The most common reasons for an employee’s unwillingness to accept

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 37 Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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The most common reasons for an employee’s unwillingness to accept a transfer are  that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and the difficulty of selling the old home .

(A) that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and the difficulty of selling the old home

(B) that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and that it is difficult to sell the old home

(C) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and that the old home is difficult to sell

(D) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and it is difficult to sell the old home

(E) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and the difficulty of selling the old home

The best or excellent answers  get kudos . If all answers are excellent, all get kudos. 
If one answer is comparatively outstanding, it alone gets kudos. Kudos are awarded  after the OA is revealed .

Restatement of meaning is not  required  in order to be considered for kudos.

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION • Choice A is incorrect because the noun phrase the difficulty of selling the old house cannot grammatically complete the structure begun by that . Clauses, such as those explaining the first two reasons, are needed after that • The corrected sentence will have all three reasons listed in grammatically parallel form. The phrasing of the third reason in choices B, C, and D departs from the parallel wording of the first two by introducing a that . . . or an it . . . construction. • Choice E is best COMMENTS First, welcome, GuptaSapan , onlynithin , krishna1988 , at ritu1009 , and KanishkM . Glad to see you posting! (If I have welcomed you before, my current welcome is a refresher. I read hundreds of posts by people on lots of threads.) I am also glad to see Prateekj05 , sonusaini1 , and lary301254M7 ; GMAT Club thrives because people who have been on the forum for a little while take the time to write good posts and ask good questions. (In other words, a combination of semi-veterans and new people keeps the forum lively.) I am always glad to see dialogue, such as that between lary301254M7 and krishna1988 . This forum is a really good place to exchange ideas. Okay, the that situation. Usage of that on the GMAT is discussed in this post by GMAT Ninja . Usage of that is also discussed in THIS POST and THIS POST . All three should take no more than 15 minutes to read. I recommend reading and making flash cards from all three. In this case, that in option A is not an article ( that white house over there); not a pronoun (a voice like that of an angel); not an essential modifier (the house that Jack built); and not, as some have noted, a that required by an idiomatic verb (usually a reporting or knowing verb, e.g., believe that, think that, say that, suggest that). Rather, in option A, THAT is a subordinate conjunction that must be followed by a clause or clauses containing both subject and a verb . What follows the "that" in option A is okay until we get to the NOUN phrase with no verb difficulty (of selling old houses). "Difficulty" does not have a verb. Option E is the best because it uses three parallel noun phrases anchored by: rates, cost, and difficulty. Although parallelism dominates and everyone here rejected (A), the reason to reject (A) has more to do with what must follow a substantive that clause (namely, a noun AND a verb) than with parallelism. Did I mention I really like those three posts on that ?

Nobody has listed the correct reason to reject the use of that in option A. (At least as I read the answers. Correct me if I am wrong.) I am happy that option A bothered everyone. How about this suggestion: I will give kudos to all because I completely forgot to post the OE till now, and maybe you all could take me up on my suggestion about reading those posts? Whether or not you accept the "deal": kudos to all.

GuptaSapan · Answer

since 'that' is used right after some reporting verb, such as said/announced/reported/conveyed, etc etc, and there is no sort of reporting happening since the actual subject is 'reasons'
Choice A and B are out. 
Choice C and D can be easily identified as wrong, as all the reasons stated require parellesim, and these choices disturb the parallelism.

Remaining choice E is your answer. If you read it, it's making perfect sense

Posted from my mobile device

onlynithin · Answer

E

The reason is there is no reporting happening.

Posted from my mobile device

Prateekj05 · Answer

The author is basically listing three reasons for an employee's unwillingness to accept a transfer.
In  A and B, "that"  is incorrectly used.  "...reasons for transfer are that..."  is weird and awkward. 
In  C , there is a parallelism error in  “…that the old home is…” . Likewise in  D , parallelism is violated through “…it is difficult to sell…”.

In  E , we can see that the parallelism is maintained.  “…reasons for unwillingness…are…rates, “greater cost…”, and “difficulty…”.  
 E  must be the answer.

surendrasaini1 · Answer

The most common reasons for an employee’s unwillingness to accept a transfer are  that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and the difficulty of selling the old home .

(A) that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and the difficulty of selling the old home( reasons are to be listed,use of that is incorrect)

(B) that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and that it is difficult to sell the old home( reasons are to be listed,use of that is incorrect)

(C) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and that the old home is difficult to sell( use of that distorts the parallelism)

(D) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and it is difficult to sell the old home( parallelism is not maintained)

(E) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and the difficulty of selling the old home( correct,all the reasons are listed,parallelism is maintained)

Will go with choice E

Thanks

lary301254M7 · Answer

The most common reasons  for an employee’s unwillingness to accept a transfer  are  that mortgage rates are high, housing in the new location costs more, and the difficulty of selling the old home.

(A) that  mortgage rates are  high,  housing in the new location costs  more, and  the difficulty  of selling the old home

(B) that  mortgage rates are  high,  housing in the new location costs  more, and  that it is  difficult to sell the old home

(C)  high mortgage rates ,  the greater cost  of housing in the new location,  and that  the old home is difficult to sell

(D)  high mortgage rates ,  the greater cost  of housing in the new location, and  it is  difficult to sell the old home

(E) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and the difficulty of selling the old home
 
The most common reasons are A, B and C, given that all three fits a parallel structure.

(E) is correct because we have noun, noun, and noun.

Ans: (E)

krishna1988 · Answer

Although I could eliminate A-D from parallelism perspective, I still dont get what exactly is the error in using 'that'. can someone clarify please.

lary301254M7 · Answer

I don't think "that" is wrong. Perhaps, "that" has to be followed by a clause.

The most obvious flaw is the lack of parallel structure as indicated.

If (A) were to be, The reasons are that A is... B is... and C is ...

then (A) could be correct. Experts are welcomed to chime in.

ritu1009 · Answer

In A and B, use of that is not required as the reasons are to be listed after are.

In C and D, parallelism is not followed , the phrases need to start with the subject.

E is the correct ans that follows parallelism.

KanishkM · Answer

Here are my two cents:
Since  "that"  is a singular pronoun and the subject of the sentence is reasons, Option  A and B  are  incorrect

Now with options C, D and E, we look for parallelism, as it contains the parallel marker  "and" 
(C) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and that the old home is difficult to sell -> greater cost of housing not parallel with that the old home is difficult to sell
(D) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and it is difficult to sell the old home -> greater cost of housing not parallel with it is difficult to sell the old home 
(E) high mortgage rates, the greater cost of housing in the new location, and the difficulty of selling the old home -> greater cost of housing parallel with difficulty of selling

Correct answer ->  E

lary301254M7 · Answer

I don't think "that" is used as a pronoun in this sentence.

KanishkM · Answer

I need to look more into the usage of "that" then.

Then the only shortcoming for this sentence was the lack of parallelism.

Rohit23 · Answer

E maintains parallelism. “…reasons for unwillingness…are…rates, “greater cost…”, and “difficulty…”. Hence, E is the answer.
In A and B, “that” before “mortgage” is wrong. “reasons for transfer are that…” is awkward.
In C, parallelism is violated through “…that the old home is…”.
In D, parallelism is violated through “…it is difficult to sell…”.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The most common reasons for an employee’s unwillingness to accept

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The most common reasons for an employee’s unwillingness to accept

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