The management of the minor league team considered raising admission a

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 199: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
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The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees  so that the costs would be higher than they had been  charged in more than five years.

A) so that the costs would be higher than they had been

B) so that they were higher than those had been

C) so that fees would be higher than they were

D) to a higher level than had been

E) to a level higher than that had been

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 199: Sentence Correction (SC2)

Quote:

THE PROMPT

Quote:

The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

• The underlined part of this sentence is nonsensical and illogical.
Fees get raised, not costs.

The management . . . thought about raising admission and parking fees . . . so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

• Meaning? The management of the team thought about raising admission and parking fees— to a higher level than had been charged [by the management] in more than five years.

THE OPTIONS

Quote:

A) so that the costs would be higher than they had been

• COSTS? No. Fees. Fees would increase.
• "So that" means "for the purpose of" or "in order to."
-- The language is off. GMAC does not like so that to express result. On the GMAT, so that expresses purpose.
-- Did the management consider raising fees because they had a purpose, and that purpose was to raise fees to a level higher than had been charged in a long time? Doubtful.
Eliminate A

Quote:

B) so that they were higher than those had been

•so that presents the same issue as that in A
-- So that is supposed to mean "as a result of what management was considering."
-- I have never seen GMAC use "so that" to express result.
• the first they refers to fees.
After that part, things go downhill.
What is the comparison? Fees were higher than those had been in over five years?
The second pronoun, those, is still talking about fees.
Those should be they.
Fees were higher than fees had been in over five years.
Same subject, two verbs. We do not switch pronouns, especially to pronouns that sounds as if they are not referring to the subject.
Eliminate B.

Quote:

C) so that fees would be higher than they were

• Same "so that" problem as in A and B.
=-- Did the management consider raising fees "so that" (in order to make sure that) fees would be higher than before?
Doubtful. "A higher level of fees than before" is a result.
so that fees would be higher than they were
• Rhetorical disaster.
The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees so that fees would be higher than they were charged in more than five years.
Fees would be higher than they were charged? This sentence makes no sense.
Eliminate C

Quote:

D) to a higher level than had been

-- Looks promising.
-- The management . . . considered raising fees to a higher level than had been charged in over five years.
The switch from active to passive voice is not great but not horrible, either.
KEEP

Quote:

E) to a level higher than that had been

• The trap answer. You are supposed to believe that the sentence keeps some comparison parallel.
• The word "that" has no referent.
RHS of "than": that had been charged in over five years. ← ← this is a fragment
LHS of "than: [fees raised to] a level higher than
• We would need two "thats," this way: to a level higher than that that had been charged . . .
The management . . . considered raising fees to a level high than [the level] that had been charged
This sentence is nonsensical.
Eliminate E.

The answer is D.

Similar phrasing: Arctic air drove the temperature to a lower level than had been recorded in two decades.

COMMENTS

adstudy , welcome to SC Butler.

This question is difficult, but it's a good lesson in this way: try not to overthink it.
You all did very well as you narrowed answers down.
More importantly, you were brave and posted.
Everyone gets kudos.

This question is difficult, but it's a good lesson in this way: try not to overthink it. You all did very well as you narrowed answers down. More importantly, you were brave and posted. Everyone gets kudos.

Doer01 · Answer

Hi, IMO E. I solved this one by POE. Meaning: The management considered raising admission and parking fees to compensate the fee that it had been charged in more than five years. Management is singular, hence it needs a singular pronoun. that (management??)(level???) Nothing else makes sense but Management as it is a singular entity. Edit: Wait, what?!!!!! Who are these 28% people who chose correct answer?!!

mykrasovski · Answer

Quick read-through reveals that the sentence tests comparison. Simplified, the sentence is the following: the management introduced fees that were higher than the fees that were charged in the last five years. Let's see which options do not work and which one works best:

A)  so that the costs would be higher than  they  had been
Who or what is  they ? Costs? Costs of what? Were not we talking about the fees? The meaning switches from fees to costs... This is a bit weird.

B)   so that   they  were higher than  those  had been
First,  so that  indicates the purpose / intent, but we have "were" which creates a meaning issue. The mgmt considered changing the fees so that they would be higher. We cannot speak in Past Tense because the management has not actually implemented the new fees - this is potentially an issue. Also, seems that  they  and  those  refer to fees and this is fine.

C)  so that fees would be higher than they were
This option would work if the remaining non-underlined portion of the sentence was something like "five years ago", but we have "charged in more than five years". Let's look at the comparison:  fees would be higher  than  fees were charged  ... This does not make much sense. Eliminate (C).

D)  to a higher level than had been
We are missing a piece in our comparison. The sentence says that  management considered changing fees to a higher level than had been charged in five years.   What was charged? Level? Well, we either need to have a pronoun or a word "level".

E)  to a level higher than  that  had been
This option looks okayish and it is slightly different from (D) because it has "that". I think there should be an extra "that" after "that". Then the sentence would read as follows:
 Management considered changing the fees to a level higher than that   that had been charged in five years.

Let's compare (B) and (E). I am not sure that it is correct to charge a level (E), but one can indeed charge the fees. It is okay to say "fees had been charged in last five years". So, I preferred (B) to (E) while solving, but now I like (E) more than (B) just because there is an issue with "so that" in (B). Do I like (E)? Not at all!

Overall, this is a really tough question and one must not get stuck on a similar question during the test. If you deliberate more than 5 seconds between two / three options, you do not know what to do. Please, guess and move on. Otherwise, you may waste a lot of valuable time.

Tushrgupta · Answer

may be you are right but i think they correctly refers to costs and not the management.

Tushrgupta · Answer

imo A

D&E distorts meaning,B&C pronoun error

elavendan1 · Answer

IMHO, E. My reason for eliminating the answer choices, 
A. so that  the costs  would be higher than they had been - Is management raising the fees so that costs would be higher? I applied some of my Quants knowledge here and costs mean production price. So I eliminated A 
B. so that they were higher than those had been - Grammatically correct. But, management is only considering to raise the costs. The management did not raise the cost. So Eliminate B.
C. so that fees would be higher than they were charged in more than five years.  Fees  should be compared to  fees .  Fees  cannot be compared with  fees charged with. 
D. to a higher level than had been. Comparison in this sentence is A considered raising X so that X had been charged in more than five years. I believe, this sentence compares between the higher fees level and fees that had been charged in 5 years. Not between the levels of fees. So Eliminate D. 
E. to a level higher than that had been- replace  that  with  level . Now the sentence reads, .... than the level charged in more than five years . Now the comparison is between the levels, so option E.

minustark · Answer

The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

A) so that  the costs  would be higher than they had been >I think the subject is not costs, rather fees.

B) so that  they  were higher than those had been> 'they' has no clear antecedent.

C) so that fees would be higher than they  were  > had been is preferred kin place of were.

D) to a higher level than had been > Correct.

E) to a level higher than  that  had been.

I'm confused between D and E. Cannot get the use of that in E.

shridhar786 · Answer

A) so that the costs would be higher than they  had been 
-- the use of had been is wrong over here it implies that the fee was charged sometimes in the past
and is not charged anymore --so why the management will increase the fee that is not in existence  (incorrect)

B) so that they were higher than those  had been 
same as (A)  (incorrect)

C)  so that fees would be higher than they were
 
--correct verb tense is used 
--idiom error resolved
 (correct)

D)  to  a higher level than had been
consider X Y is the correct idiom
consider X to Y ---is incorrect  (incorrect)

E)  to  a level higher than that had been
same as (D)  (incorrect)

eakabuah · Answer

The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

Meaning: The Management considered raising admission and parking fees. Why? So that fees would be higher than they  were charged in more than five years.
It is interesting to note that the Management only considered raising the fees. The fees were actually not raised. This sentence has some elements of the hypothetical subjunctive, hence the so that has to be followed by would be, could be, or might be, since this is an expression of the future of the past. Based on this, we can eliminate B.

What is the rationale for the use of the past perfect tense  had been ? The fees were not raised. The Management of the minor league team only considered raising the fees. We don't have any justification to use the past perfect tense. With this bit of information, we can eliminate A, B, D, and E. 
We are left with C. I don't see anything wrong with C. they unambiguously refer to fees. Comparing  would be fees  to  fees     were charged  seems logical to me. I may be wrong and I stand to be corrected.

Hence, I choose option C as the correct answer.

A) so that the costs would be higher than  they   had been 
Are costs and fees synonymous? I don't think so. At least not in this context. Thankfully, there is already a good reason to eliminate A.

B) so that  they   were  higher than those  had been 
 They  seem okay to me since it refers to fees and this is logical.  Were  is incorrect. We are referring to the future of the past.  would be  is appropriate.

C) so that fees  would be  higher than  they were

D) to a higher level than  had been

E) to a level higher than that  had been

adstudy · Answer

The first split that we see in this question is of : 'so that' v/s 'to a' in the beginning of each option.

In the underlined part we note 'Considered' to be there.

Now the correct idiom with 'considered' is 'Consider A B'.

So,   Consider  'A'  so that  'B'  is wrong.

Now we have two options remaining : D and E. Lets compare

D) to a higher level than had been

E) to a level higher than  that  had been

the use of 'that' in E is not clear. It seems to refer to 'level' but then it will make the rest of the non-underlined section nonsensical with this part, as level cannot be charged

Hence best answer is  D

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The management … considered raising … fees so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

Options A, B, and C can be eliminated on the grounds of meaning alone.

For instance, Option A suggests that the Management was thinking of increasing the “costs” ( which is not the same as fees ) “so that” ( which here means because ) costs would be higher than ever in five years.

This is definitely not the intended meaning.  With this reason alone, we can eliminate A, B, and C .

We are now left with D and E.

Option E is trying to trick you into thinking that it is using  the concept of ellipsis . But there is nothing parallel in the main clause to compare it with. Therefore we can eliminate E.

D is the right answer.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

zoezhuyan · Answer

hi  generis , appreciate your awesome explanation.
would you please elaborate further about "those" VS "they" in choice B.because I still think the second pronoun "those" is better than "they" . those imply a new copy.

pronoun "they" refers to a certain antecedent. and if the "they" appears later in the same sentence, "they" should refer to the same antecedent.

Fees   were  higher than  fees  had been in over five years.
here, I view "those" stands for admission and parking fees , but the fee is different admission and parking fees , the fee was admission and parking fees in past fast 5 years ago. if we use pronoun "they" , implying the fee is not the fee in past 5 years ago.

I have a example from MANHATTAN guide line.
 the MONEY spent by her parents is less than that spent by her children.

generis , I am not challenging you. but this indeed confused me a lot.

please help...

I think "that" refers to level.
I think  that had been charged in over five years.  ← ← this is  NOT  a fragment

did I miss something?

shameekv1989 · Answer

I thought that an ellipsis while comparing can not be anything other than something that's stated in the sentence previously and that it has to be in the same form. Isn't that true?

Quote:
The management of the minor league team considered raising admission and parking fees so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

• The underlined part of this sentence is nonsensical and illogical.
Fees get raised, not costs.

The management . . . thought about raising admission and parking fees . . . so that the costs would be higher than they had been charged in more than five years.

• Meaning? The management of the team thought about raising admission and parking fees— to a higher level than had been charged   in more than five years.

How can we use ellipsis for "by the management" in this sentence?

by the management is not present in the sentence

VerbalBot · Answer

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The management of the minor league team considered raising admission a

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The management of the minor league team considered raising admission a

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