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D
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Difficulty:
45%
(medium)
Question Stats:
68% (01:47) correct
32%
(02:02)
wrong
based on 7580
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The Supreme Court has ruled that public universities may collect student activity fees even with students' objections to particular activities, so long as the groups they give money to will be chosen without regard to their views.
(A) with students' objections to particular activities, so long as the groups they give money to will be
(B) if they have objections to particular activities and the groups that are given the money are
(C) if they object to particular activities, but the groups that the money is given to have to be
(D) from students who object to particular activities, so long as the groups given money are
(E) though students have an objection to particular activities, but the groups that are given the money be
(A) with students' objections to particular activities, so long as the groups they give money to will be
(B) if they have objections to particular activities and the groups that are given the money are
(C) if they object to particular activities, but the groups that the money is given to have to be
(D) from students who object to particular activities, so long as the groups given money are
(E) though students have an objection to particular activities, but the groups that are given the money be
16 Jan 2018, 00:20
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Whoa, there’s all sorts of weird crap in (A). For starters, “universities may collect student activity fees even with students’ objections to particular activities” literally seems to be saying that activity fees and objections are collected together, somehow. And that doesn’t make sense.
I’m also not thrilled with the pronouns. I’m OK with the “their” at the very end of the sentence, because that seems to refer to the most recent plural noun (“groups”), but I don't love the phrase “they give money to.” I guess “they” is trying to refer to “public universities”, but we have a whole bunch of other plural nouns in the way (“student activity fees”, “students’ objections”, “activities”).
Of course, pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute rule on the GMAT (as discussed in this video), but it’s really not awesome when the pronouns are somewhat confusing. Maybe the pronoun isn’t WRONG, but it’s not ideal, either.
I also have absolutely no idea why the future tense “will be” appears in this sentence.
So we have plenty of good reasons to ditch (A).
Quote:
The first “they” is definitely wrong in (B). The only plural nouns earlier in the sentence are “public universities” and “activity fees”, and neither of those make sense. The sentence is trying to say that universities can collect fees even if students have objections to particular activities – and the only form of “students” in the sentence is actually an adjective (“student activity fees”).
There’s also a meaning issue that stems from the parallelism in (B). We have: “…public universities may collect student activity fees even if they have objections to particular activities and the groups that are given the money are chosen without regard to their views.”
That doesn’t actually make sense: the sentence is not trying to say that universities may collect fees even if groups receive money without regard to their views. The sentence is trying to say that universities may collect fees as long as the groups receive money without regard to their views. That last part is a requirement imposed by the Supreme Court, so it’s wrong to precede the phrase with “even if.”
So (B) is out.
Quote:
Welp, “they” is still wrong at the beginning of the underlined portion. See the explanations for (A) and (B) above for more on the pronoun issue.
You could also argue that the end of the underlined portion is unnecessarily messy: “the groups that the money is given to have to be” is a very wordy way to say “the groups given money must be…” By itself, this isn’t necessarily WRONG, but it’s not great, either.
And even if you don’t agree with anything I wrote in that last paragraph, the pronoun issues are enough to eliminate (C).
Let’s line up our last two candidates side-by-side:
Quote:
The meaning of that first part of the underlined portion is very different in (E) than in (D). (E) is literally saying that universities may collect activity fees “even though students” object to certain activities. The trouble is, it’s not clear WHICH students object to the fees. (D), on the other hand, clarifies that universities can collect fees from the specific students who object to particular activities. And the meaning of (D) makes a whole lot more sense, given the context of the sentence.
The last part of the underlined portion is also much better in (D) than in (E). The sentence is trying to say that universities can collect fees only if the groups given money are “chosen without regard to their views.” (D) correctly conveys that meaning with the phrase “so long as”; (E) loses part of the point of the sentence by using “but” instead.
So (E) is out, and (D) is our answer.
08 Feb 2012, 01:59
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This is where meaning and logic become apparently critical deciders. The following things must be clear in our minds.
1. Universities receive the fees from students
2. Those paying students are privileged to object to the allocation of such collected funds.
3. In B and C, they may structurally refer to the Universities because Universities is the subject. However, in context and meaning they have no right to object. So and C drop out
4. Even granting that the pronoun they refers to the fees as described by OG , isn’t it absurd to say the fees object? Therefore, B and C have no chance whether they refer to universities or the fees. They cannot refer to anything other than students. Unfortunately, a direct referent to they alluding to students is missing in A B and C.
5. D avoids the subject pronoun altogether and saves the situation
6. E does not make clear whether the students who object are the same who pay or it is the whole body of university students. Some muddled meaning here. In addition , the use of indicative mood verb in first part(have an objection )and subjunctive mood verb(the groups that are given the money be) in next part distorts parallelism
This question is an important and relevant concept of clarity and concision, IMO.
1. Universities receive the fees from students
2. Those paying students are privileged to object to the allocation of such collected funds.
3. In B and C, they may structurally refer to the Universities because Universities is the subject. However, in context and meaning they have no right to object. So and C drop out
4. Even granting that the pronoun they refers to the fees as described by OG , isn’t it absurd to say the fees object? Therefore, B and C have no chance whether they refer to universities or the fees. They cannot refer to anything other than students. Unfortunately, a direct referent to they alluding to students is missing in A B and C.
5. D avoids the subject pronoun altogether and saves the situation
6. E does not make clear whether the students who object are the same who pay or it is the whole body of university students. Some muddled meaning here. In addition , the use of indicative mood verb in first part(have an objection )and subjunctive mood verb(the groups that are given the money be) in next part distorts parallelism
This question is an important and relevant concept of clarity and concision, IMO.
the groups given money 
