'them' refers to the businesses and the second 'them' refers to the tax breaks.--- wrong

• Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving to be vital economic development tools -- consider to be is the wrong idiom

• Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools -- same error as in A

• Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools-- correct answer

• Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools-- same error as in B
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Correct idiom: Consider X Y
Wrong: Consider X to be Y

So the contenders: A, C and D

A: Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools

What is them referring to?
Correct idiom: Award X not award to X
OUT

C: Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools

What is them referring to?
OUT

D: Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools
Correct

Just like that D

A. Supporters of tax breaks that(for tax breaks) local governments award(Correct SV pair) to businesses each year to prevent them(for businesses) from moving consider them(unclear.) vital economic development tools

B. Supporters consider(Correct SV pair) tax breaks that local governments award(Correct SV pair) businesses each year to prevent them(for businesses) from moving to be(use of to be changes the meaning here) vital economic development tools

C. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award(Correct SV pair) businesses each year to prevent them(for businesses) from moving consider them(unclear pronoun.) vital economic development tools ---- moving consider them vital does not make much sense.

D. Supporters consider(Correct SV pair) tax breaks that(for tax breaks) local governments award(Correct SV pair) businesses each year to prevent them(for businesses) from moving vital economic development tools ---- should be correct.

E. Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools ---- unclear use of to be.

I was initially eliminating choices on the basis of 1st THEM(the one in red) since it could have referred to either 'Supporters' or 'tax breaks' but on observing that 1st THEM(the one in red) is repeated in all choices I let this as it is.
After this I moved to other splits: Yellow 'them' & Idiom 'Consider X Y'

However, I was not fully convinced with Answer choice D.
"...prevent them from moving vital economic development tools..."
I think it slightly changes the meaning of the sentence. Can someone share his/her view on this ?

Also, the 1st 'them' could refer to two possible antecedents. Is this a correct usage as per GMAC ?

EducationAisle

generis


Quick question regarding the updated view on certain Idiom constructions.

Has the view regarding the Idiom “consider X to be Y” changed?

Might there be some contexts in which the writer could correctly use “consider X to be Y”?

Thank you in advance.

All the best!

Posted from my mobile device

Well well...my impression indeed was that the correct idiom is:

Consider X Y.

However, came across this official sentence:

In California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant has allowed the species to spread widely; because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limit the spread of this species in its native Argentina.

So, the recommendation would be to not use this idiom as a split.
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Thank you for the response!

Often, it feels as if we are playing a game of dodgeball in which we must keep ducking and adjusting to the new missiles being fired towards us.

I guess “considered X to be Y” is a structure that is acceptable under most styles, but, for reasons of concision, GMAC always went with “consider X Y”? No longer though?

Or perhaps that question is a “one-off” type deal in which the long, intervening phrase necessitates the use of “to be” to make the sentence clearer?

I can’t figure this stuff out anymore 😔

The saving grace is that in the question that I cited above (In California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant...), all the options use the structure consider X to be Y.

What would be interesting is if someone can come up with an official question, wherein GMAT prefers the usage of consider X to be Y over consider X Y.
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Hi chetan2u

While I agree that option D is more parallel, I believe "while" is usually not a parallelism indicator. Option C has pronoun errors, that's why option D is more suitable. We should not necessarily look for parallelism in compound sentences which have "while".

Is my understanding correct ?