Critics fear that the decline in what constitutes a good secondary sch

Question

Critics fear that the decline  in what constitutes a good secondary school education have  weakened this country's standing in the world.

A. in what constitutes a good secondary school education have

B. in what constitutes a good secondary school education has

C. in what constituted a good secondary school education has

D. in what constituted a good secondary school education have

E. in constituting a good secondary school education has

GMATGuruNY · Accepted Answer

In A and D,  have  (plural) does not agree with  the decline  (singular).
Eliminate A and D.

All verbs should be in the SAME TENSE unless there is a reason to change tense.
C:  Critics  fear ...the decline in what  constituted ... has weakened  
Here, there is no reason for the red verb to be in the past tense, while the two blue verbs are in forms of the present tense.
Eliminate C.

E:  the decline in constituting 
The phrase above does not convey a clear meaning.
It seems imply that the act of constituting is being performed less successfully or less frequently.
Neither interpretation reflects the intended meaning of the original sentence.
In the original sentence, the intended meaning is that there has been a decline in educational STANDARDS -- that WHAT CONSTITUTES a good education TODAY is of lower quality that what USED to constitute a good education.

B

sudarshan22 · Answer

+1 for   B  .

A.  in what constitutes  a good secondary school education  have

B.  in what constitutes  a good secondary school education  has   -->   Correct

C.  in what constituted  a good secondary school education has

D.  in what constituted  a good secondary school education  have

E.  in constituting  a good secondary school education has

Hence,   B  .

vineethk929 · Answer

Can anyone please explain why it is not C??

Sent from my SM-J700F using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

chetan2u · Answer

C uses " constituted", past form..
we are talking of decline of something that is existing, so constitutes is the correct tense form.

sudarshan22 · Answer

vineethk929 Use of "what constituted" would distort the intended meaning of aforementioned sentence, particularly stating that the constituent of a good secondary school education is not existing anymore -and has changed for that matter- and stating that is incorrect. However, "what constitutes" rectifies the error and conveys intact meaning of the original sentence. Hope it helps

Mo2men · Answer

Dear  GMATGuruNY

Can you share your thoughts about when using the dependent clause with  'what.........'  could be right and when be wrong? There are lots of OG questions where this phrase its wrong?

What change in meaning in choice E?

Thanks

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.

Critics fear that the decline in what constitutes a good secondary sch

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

Critics fear that the decline in what constitutes a good secondary sch

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