The health commissioner said that the government had implemented stric

Question

The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, [that] it would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

In this statement is the usage of "that" necessary?
Can't "that" be counted across parallel elements?

Thanks

(A) it will try

(B) that it tried

(C) it had tried

(D) it would have tried

(E) that it would try

This question is part of the  GMAT Club Sentence Correction : Verb Tense Revision Project.

souvik101990 · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation:

In the original sentence, the verb "had implemented" is in the past perfect tense, indicating that this event occurred at some point before the commissioner spoke. The verb "will try", however, is in the simple future. When the future is indicated from the point of view of the past, the simple future is not used. Instead, the conditional is required. For example, "The man said that he would buy a new car" is preferable to "The man said that he will buy a new car." We need to find a conditional verb. Moreover, the pronoun "it" begins a new clause and thus requires repetition of "that" in order to make clear, using parallel structure, that this new clause is still something that the commissioner said. For example, "The man said that he would buy a new car and that he would drive it everywhere" is preferable to "The man said that he would buy a new car and he would drive it everywhere."

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

(B) This choice does not offer the conditional "would try", though it does offer another "that". The past tense "tried" is definitely wrong here because the trying will happen "in the future" according to the original sentence. Thus this choice changes the meaning unacceptably.

(C) This choice uses the past perfect tense "had tried" where the conditional "would try" is preferred. An extra "that" is needed to make the two clauses "the government
had..." and "it had tried" parallel.

(D) This is a tempting choice as it fixes the verb tense to the conditional "would." However, the tense is technically "conditional perfect" (would have tried), which is not
the proper tense. Moreover, an extra "that" is needed to make the two clauses "the government had..." and "it would try" parallel.

(E) CORRECT. This choice provides the plain conditional tense and another "that".

u2lover · Answer

The health commissioner said   that the government     had implemented   strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses,   that it would try   to prevent the outbreak from reccurring in the future. 

E maintains ||sm, so I go with it

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Parallelism

• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel.
• "would + base form of verb" ("try" in this case) is used to refer to a future action from a point of time in the past.
• The simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future. 
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.
• The past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".
• For referring to a hypothetical past event and its probable outcome, the preferred method is to express the hypothetical event in the past perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “had”), and express the probable outcome in the “would + have + past participle (“verb+ed”- “challenged” in this sentence)” construction.

A:  Trap. This answer choice uses "will + base form of verb" to refer to a future action from a point of time in the past; remember, "would + base form of verb" is used to refer to a future action from a point of time in the past. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between "that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food" and "it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel.

B:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "tried" to refer to an action that will take place in the future; remember, the simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.

C:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had tried" to refer to an action that will take place in the future; remember, the simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option C fails to maintain parallelism between "that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food" and "it had tried to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel.

D:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the construction "would + have + past participle ("tried" in this case)" to refer to an action that will take place in the future; remember, the simple future tense is used to refer to actions that will take place in the future and "would + have + past participle" is the preferred construction for referring to the probable result of a hypothetical past action. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between "that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food" and "it would have tried to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future"; remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this case) must be parallel.

E:   Correct.  This answer choice correctly uses the simple future tense verb "would try" to refer to an action that will take place in the future. Further, Option E uses the "would + base form of verb ("try" in this case)" construction to refer to a future action from a point of time in the past. Additionally, Option E maintains parallelism between "that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food" and "that it would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future".

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNTtugB9fM

To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EYnxPUldlA

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GMATT73 · Answer

Past statements with future implication(s) always takes the modal (could/would) form.

The second "that" isn't necessary here because "it" clearly refers to the same commissioner's statement on behalf of the government.

anithamajji · Answer

I feel "E" is the correct answer.
The sentence says health commissioner was quoting whatever the govt had said.

So, from the elementary school grammar, when i want to quote something said by others, the origianl senstence remains the same.
Eg : She said "I will not do the homework".

If the above sentence should be written without quotes, we say.

She said that she would not do the homework.

When quotes are removed, simple present/future tense becomes simple past and
simple past will become past perfect.

Same applies here too.

If we are quoting commissioners exact words, sentence will be as below:
The health commissioner said "The govt implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future"

But if i want to say what the commissioner said, i'll say it as below
The health commissioner said that the govt had implemented and that it would try to prevent

tingle15 · Answer

I will go with E.

When there is a simple prediction about the future, we use "will"
With predictions about the future that have been made in the past, we use “would”

example: 
Correct: Sam said that he  would  do his homework by saturday only if he is allowed to play on sunday.
Incorrect: Sam said that he  will  do his homework by saturday only if he is allowed to play on sunday.

seekmba · Answer

E it is.

We need 'would' because the sentence is written in the past about the future. Also the sentence is parallel with....The health commissioner said  that  the government.......and  that  it....

The below should help.

qwerty12321 · Answer

The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, [that] it would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

In this statement is the usage of "that" necessary?
Can't "that" be counted across parallel elements?

Thanks

In this statement is the usage of "that" necessary?
Can't "that" be counted across parallel elements?

Thanks

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear qwerty12321 , That's a great question, and I am happy to help. :-)

Technically, according to the rules of Parallelism, the first " that " could be construed as "outside" the parallelism, so it would cover both clauses, and we wouldn't need the second " that ." Technically, this is correct, according to the once-outside-twice-inside rule. See: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-paral ... ce-inside/ BUT, in practice, " that " clauses are big bulky things, and for clarity of the sentence, most sophisticated writers, including the folks at GMAC, always repeat the second " that " for overall clarity. Even though, by the rules of Parallelism, we don't have to repeat the " that ," in practice the GMAT always does, so for GMAT purposes, essentially it is a rule that we need to repeat the word " that ." Does this make sense? Mike :-)

sytabish · Answer

Hi,

As the 'the health commissioner said' is in the past, we need the 'would' to specify the event which was in future at that point of time.
Basically, when reporting verb is in the past , conditional is required.

Thanks!

Abhishek009 · Answer

The sequence of events is Implementing strict measures ----> The health commissioner announced implementation of programme ----> Try to prevent future incidents from recurring Future / will ( In The past ) = Would Hence among the given options only option (E) fits in correctly.... :-D

Skyline393 · Answer

The sentence is in reported speech tone (said) so implemented = had implemented. & will try = would try. Moreover THAT + the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food AND THAT it would try is parallelism. Thus E

yunbao · Answer

shouldnt E be "and that...."? Otherwise, it is "sb. said that...., that...." It does not sound right.

AjiteshArun · Answer

This is the sentence that option E leads to: The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and , despite the recent illnesses, that it would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future . There's the and that that you were looking for.

anusaini · Answer

But what about "Comma before that" rule? Isn't it wrong to use "comma" before "that" in GMAT?

AjiteshArun · Answer

There are a couple of things we should look at here:

1. The type of  that  that you are referring to is  one that refers to a noun before it . For example, it's a bad idea to use a comma in the following sentence:

She solved a question ,    that  the other students could not solve .

However, the  that  in this question ("the commissioner said  that ") is  not  one that refers to a noun before it (it is a different type of  that ).

2. The situation gets a little more complicated when we add modifiers that have commas of their own.

She solved a question ,  despite being given very little time ,  that the other students could not solve.

In such situations, we need to associate the commas with the other modifier ( despite... ) and not with the  that . That is, we should look at the sentence like this:

She solved a question  ,  despite being given very little time ,   that the other students could not solve.

anusaini · Answer

So basically, if "comma pair" separates out additional or non-essential information then the usage of "comma+ that" is justified, Right?

xXalaXx · Answer

Hey guys,

I don't understand why in none of the choices there isn't a comma before "and" since the statement has 2 subjects and 2 verbs connected by a conjunction

Thank you

XyLan · Answer

It's  NOT   necessary  that since the statement has 2 subjects and 2 verbs, the statements  MUST  use a comma before the coordinating conjunction.

A  comma(,) + one of the F.A.N.B.O.Y.S.  is one of the  correct  ways to connect the   2 ICs   ( Independent Clauses ).

Remember, the clauses need to be independent   - A COMPLETE thought which can stand on its OWN.  
   Independent clause  : 
 The Mars Rover tracked the barren lands of the planet, but it was unable to traverse on the uneven terrain.   - A  COMPLETE  thought which can stand on its OWN.  
SV-pair ( Subject-Verb ): 
 The Mars Rover - tracked 
it ( The Mars Rover ) - was unable   
  Dependent clause  :
 Although the train was delayed and the signal was green, ...   - An  INCOMPLETE  thought which CANNOT stand on its OWN.  
Even though the above sentence has SV-pair ( Subject-Verb ), it keeps the reader in  transce  as we are  NOT  sure of the COMPLETE informtaion  - What exactly happend when the train was delayed? 
SV-pair ( Subject-Verb ): 
 the train - was delayed 
the signal - was green

Similarly, the sentence asserts: The health commissioner said X AND Y. 
X and Y are dependent clauses because they both start with a relative modifier -  That  ( Which, who, whom, that, etc. )
The  usage of a comma before AND  will demand an independent clause - a demand which CANNOT be fulfilled by the dependent clause.

xXalaXx , I would suggest that you explore  this GMAT SC-link , as it covers many such GMAT-nuances.

The health commissioner said that the government had implemented stric

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The health commissioner said that the government had implemented stric

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