Though once powerful political forces, labor unions have lost much of their influence, which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor management.


A. which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor

B. resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim favors

C. which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim that favors

D. resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim to be in favor of

E. which has resulted in a political climate that has been claimed by some analysts to favour

Though once powerful political forces, labor unions have lost much of their influence, which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor management.

A) which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor
B) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim favors
C) which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim that favors
D) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim to be in favor of
E) which has resulted in a political climate that has been claimed by some analysts to favour

MANHATTAN GMAT OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original sentence contains several errors. First, the relative pronoun "which" cannot be used to modify the action of the preceding clause, as it does here ("which has resulted in..."). Instead, it must be used to modify the immediately preceding noun only. In this case, that noun is "influence," which cannot be described as resulting in a "political climate." It is the loss of that influence that has resulted in the "political climate" described in the sentence, not the influence itself. Second, "that some analysts claim to favor management" is incorrect. If we remove "some analysts claim" from the sentence, we are left with "a political climate that...to favor management." This is incorrect. We need "to favor" to agree with "a political climate that."

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

(B) CORRECT. This choice corrects the relative pronoun error by replacing "which has resulted" with "resulting." Moreover, "favors" agrees with "a political climate that..."

(C) This choice does not correct the relative pronoun error. Moreover, it does not correct the verb error. It replaces "to favor" with "that favors," creating the illogical sequence "a political climate that...that favors."

(D) This choice corrects the relative pronoun error by replacing "which has resulted" with "resulting." However, it does not correct the verb error. It replaces "to favor" with "to be in favor of," creating the illogical sequence "a political climate that...to be in favor of."

(E) This choice does not correct the relative pronoun error. Moreover, it does not correct the verb error. It does not replace "to favor." Additionally, "has been claimed by some analysts" is unnecessarily in passive voice and is wordy.

I agree with most of the people that the answer has to be either B or D.

Now IMO, "claim favors" is just awkward in B. The reason for the awkwardness is the verb of the sentence. There could be two cases: first, if the verb is "favor", then there has to be an apostrophe(') with analysts. Since it is missing, "favor" can not not act as a verb. Next, if you consider "claim" as a verb, then there has to be an infinitive or gerund following the verb rather than present tense form "favors", which is just weird.

Although the choice D looks little verbose in the construction, it's grammatically correct.

Though once powerful political forces, labor unions have lost much of their influence, which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor management.

Sentence is speaking about a contrast ... though X has occured , resulting in Y .
The race is between choice B and E

B) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim favors --- Subject of sentence after that is some which is singular hence verb is favours---thus this is the correct answer .

D) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim to be in favor of --Subject verb error

Manhattan GMAT's SC Guide covered this very well in the "Modifiers" chapter (topic: "Which vs the present participle -ing"). I quote:
-ing form can modify an entire clause as long as the clause when converted into a noun phrase could function as the subject of the verb that is now in -ing form.

The sentence can be re-written as: The loss of influence of labor unions has resulted in a political climate....
This satisfies the above requirement, and so the sentence can also be written as "Labor unions have lost influence, resulting in..."

Hi souvik101990,

Regarding the second elimination strategy that u used, can u please shed some more light ?

Second, "that some analysts claim to favor management" is incorrect. If we
remove "some analysts claim" from the sentence, we are left with "a political
climate that...to favor management." This is incorrect. We need "to favor" to
agree with "a political climate that.

Thanks!

Hi,

three points--

1) The infinitive form is TO +verb, so " to claim" is the infinitive form..
2)Claim to be is an IDIOM, but does not fit in here.. Since political climate is connected with FAVOURS, lets see how the sentences look--
B) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim favors
Correctly conveys the meaning
D) resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim to be in favor of
Construction is not proper..

3) usage of CLAIM TO BE does not have clear SUBJECT, it illogically refers to scientists..
see the sentences using it..
The president claims to be in fvaour of common law.
the law maker claim the law to be in favour of poor.
_________________

Here are useful points related to claim :

1. claim that – used while proclaiming something
Correct: Walter claims that he can run backwards.

2. claim to – used to take control of assets or will
Correct: The eldest son laid claim to the father’s property.

3. claim to be – used while claiming to be some other person
Correct: The man claimed to be John’s long lost son.
Incorrect: He is claimed as the best batsman of all times.

Here nobody is claiming to be something , but analysts claiming that political climate is favoring something bla bla......

Therefore , B is correct

Can you please give the correct answer and explain why others options are incorrect

Ok Let's remove "that some analysts claim" since many of us believe "favor" modifies "political climate". Now we have this sentence - resulting in a political climate favors management. Somehow it doesn't sound right. Of course, we could also re-write this sentence to "resulting in a political climate that, some analysts claim, favors management". It will be clearer.

That's why I don't think this is a good question. It's testing the bottom boundaries of GMAT's "unclear modification". GMAT has a very low tolerance of unclear modification. This question unfortunately has that issue. Some of you may consider it clear. And I agree. I also agree some other options of other questions GMAT considers unclear are also clear to some people. So we don't matter here - low tolerance is low tolerance.