To show that it is serious about addressing the state's power crisis

Question

To show that it is serious about addressing the state's power crisis, the administration  has plans for ordering all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting  down escalators during electricity shortages this summer.

A) has plans for ordering all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting

B) has plans to order that all federal facilities in California are keeping thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting

C) is planning on ordering all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and they will shut

D) is planning to order that all federal facilities in California are keeping thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shut

E) is planning to order all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shut

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EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Accepted Answer

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our options quickly so we know how to answer questions like this when they pop up on the GMAT! To begin, let's take a quick look at the question and highlight any major differences between the options in  orange :

To show that it is serious about addressing the state's power crisis, the administration  has plans for ordering all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting  down escalators during electricity shortages this summer.

A)  has plans for ordering  all federal facilities in California  to keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting

B)  has plans to order that  all federal facilities in California  are keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting

C)  is planning on ordering  all federal facilities in California  to keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and  they will shut

D)  is planning to order that  all federal facilities in California  are keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut

E)  is planning to order  all federal facilities in California  to keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut

After a quick glance over the options, here are a few key differences we can focus on:
 1. has plans for ordering / has plans to order that / is planning on ordering / is planning to order that / is planning to order (construction)
2. to keep / are keeping (parallel structure)
3. shutting / they will shut / shut (parallel structure)

Since #2 and #3 both deal with parallelism, this is a great place to start!  We need to make sure that the two actions the administration is ordering (thermostats set at 78 & closing escalators) are worded using parallel verbs and structure:

A) has plans for ordering all federal facilities in California to  keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting

B) has plans to order that all federal facilities in California are  keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting

C) is planning on ordering all federal facilities in California to  keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and  they will shut

D) is planning to order that all federal facilities in California are  keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut

E) is planning to order all federal facilities in California to  keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut

We can easily eliminate options A, C, & D because they don’t use parallel verb tenses  to discuss the 2 actions the administrators are planning to order. Now that we have it narrowed down to only 2 options, let’s take a closer look at #1 on our list, while also looking out for any other potential problems:

B) has plans to order that all federal facilities in California  are keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit  and shutting

While these two verb tenses are parallel, this is  INCORRECT  because the verb tense being used is wrong. We cannot use present tense to discuss future actions! Facilities are not currently keeping thermostats at 78 degrees or shutting down escalators - if they were, there would be no need for the order!

E)  is planning to order  all federal facilities in California  to keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut

This is our  CORRECT  option. It uses parallel verb tenses, and it clearly shows that the actions in the orders will happen in the future - they are not currently happening already.

There you have it - option E is our winner!

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

ArunSharma12 · Answer

Ans: E

A)  has plans  for ordering  all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting;  plans for is not idiomatic, plans to is correct usage here. to keep and shutting are not parallel. meaning out of this sentence is administration has two plans: ordering... and shutting.. which is wrong.

B)  has plans to order that all federal facilities in California  are keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting ;  meaning is not correct, federal facilities are keeping and shutting.. implies they are doing these things now whereas administration plans to order to them to keep and shut these to show administration's seriousness about state's power crisis, purpose is missing in this sentence.

C)  is planning on ordering all federal facilities in California  to keep  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and  they will shut ;  they verb matches with administration verb but they do not match in number, it completely changes the meaning

D)  is planning to order that all federal facilities in California  are keeping  thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut ;  parallelism issue

E)  is planning to order all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shut;  this option describes the plan correctly - to order federal facilities to keep and shut..

itspC · Answer

Ok let's start our vertical scan. Yeah we find And in all options that's a good sign. Checking logical parallelism: order to do x and y (or) to order F to do x and y. X and Y should be parallel actions Eliminate A,C and D as they don't have parallel X and Y (as marked red in the option choices above) Now between B and E B) we can't say : order that they are keeping and shutting : the use of present tense for future event is incorrect . i.e, we can order someone to do something but not order someone are v-ing that's a mess Therefore E)This option eliminates all errors above and looks perfect among all options. Hence our OA Thanks.

NiftyNiffler · Answer

To show that it is serious about addressing the state's power crisis, the administration  has plans for ordering all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shutting  down escalators during electricity shortages this summer.

It's more concise and direct to make "plan" the action verb (plan+ infinitive) rather than possessive verb (has plan). So A and B can be eliminated

A) has plans for  ordering  all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting   -- Reason mentioned above. Gerunds are unnecessary as well

B) has plans  to order  that all federal facilities in California are keeping thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shutting -- same reason as above. Also, not parallel

C) is planning  on ordering  all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and they will shut  -- "plan on" is unidiomatic

D) is  planning to order that  all federal facilities in California are keeping thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and shut  -- "order that" is wrong usage. Also, not parallel

E) is  planning to order  all federal facilities in California to keep thermostats at 78 degrees Fahrenheit and  shut -- CORRECT, action verb + infinitive and parallel elements (to order... and shut)

Hence, the answer is  E

thangvietnam · Answer

some subjuctive verb require a special pattern
I require that he LEARN english.
but it can be used like normal verb.
I require him to learn english.

if "order" is used as subjective verb, that-clause with "do" is used. I order he COME.
progressive tense is never used in subjective mode.

if "order " is used as normal verb, not in subjunctive mode, that-clause is not used.

BhaveshGMAT · Answer

Though I chose the correct answer option, I have a question here.

How do I know whether 'shut' is parallel with 'keep' and not 'order' in the OA?  generis   GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma

KarishmaB · Answer

Facilities have escalators. 
So the administration will order facilities to keep thermostat at 78 degrees and to shut down escalators.

If administration were planning to shut down escalators, we would have been given what kind of escalators e.g. those in all public areas etc.

krndatta · Answer

KarishmaB  Ma'am ,
Please evaluate my reasoning for this question. 
The meaning conveyed in this sentence is that administration has plans for ordering all federal facilities to do two things X and Y. 
Option A:- This is the incorrect answer choice. "Plans to" is the correct idiomatic usage. Furthermore, the parallelism in this option statement is flawed. "shutting" is is not parallel to "to keep". Shutting is coming parallel to "ordering". So the meaning conveyed in this sentence is that administration has plans for shutting down all escalators under the sun during electricity shortages. Hence, the meaning conveyed is totally flawed.

Option B:- The usage of present continuous tense "are keeping" is incorrect. This action will be done in the future. This action is not going on at the moment. Furthermore, shutting and keeping are parallel. So both these actions will be done in the future. In this option statement, both the actions are ongoing. Hence, this is incorrect.

Option C:- Same error as option A. Plan "to" is the correct idiomatic usage. No antecedent of "they". Subject Verb Disagreement.

Option D:- Same error as option B. "are keeping" is incorrect. "shut" is not parallel to "order". In this option statement, shut is parallel to order. So the meaning conveyed is the same as option A.

Option E:- This is the correct answer choice.

Please share your two cents.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  krndatta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your reasoning here is largely correct.

One point we feel the need to clarify, however, is that there are some uses of the construction "plan + for"; for example, when "plan" is used as a verb, "Plan for X" is used to refer to the action of making a plan related to X.

Kudos.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

KarishmaB · Answer

There are two things the admin will order facilities to do: keep thermostats at 78 degree and shut down elevators.
These two should be in parallel. They are in parallel only in options (B) and (E). 
But (B) uses present continues tense (are keeping etc). But this is something the admin is planning to intrust the facilities to do. So it will actually happen in the future. It is not going on right now. Hence (B) is incorrect. Only (E) works.

The verb form is stronger than noun or adjective form so instead of "A has plans to do B," we would like to say "A plans to do B".
GMAT prefers the use of infinitive. So "is planning to order" is better than "is planning on ordering".
Also, we say either 'plan to do A' or 'plans for A' e.g. "What are your plans for the weekend?" and "I plan to visit my parents."

(E) is better than other options on each of these points.

krndatta · Answer

KarishmaB  Ma'am,

Can you please elaborate on the below a bit?

I have heard this before but am not very clear with this part.

KarishmaB · Answer

Look at the sentences below:

It happened because they assumed that he will not come.
It happened because of their assumption that he will not come. 
It happened because of their assuming that he will not come.

Sentence 1 is the most direct way of saying it. We are clearly saying who assumed what. This is how formal conversations should be - to the point and clear. 
Hence the verb form "assumed" is preferred over noun "assumption" or gerund "assuming". 
Don't learn it up as a rule. Notice how it is making your conversation direct and clean.

StringArgs · Answer

KarishmaB ,  GMATNinja 
I have a doubt in E though, why is it that we dont hold 'and shut' as violation of parallelism

The admin is planning to order all facilities 
1] to keep thermostat at 78 degrees
and
2]  to  shut down escalators ( when i plug this in the root it sounds wrong: The admin is planning to order all facilities shut down escalators. How do we decide if 'to' should be taken common or its a missing parallelism in the second half. Is what follows the marker 'and' taken as the correct parallelism ask and then we see if the first half fits always the way to do it?)

KarishmaB · Answer

This is what option (E) broken down into its components looks like:

The admin is planning to order all facilities to
1] keep thermostat at 78 degrees
and
2] shut down escalators

'to' is common to both 'keep ...' and 'shut ...' just like the rest of the sentence.

The admin is planning to order all facilities to keep thermostat at 78 degrees.
The admin is planning to order all facilities to shut down escalators.

All good. You can repeat the preposition with each parallel element or you can choose to mention it only once at the beginning. 
What is not ok is to mention it at the beginning, then not repeat it with the second element but repeat it with the third and so on. Either use it only once or use it every time.

IN2MBB2PE · Answer

What is the function of "is planning to" - is it functioning to indicate the "future tense" similar to "I am going to school" ? 
I was tripped by thinking it is a "continuous tense" use and did not select this answer ... cause GMAT rarely uses present continuous tense .... how do I distinguish the use here?

DmitryFarber   KarishmaB   AndrewN   GMATNinja  please help ...

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

IN2MBB2PE

Yes, that's the rough idea. "I am planning to do X" is similar to "I plan to do X." It means that I currently have the intention to do X in the future.

You could say that "is planning" is a continuous tense--plans do in fact occur in the present, and they don't predict what will actually happen. For instance, I might plan to attend Stanford, but that doesn't mean my plan will succeed! However, I wouldn't cut a choice simply because it's continuous. The question is just whether there's a better or simpler way to say the same thing, and in this case neither of the two choices that avoid "planning" are grammatically valid.

Tanchat · Answer

Dear Experts,

Could any expert help provide the usage of "order that" or correct example of clause or sentence containing "order that"

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Tanchat ,

We hope this finds you well.

Here is an example to help illustrate the use of this phrase in the relevant context - "The captain orders that you stand down."

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Zoe7 · Answer

Is that good to use "plans for" and "plan on" on GMAT?

To show that it is serious about addressing the state's power crisis

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