Despite protests from some shareholders, committee members

Question

Despite protests from some shareholders, committee members have ordered  the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and that the advertising program be  undertaken.

A. the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and that the advertising program be

B. the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and that the advertising program being

C. the measure of levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and the advertising program to be

D. the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed with their advertising program being

E. that the levels of department head involvement be curtailed and the advertising program be

brandy96 · Answer

confuse between C and E. D is out as it distorts meaning with their. A and B uses 'that' which is little awkward. Will go for E as adding measures in C makes a doubt.

dreambeliever · Answer

I'll go with E
'to be' is not parallel with 'be' in the orig sentence.

gmatpapa · Answer

OA is E and perhaps the only answer choice that comes even close. But I have a doubt regarding E. You see this sentence depends on the parallelism between two clauses:

1. the levels of department head involvement to be curtailed and that 
2. the advertising program be undertaken.

There is a "that" in the sentence that introduces a command subjunctive. So, the 2 clauses sould be parallel in structure, meaning to say that they should begin with the same word right? So shouldn't the correct answer choice be: " that  the levels of department head involvement be curtailed and  that  the advertising program be".

Or, we can leave out the "that" in the second clause as the "that" before the first makes it unnecessary?

amit2k9 · Answer

correct idiom is ordered that. More over with command subjunctive be + verb base form has to be used.

out of C and E
E fits the bill,excepting the requirement of that after the and makes it perfectly parallel.

gmatpapa · Answer

Your point is absolutely correct with ref to command subjunctive. What do you think of the parallelism?

that  P be Q and  that  X be Y

or

that  P be Q and X be Y

daagh · Answer

Let us face the issue of parallelism squarely. In theory we indeed accept those that are structurally and logically identical as parallel.

Ex: He wants ‘ to ’ drink and ‘ to ’ dance. Here the infinitive ‘to’ is used in both arms

We also may say: He wants to drink and dance. Here the 'to' is elliptical in the second arm. This is perfectly acceptable

Ex. 2. He cried ‘ that ’ the horse flung him and ‘ that ’ it dumped him in the pit.

Compare this to

He cried  that  the horse flung him and  dumped  him in the pit.

Do you think the second version is un//?

Example 3.

The captain cautioned the soldiers  that   they  should sleep well, that they should eat well and  that  they should drink well before they make the final ambush on the enemy -- ‘This is parallel though too wordy. 
The captain cautioned the soldiers that they should sleep well,  eat  well and  drink  well before they make the final ambush on the enemy -- This is also perfectly parallel and even more elegant; In the process we have dropped so many repeated words . Isn’t this a better version? In parallelism, structure is subservient to logic, If I may say so. For the sake of concision, we often do drop some words such as ‘ that ’ and rightly so.

But I also do not deny that GMAT might reject a case for not repeating the connector word ‘ that ’ , but I just don’t remember one handily, since I don’t maintain an archive.

gmatpapa · Answer

@Daagh,

How about this statement: "The court ordered  that the prisoner be released and his belongings be returned "

Is this statement correct ||ism wise?

metallicafan · Answer

+1 E

I think that you can ommit the first word in every element that is parallel, if that first word is the same in all the elements.

arirux92 · Answer

Also note.... ordered must be followed by subjunctive tense.

only E qualifies

mdacosta · Answer

I picked E because ordered takes THAT, but also am I correct in my reasoning that because it's a bossy verb that having 'to be' is incorrect and that it should be "ordered that X BE Y" in order to be correct (e.g., 'to' makes it incorrect)?

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, your understanding is correct - A subjunctive case (i.e., verb root only) is required with "order + that".

chesstitans · Answer

boiled down to C and E.
E is better b/c it is active and shorter.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

Correct Answer: E

The best answer is E. Choice E clearly and correctly uses parallel phrases: the levels of department head involvement be|| The advertising program be.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Despite protests from some shareholders, committee members

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Despite protests from some shareholders, committee members

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards