A it is: are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity

faults in bold :

B)is influenced by, as well as influences, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

C)influence, as well as are influenced, by those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

D)are influenced by, as well as influence, that of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the popularity of the administration.

E)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or against the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

The political leanings of the electorate are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

are influenced by, as well as influence, those -> is correct
1) X are influenced by those
2) X influence those
Both make sense using the above construction

A)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity. - Correct

B)is influenced by, as well as influences, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

C)influence, as well as are influenced, by those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

D)are influenced by, as well as influence, that of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the popularity of the administration.

E)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or against the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.
lean towards and lean away and not lean against.
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I still fail to understand why the use of "that" in D is incorrect.

D)are influenced by, as well as influence, that of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the popularity of the administration.

Is "those" from A refer to the political leanings of the current administration?

yes those refers to "Political learnings" and that cannot refer to plural noun.
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The political leanings of the electorate are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

A)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity - Correct

B)is influenced by, as well as influences, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity - Plural verb is required to agree with plural subject 'learnings'

C)influence, as well as are influenced, by those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity - Passive to active changes meaning. Change of conjunctive phrase to clause is wrong.

D)are influenced by, as well as influence, that of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the popularity of the administration - That must be those to be in confirmation with leanings.

E)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or against the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity - Change to Lean against is wrong.

However, IMO is A but I have doubt with lean away Vs. lean against. There is no such word or idiom as lean away but dictionary has meaning of lean against. Moreover, as per my understanding, ‘Depending upon’ is more correct than ‘Depending on’ although no option has such construction....Pls clear my doubt or correct me If I am wrong.
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The OA is correct and explanations provided in the thread appear sufficient. If there are any specific questions, please post them here and then click again on the "Request Expert Reply" button – users are requested not to click the button without posting their queries.

Can someone help me with the difference between the usage of "Away" vs "Against" in this question?

Here "lean away" means "to have an opinion against" or "to oppose".

"Lean against" is wrong in this case - "lean against" is used to mean "to take support": e.g. I leaned against the wall. Such usage is wrong in this context.

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

Correct Answer: A

Explanation: This sentence immediately begins with the potential for an Agreement error, as the first underlined word is a plural verb 'are'.

That is correct, as the subject is 'leanings', but answer choice B, which uses the singular verb 'is', is wrong.

Answer choice C is guilty of a Sentence Construction error; when the modifier 'as well as are influenced' is removed, the sentence then reads 'leanings…influence by those', which is clearly incorrect.

Answer choice D commits a Pronoun error, using the singular 'that' to refer to the plural 'leanings', and is consequently incorrect.

Answer choice E uses a structure that creates an illogical meaning: 'lean…against the ideology' does not accurately reflect the situation; 'lean…away from' indicates that there is trend to reject the ideology, whereas 'lean against' would indicate a physical action of an object propped up against another.

Accordingly, E is incorrect, and A is the correct answer.

Choice C sounds as if, "The political leanings of the electorate influence by those of the current administration . . ." This sentence construction error eliminates C.

The pronoun "that" is singular, but "leanings" is plural. This eliminates D.

It is idiomatically incorrect to say, "leaning against" when the meaning is: rejecting to some extent. This eliminates E.
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Dear sayantanc2k, Why I cannot look up the meaning for lean away from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary?

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for me its A
because learnings are influenced by leanings of administration

another is lean towards and against vs lean towards and away .... latter is choice

"Lean away" is not an idiom or phrasal verb - probably that is the reason. For example you would probably not find "go to" ( e.g., I go to work at 08:00 am) as well.

The political leanings of the electorate are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

A)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity. correct

B)is influenced by, as well as influences, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

C)influence, as well as are influenced, by those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity. by is not placed correctly

D)are influenced by, as well as influence, that of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or away from the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the popularity of the administration.

E)are influenced by, as well as influence, those of the current administration, for the citizenry tends to lean towards or against the perceived ideology of the president and the cabinet, depending on the administration's popularity.

My question is simple, for I feel I've seen this used in multiple contexts with usages that are against one another. Can that refer back to a plural noun? Is there anyway to understand if this is the rule set in stone for the GMAT.

Don't confuse that when used in 2 context - - - >

1) I hate dogs that bark (that refers to plural noun dogs)

I don't like ice cream that is imported from UK.
(THAT refer to singular ice - cream)

In this case, THAT can be used for singular or plural

2) The character of Ram's novel is more interesting than that of Shyam's novel.

In this case, THAT can stand for only singular entity ( the character)


I did't used the jargons such as demonstrative pronoun because that won't make a difference. We should know how the construction works.





Thank you = Kudos

Thanks for not using any fancy jargons. I don't think I'll ever forget this treatment of that!

Glad it helped

Thank you = Kudos

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