Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can cer

Question

Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt the economy,  no administration can really be said to control  or manage all of the complex and interrelated forces that determine the nation's economic strength.

(A) no administration can really be said to control 
(B) no administration can be said that it really controls 
(C) that no administration can really be said to control
(D) that no administration can really be said that it controls
(E) that it cannot be said that any administration really controls

__________________________________________________________
 I could select the correct answer. But I'd like to know more about options C,D and E.

daagh · Accepted Answer

The gist of the topic is the contrast that is brought out by the word ‘whereas”. It means that while the first part is negative, the admin cannot do much about it; for this the second sentence has to be an IC. By introducing the word, ‘that”, the contrast is lost and the clasue becomes anther subordinate clause

Between A an B, B suffers bad verbal parallelism in saying ‘controls or manage’. A eventually

Nice question

Between A an B, B suffers bad verbal parallelism in saying ‘controls or manage’. A eventually

Nice question

anox · Answer

Analysts believe that  whereas  bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt the economy,  no administration can really be said to control  or manage all of the complex and interrelated forces that determine the nation's economic strength.

Issues:  Conjunction | Meaning

Analysis:
 1. "whereas" in non-underlined portion is the subordinate clause and what should follow comma is an independent clause (contrasted by the sub-ordinate clause).

A.  No administration can really be said to  control  - Correct

B.  No administration can be  said that  it really  controls 
 - "said that" changes the meaning of the sentence
- "it" redundant 
- "controls" not parallel with non-underlined "manage" (based on non-underlined word, government here is treated as plural)

C. That  no administration can really be said to control
 - Usage of "that"

D. That  no administration can really be said that it controls
 - Usage of "that"

E. That  it cannot be said that any administration really controls
 - Usage of "that"

keats · Answer

Thanks  daagh

Very succinctly explained. Cheers

Carcass · Answer

B is also wrong because wordy

Administration and IT is a lot redundant

A question like this on the real test would need no more than 10 seconds approach

C D and E go for the usage of that after comma - have no sense in the economy of the sentence. B is wordy. A and move on

Regards

anox · Answer

Hi  daagh ,

Great explanation. I had another question regarding (B). Besides the issue you pointed out, can "no administration can be  said that " also be an issue. Though I can not articulate the error, it seems off.

Thanks!

eysh · Answer

I thought that it is not correct to write
to verb or verb - to control or manage 
and the right way is to verb or to verb - to control or to manage

Am I wrong?

varun4s · Answer

Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt the economy,  no administration can really be said to control  or manage all of the complex and interrelated forces that determine the nation's economic strength.

A. No administration can really be said to control  (Correct) 
B. No administration can be said that it really  controls   (Controls is not parallel with manage) 
C.  That  no administration can really be said to control  (Second part of sentence cannot start with That) 
D.  That  no administration can really be said that it controls  (Same as C) 
E.  That  it cannot be said that any administration really controls  (Same as C) 
 
Kudos please if you like my explanation!

Lucy Phuong · Answer

Hi,

In my opinion, it is not necessarily the case. For example:
Jon attends Math class to meet new friends and (to) improve his academic skills.
The word "to" before "improve" is just omitted. We can understand that "improve his academic skills" and "meet new friends" are 2 purposes of Jon attending Math class.

longhaul123 · Answer

I have a small doubt here- That whereas bad decision(X), No administration (Y) is the correct form. So if the format would have been this way - whereas that bad decisions (X) that no administration (Y) is this the correct form ?? Need help

daagh · Answer

longhaul 
Certainly no; In a complex sentence like the one here, if the first part is a dependent clause because of the subordinate conjunction 'whereas', the following clause has to be an IC. If you start the second with a 'that', then it also turns into a DC. That will be grammatically wrong.

adkikani · Answer

GMATNinjaTwo   generis   GMATNinja

Can experts comment on usage of REALLY in (A)/ (B)

sayantanc2k · Answer

Clever question! "Really" is an adverb and hence must refer to a verb. In option A,"really" refers to the verb "be said" (implying, saying cannot be real), whereas in option B "really" refers to the verb "controls" (implying, controlling cannot be real).

Rocket7 · Answer

Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt the economy,  no administration can really be said to control  or manage all of the complex and interrelated forces that determine the nation's economic strength.

(A) no administration can really be said to control 
(B) no administration can be said that it really controls 
(C) that no administration can really be said to control
(D) that no administration can really be said that it controls
(E) that it cannot be said that any administration really controls

Hi guys.

Looking for a clarification and will appreciate the help.

What is the structure of the original sentence? I thought its IC, IC. Because in the first part of the sentence we have sub Analysts and verb believe. So the first part becomes an IC. Also, the second part of the sentence has the subject "administration" and the verb is "can". Therefore second part of the sentence is also an IC.

So if the construction is IC, IC. Then this construction is wrong and hence A is wrong. But that's not the case as OA is A.

Norgay · Answer

Hi, the second part of the sentence is not an IC, it's in the form whereas X, Y and Both X and Y are clauses.

Analysts believe that whereas X, Y.

'that' I believe is used as a conjunction and requires a clause after it.

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum

egmat · Answer

Hello shameekv1989 , This is in response to your PM. Sincere apologies for the late revert. My response : Let me present the structure of the original sentence here. Cl. 1: Analysts believe = IC Cl. 2: that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt ... = DC. Please note that the entire structure after that is a long DC. This DC is connected to the preceding IC by the connector that . Now there are a couple of clauses inside this DC. Cl. 3: whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can certainly hurt the economy , = DC because the clause starts with whereas . Cl. 4: no administration can really be said to control or manage all of the complex and interrelated forces that determine the nation's economic strength . = IC. This IC is connected to the preceding DC ?(Cl.3) by a comma and keeps the structure grammatical. Now, let's take a look at the correct version of the e-GMAT sentence you have doubt about: That the church coined the date ‘February 14’ as Valentine’s day with an ulterior motive to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia is claimed by a few experts, but the more prevalent belief is it is celebrated on this date to honor the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial. Cl 1: That the church coined the date ‘February 14’ as Valentine’s day with an ulterior motive to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia is claimed by a few experts = IC. Now, in this IC, the subject is DC. The verb for this DC subject is is claimed . Cl 2: but the more prevalent belief is = IC because it is preceded by comma + but . Cl. 3: it is celebrated on this date to honor the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial . = DC as the connector that is understood at the beginning of this clause. Now, in the official question, the presence of the connector that in choices C, D, & E makes the clause following a DC. This makes the choices ungrammatical because the DC starting with whereas must be followed by an IC for the correct structure. Hope this helps.

Thanks. Shraddha

shameekv1989 · Answer

Hello Shraddha (@egmat) - Thanks for the detailed explanation for the above 2 sentences.

Usage of "That" or for that matter DC as a subject is not that familiar to me, hence I got confused.

This sentence serves as a good example of the complex sentences that can be formed and great learning.

Fighter1095 · Answer

This is an easy yet tricky question.

Although , whereas ....etc are called conjunctions. when they are used in a sentence, they follow a pattern.

Although (dependent clause) , independent clause - is correct
,+FANBOYS is not necessary to join an IC.

And here the usage of that eliminates the contrast. So we need to choose between A & B.

In B - Controls and manage aren't parallel - eliminate B

here OA - A

AnirudhaS · Answer

OE:
 Grammatical construction; Verb form 
The point of this sentence is to explain analysts’ common two-part belief
about the limited power of elected officials to control a national
economy. It presents this belief as the direct object in the main clause,
analysts believe, and introduces it with the subordinating conjunction
that, which governs both the positive dependent clause (decisions . . .
can hurt) introduced by whereas, and the subsequent negative
independent clause (no administration can . . . be said to control . . . ).
The additional appearances of that in some of the versions of the
sentence are ungrammatical.
A.  Correct.  Introduced by the subordinating conjunction that, the
complex clause succinctly contrasts leaders’ powers to hurt the
economy with their inability to control all economic forces.
B. The idiom can be said to would be appropriate, but no
administration can be said that it is ungrammatical.
C. The repetition of that is ungrammatical, since both clauses are
governed by the initial appearance of that after  nalysts believe.
D. This version of the sentence combines the mistakes described in (B)
with those described in (C).
E. The repetition of that is ungrammatical, since both clauses are
governed by the first appearance of that. The appearance of it makes
the sentence unnecessarily wordy and convoluted.
 The correct answer is A.

thangvietnam · Answer

official explanation of choice B is good but not enough. I make more details for it.

there are 2 patterns with "said".
"it is said that he is a good person"
in this sentence, "it" is fake subject, which refer to no real noun/agent in the sentence
"He is said to be a good person". 
there is no sentence " he is said that he is a good person". this is ungrammatical and this is purely unidiomatic. 
so, if you want to use "is said that", you have to use fake subject, "it".

Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can cer

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Analysts believe that whereas bad decisions by elected leaders can cer

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