The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister be tasked

Question

The Jamaican Senate has determined  that the prime minister be tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel , while the opposition's leader can only appoint eight.

(A) that the prime minister be tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel

(B) that the prime minister is tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel

(C) the prime minister is tasked with appointing thirteen members to it's panel

(D) thirteen members' appointment to its panel be tasked with the prime minister

(E) he is tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel - the prime minister

Abhishek009 · Answer

Demand is a bossy word requiring a subjunctive usage, demand x that y be z, hence answer must be (A)

Shreshtha55 · Answer

I'm confused here. Isn't appointed to is used rather than with

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generis · Answer

Shreshtha55 , yes, "appointed to" is correct. I'm not sure how you're getting the idea that appoint in any form or in any of the options is followed by "with." Take a look at Abhishek009 's post. I think that you may be focused on the wrong verb. Hope that helps.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

we are differentiating 13 members to 8 members here. So, in non-underlined part, the arrangement of words should be "can appoint only 8" not "can only appoint 8". I may be wrong! Please correct me if i am wrong, expert.
Thanks__

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DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

There's a fair amount of disagreement out there about how important the placement of "only" is. Many of us (myself included) allow a fair amount of flexibility. Others insist that "only" touch the exact word it is meant to apply to, or at least that it come as close as possible.

Since the question doesn't give us the option to put "only" next to "eight," clearly the author wasn't concerned about this. Would the GMAT use "only" in this way? I can't say for sure. If anyone wants to dig up some examples, we can go over them, but I'd suggest a little leeway here unless we see a clear split in the use of only. Certainly, if the only significant difference between two answers were "only appoint eight" or "appoint only eight," I'd go for the latter.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Q1: 
What's the basic difference in the color part of A and B, expert? 
 Q2: 
Why B is wrong? 
 Q3: 
How the use of "its" makes sense in A?
Thanks_

daagh · Answer

Abhishek

Where is the verb, demand or demanded in any of the choices? There is only has determined in the non-underlined part, holding good for all the five choices.

sudarshan22 · Answer

Official Explanation :

The original sentence may sound awkward, it is indeed correct as written. The sentence correctly uses the subjunctive tense for  determined that...be tasked . The idiomatic construction here is  tasked with .

Choice (B)  replaces  be  with  is , resulting in an incorrect subjunctive structure.

Choice (C)  eliminates  that ,  has is  instead of  be , and also fiddles with the possessive pronoun  its .

Choice (D)  and  (E)  eliminate  that . The correct answer is  (A) .

AliciaSierra · Answer

"DEMAND/DEMANDED" is not in any of choices.

generis · Answer

ammuseeru  , I think that  daagh  means to say that Abhishek wrote "demand" in his answer but "demand" is NOT in the question.

I could be mistaken about that comment.

Incidentally, 
The question does not require that "demand" or a synonym be used.

The verb  determine  also often takes the subjunctive.

From  Grammar Handbook: Verb Mood  , online at Center for Writing Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne,  HERE , accessed Feb 2, 2019.

And from  THIS SITE

Hope that helps.

warrior1991 · Answer

generis

I also fell for this and marked B. I thought the tone of the word  determine  is NOT SUBJUNCTIVE .
Hence I rejected A.

But you mentioned that it can be used as a bossy verb. Is that correct?? Is the OA A correct??

generis · Answer

warrior1991 , yes, determine takes the subjunctive. In my post above, if you look at the (inexhaustive) list of verbs that both grammar sites identify as often used in the subjunctive construction, you will see that not all of them are "bossy." I included links. Suggest, for example, is a bossy verb that does not, well, boss in the way that the word demand "bosses," but suggest often is nonetheless a bossy verb. Regret, which is not bossy, also frequently takes the subjunctive. Determine often takes the subjunctive, and the OA (Option A) is correct.

daagh · Answer

Generis,

Thanks for the new info; I did not know that 'determine' is included in the list of the subjunctive verbs.

The second thing was the implication of the Word 'Senate'. I used to think that Prime Minister is usually the supreme authority and that nobody could bind him. On the contrary, it looks as though the Jamaican Senate can mandate the P.M. This is also new information to me.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi surbhi1991.

Given that there is nothing clearly grammatically incorrect in (B), you ask a great question.

Here is the sentence created via the use of (B).

The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister  is  tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel, while the opposition's leader can only appoint eight.

Because that sentence uses the indicative voice wording "is tasked," that sentence conveys that the Senate has figured out that the prime minister IS tasked with appointing thirteen members.

While that scenario is possible, it's not likely that the point of the sentence would be that the Senate has, say, investigated and figured out how the government works.

Here's the sentence created via the use of (A).

The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister  be  tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel, while the opposition's leader can only appoint eight.

Because that sentence uses the subjunctive voice wording "be tasked," that sentence conveys that the Senate has, basically, made a command, the command that the prime minister be tasked with appointing thirteen members.

This scenario is much more likely than the one described by the sentence created via the use of (B).

Having said all that, I would add that this is not an official question, and choice (B) in this question is not quite as incorrect as an incorrect answers to official GMAT Sentence Correction questions generally are, as what the version created via the use of (B) conveys is, while unlikely, certainly not impossible.

TheUltimateWinner · Answer

Thank you sir for your explanation. I also think that there is no error in B. Sir, could you tell me how does "its" make sense in A or B? Thanks__

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MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

"Its" must refer to "the Jamaican Senate." So, "its panel" is the Jamaican Senate's panel. While what the Jamaican Senate's panel is is not made clear, that interpretation of the sentence makes sense.

parth647 · Answer

I'm Confused why cant the option (B) be the answer

generis · Answer

parth647 , a belated welcome to GMAT Club!

I cannot tell whether you have read the thread. If you have not read the thread, in this post, here, I write about how determine often must be used with the command subjunctive structure and that (B) fails to use that construction: special verb + THAT + subject + bare infinitive (TO VERB without the TO) Correct : The court determined that the evidence be admitted to the record. -- determined (bossy verb) + THAT + evidence (subject) + BE admitted (from to be admitted , drop the to ) Wrong : The court determined that the evidence is admitted to the record. Option A correctly uses the command subjunctive construction. The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister be tasked with appointing thirteen members to its panel, while the opposition's leader can only appoint eight. Further, MartyTargetTestPrep , here , wrote an outstanding answer to your question. If you have read the thread but still do not understand, would you please frame your question more specifically? Which part of one or both of those posts confuses you?

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The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister be tasked

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The Jamaican Senate has determined that the prime minister be tasked

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