Ending a contentious political stalemate that frightened global

Question

Ending a contentious political stalemate that  frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives—and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers—to guide Italy, Europe’s  third-largest economy, out of stagnation.

(A) frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives—and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers—to guide Italy, Europe’s

(B) had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives—and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister—to guide Italy, with Europe’s

(C) had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives—and that include a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister —to guide Italy, which has Europe’s

(D) had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives—and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister—to guide Italy, which has Europe’s

(E) frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives—and includes a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister—and to guide Italy, with Europe’s

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/world/europe/italy-forms-new-coalition-government-to-end-months-of-political-stalemate.html

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Here is the skeleton of option (A) with details removed:

Ending a stalemate that frightened leaders, Enrico has formed a rare coalition government that united ... – and included ... – to guide Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation.

There are two events:
Leaders frightened
Govt formed

Since leaders were frightened before the Govt was formed, we can express the events in two ways:

Option (A) - Ending a stalemate that frightened (simple past) leaders, Enrico has formed (present perfect) a rare coalition government...
We don't know whether Enrico has just formed the Govt or did he form it some time back. There is no need to assume that he formed it some time back and hence use of present perfect may not be incorrect. But the problem with option (A) is that 'united' and 'included' use past tense. In that case, the use of present perfect for forming the Govt is incorrect. The formation of the Govt united liberals and conservatives and included women and non white ministers. Hence, 'uniting' and 'including' did not happen before the Govt was formed.

Option (B) - Ending a stalemate that had frightened (past perfect) leaders, Enrico formed (simple past) a rare coalition government...
Here, the tenses are correct. Past perfect for 'Leaders frightened' and simple past for 'Govt formed'.

As for the use of 'with'.

Italy here is referring to the country. The country has Europe's third largest economy.

Hence the use of both these is correct:
... to guide Italy, with Europe's third largest economy, out of stagnation.
... to guide Italy, which has Europe's third largest economy, out of stagnation.

Note that we could also refer to Italy, Europe's third largest economy. We could say that Italy is Europe's third largest economy as done in option (A). That is correct too. But option (A) has other errors.

kaladhar · Answer

A. Yes. Has finally formed is wrong usage. Since the action occurred in the past and also since we need to show the verb sequencing we should use past perfect tense. 
B. this option uses past perfect tense correctly. And there is nothing wrong with government uniting... split the sentence into clauses. 
 the new Italian Prime Minister , Enrico Letta, finally  formed  a rare coalition government  uniting  liberals and conservatives – and  including  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy

in the above sentence subject is the new Italian Prime Minister and verb is formed. The rest of the sentence after government is verb-ing modifier. Also, both uniting and including must be parallel to each other. Hence this option is correct.

C. Wrong tense usage as in A.

D. No. You have identified the wrong parallel lists. Formed and united are NOT the intended parallel lists. The actual list is Unite and Include. In this option they are not parallel - United and including.

E. Wrong tense usage. We need past perfect tense to show the sequence of the events. If both the verbs are in past tense the they seem to have occurred at the same time. But that is not possible. Hence the action that occurred earlier should be in past perfect tense. Also, "to unite" is NOT parallel to "including". Hence, wrong answer.

aakrity · Answer

A)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  has finally formed  a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s
 has finally formed - out 
B)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s
 government uniting > NO, should be government that united / government to unite which is in D and E 
C)had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  has finally formed  a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and that include a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s
 same as A 
D)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s
 formed and including is not correct 
E)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives – and includes a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s
 finally formed and includes is correct construction. Option E is correct

Please guide me..

kinghyts · Answer

I concur with ankurgupta03, the use of "with" is incorrect. "With" in such situations indicates sense of possession.

Literally, the sentence means " the rare coalition coalition government will guide Italy with Europe’s largest economy, i.e Italy + Europe's largest economy, out of stagnation. "

Thus, it doesn't seem to mean the right thing.

Experts please comment.

nhanqtvn · Answer

Ending a contentious political stalemate that frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation.
A)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  has finally formed  a rare coalition government  that united  liberals and conservatives –  and included  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s  (that united # and included --> not parallel) 
B) had frightened  global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  finally formed  a rare coalition government  uniting  liberals and conservatives –  and including  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s (uniting and including are parallel --> the OA)
C)had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government  uniting  liberals and conservatives – and  that include  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s (not parallel)
D)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government  that united  liberals and conservatives –  and including  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s (not parallel)
E)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  finally formed  a rare coalition government  to unite  liberals and conservatives – a nd includes  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s (not parallel)

--> B is OA

maheshmadala19 · Answer

Ending a contentious political stalemate that frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation.

A)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s    (Wrong: Has finaly Formed)

B)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s    (wrong: with Europe's & "Uniting liberals....." is modifying "government" but actual meaning of the sentence is "X formed Y, uniting A&B". so comma is mandatory)

C)had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and that include a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s   (Wrong: Had been frightening... action happening the past while someother action was happening... Since there is no 2nd action)

D)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s   (Correct: since "-" can be considered any thing such as comma, colon & hipen, Including need not to be parllel with united)

E)frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives – and includes a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s  (Wrong: Inludes, stating general fact in simple present tense, which is meaningless)

gagan0001 · Answer

Ending a contentious political stalemate that  frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s  third-largest economy, out of stagnation.

A. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s   everything seems ok in the original sentence. The PM has formed a gov that 1. united l&c and 2. included... to guide Italy,

B. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s—

D. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s

C. had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and that include a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s  same as above

D. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s  same

E. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives – and includes a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s  and includes is present tense which is wrong in this context

Also, I think, except for option A the last modifier for Italy is wrong in all other options

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

There are couple of events in sequential order here
1. A contentious political stalemate frightened global business leaders, 
2. The new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that did few things to do sth 
3. The formation of coalition government is done by PM ending the political stalemate.
4. things resulted by coalition government formation to guide Italy out of stagnation.
 united liberals and conservatives – and 
included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers –

Points to be considered
1. since event 1 happened before all others it should be in past perfect tense
2. event 2 which happened after event 1 so this event need to be expressed in simple past tense
3. the new Italian Prime Minister formed the govt and this formation ended event 1 and resulted in event4
4. Parallelism must be followed in event 4
5. event 5 is added a modifier which describes Italy. It should imply the intended meaning that Italy contains Europe’s third-largest economy.

A. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s
 A is wrong since points 1 and 2 are violated.
verb-ed forms in event4(United and included) give some-other meaning other than intended one.
point 5 is also wrong since Europe's economy seems to be Italy here which is completely meaningless

B. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s
 Correct.

C. had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and that include a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s
 Points 2 and 4(Uniting and include are not parallel) are violated.
point 5 is also wrong since Italy has Europe's economy here until now which is completely meaningless. present perfect tense id wrong here

D. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s
 Point 4 is violated(That united and including are not parallel)
point 5 is also wrong since Italy has Europe's economy here until now which is completely meaningless. present perfect tense id wrong here

E. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives – and includes a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s
 Points 1 and 4(unite and includes) are violated.
forced parallelism between  to unite  and  to guide  deviates the intended meaning from the original one changing events and the purpose

Please correct me if I have missed something or expressed a concept wrongly.

sytabish · Answer

Hi  souvik101990 
I got a couple of question on the original answer posted.

1. " uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister " , this information provides about how Enrico Letta formed the coalition government. So, shouldn't it be preceded by a comma ?

2. What does the with modifier " with Europe’s third largest economy  " modify ? I don't think it modifies Italy. It just doesn't makes sense. "Europe's third largest economy" would be a better way to convey the intended meaning.

Please help me clarify my doubts.
Thanks!

Nevernevergiveup · Answer

Dash is used in place of comma. it is not incorrect. B. the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives to guide Italy, with Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation. with Europe’s third largest economy is not defining Italy but just gives additional info about the country and its economic status in Europe. Coalition government is formed to guide Italy out of stagnation. this Italy contains Europe's third largest economy or Italy's economy is the third largest economy in states of Europe. Ending a contentious political stalemate that frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives to guide Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation. here Europe's third largest economy seems to describe or modify Italy. In this case Italy is compared to Europe's economy. This is an incorrect comparison. I hope this helps.

anuradhaarjun · Answer

282552 
"Y formed something" actually has got everything to do with "Ending X."

The past perfect is  "past-in-the-past." i.e. an event or state anterior (coming before in time) to a time orientation in the past. 
The formed  coalition government    actually ended the  contentious political stalemate    that had been going on before the said formation of coalition government.

anuradhaarjun · Answer

There is no modifier problem in ans B, because the prepositional phrase "with Europe’s third-largest economy" acts an adjective modifying the noun "Italy."
The word  "with"  means  "in spite of"  rather than the usual "including, possession, etc." Please see my post above.
 With the addition of the word "with ," the appositive "Europe’s third-largest economy" is converted into the prep. phrase without any distortion to the meaning (the bolded prep. phrase acts as an adverb for this sentence).

souvik101990 · Answer

Adding @empowerGMATRich 's explanation

This is certainly a wordy SC, but there's nothing we can do about that. Grammar rules are still grammar rules though, so you should look for patterns in the answer choices to help you "find" a rule that you can deal with. The answers seem to start off with a variety of verbs, so we'll start there.

1) Verbs: To figure out which verb to use, we need to look at the other verbs in the sentence. Notice that in all the answers "Enrico Letta… formed…."; this is a reference to a past event. The "stalemate that frightened global business leaders" occurred BEFORE Enrico Letta formed the coalition government. We now have 2 past events, so we need the verb phrase "had frightened." Eliminate A, C and E.

2) Verbs Pt. 2: Between B and D, we can now look at the next verb "issue" in line: "uniting" vs. "united." The sentence tells us that Enrico Letta has "finally" formed a coalition government, which describes a relatively recent event. We need to think about whether the united liberals and conservatives are STILL united or if they were united for just a short time (in the past) and now are NOT united. The prompt further mentions how the coalition is meant to guide Italy out of stagnation, so the coalition still exists (it wasn't just in the past). We need the verb "uniting" to convey that idea. Eliminate D.

Final Answer: B

daagh · Answer

1. The sentence per se means that it was the coalition government that united the liberals and conservatives. One may note that there is no comma after the word government, implying that uniting modifies the government rather than Enrico

2. The verb+ing participle or a verbal as it called, has no connotation of tense what so ever and does not mean that ‘uniting’ should only refer to a currently happening event. 
After all the government uniting is far inferior to the government that united. We may also further see that ‘uniting and united’ both denote a happening at the point of the formation of the coalition government. How long 'united' would survive or whether it is still surviving etc wouldn’t have mattered to us on that day, because survival of the union after the formation is out of scope of ‘uniting”.

So the past tense ‘united’ is fair enough in D as far as I see; But what goofs up D miserably is the flagrant violation of parallelism in saying that 'united and including' rather than 'that united and included' ; D is therefore no match to B.

B is also good enough in using the past perfect, because it has a matching later simple past tense in ‘formed’. But B’s problems as I see are because of using the word ‘with’ used in the rare meaning of in spite of. When we use ‘with’ meaning ‘in spite of’, the usage should reflect a necessary contrast. The expression ‘with Europe’s third largest economy’ does not seem to reflect any contrast. It should say something like “to guide Italy, with the Europe’s third largest economy unable to perform, out of stagnation.

Can't decide which one

iamanorwhal · Answer

Q: Ending a contentious political stalemate that frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers – to guide Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation.

A. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta,  has  finally formed a rare coalition government that united liberals and conservatives – and included a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite ministers  – to guide Italy, Europe’s – Tense: “has” does not go with past tense “united” and “included”

B. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s -

C. had been frightening global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, has finally formed a rare coalition  government  uniting liberals and conservatives – and that  include  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s  – Subject-Verb Agreement: “government” does not agree with “include”

D. had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally  formed  a rare coalition government that  united  liberals and conservatives – and  including  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, which has Europe’s  – Tense/Logic: “including” does not work with past tense “united” and “formed”

E. frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government to unite liberals and conservatives –  and includes  a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – and to guide Italy, with Europe’s  – Meaning: “and includes” does not connect to anything

Alamel · Answer

Hi Karishma,
My query is wrt usage of "with" in the above example in option b ( in the above example)
1)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide  Italy, with Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation
 
and in 
2)All across Detroit, whitewashed fences, new roofs, and freshly painted porches are signs of a brisk urban renewal led by  new immigrants, with one clapboard house at a time.

In 1) with Europe's -- is a noun phrase modifying Italy
In 2) with one clapboard house at a time -- Can it be treated as a noun phrase modifying immigrants. What if we tweak it as "with one clapboard house". or with deep pockets
2)All across Detroit, whitewashed fences, new roofs, and freshly painted porches are signs of a brisk urban renewal led by  new immigrants, with deep pockets .

What is the thumb rule to differentiate between the usage of with in such cases.

Alamel · Answer

Hi Karishma,
My query is wrt usage of "with" in the above example in option b ( in the above example)
1)had frightened global business leaders, the new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, finally formed a rare coalition government uniting liberals and conservatives – and including a record number of women and Italy’s first nonwhite minister – to guide Italy, with Europe’s third-largest economy, out of stagnation

and in 
2)All across Detroit, whitewashed fences, new roofs, and freshly painted porches are signs of a brisk urban renewal led by new immigrants, with one clapboard house at a time.

In 1) with Europe's -- is a noun phrase modifying Italy
In 2) with one clapboard house at a time -- Can it be treated as a noun phrase modifying immigrants. What if we tweak it as "with one clapboard house". or with deep pockets
2)All across Detroit, whitewashed fences, new roofs, and freshly painted porches are signs of a brisk urban renewal led by new immigrants, with deep pockets .

What is the thumb rule to differentiate between the usage of with in such cases.

Alamel · Answer

Thanks a Lot Karishma for the reply. (  love your Quarter wit Quarter Wisdom blog - specifically your explanations on graphs and inequalities - Best part not writing equations to solve   )
Sorry for drifting off topic.

So according to the Non essential modifier rule - Am i correct in saying even immigrants, with deep pockets will be incorrect. 
It should be immigrants with deep pockets - without the comma. If i mean to say about only immigrants who have lot of money and not immigrants in general who might not have deep pockets.

Furthermore --
What is confusing is it could be interpreted that the question is renewal is led by  immigrants who have one clapboard house .
and not by all the immigrants as such. 
So logically - All Immigrants , Immigrants with clapboard house and Immigrants without clapboard houses.
So in conjunction with your explanation for "with deep pockets" i assume " with one clapboard house " would also be correct.

Primarily - why is this so 
In (2), the use of "with" is not correct.  The prepositional phrase can neither act as an adjective phrase nor as an adverb phrase. 
Is the usage of "at a time"- immigrants with one clapboard house at a time- that makes it wrong

So "What is the thumb rule to differentiate between the usage of with in such cases" - Is meaning the only guide

thanks a lot

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION 
B. This problem includes a variety of  verb tenses  and  requires attention to a logical timeline . Choice A is incorrect as the  past-tense  verbs “ united ” and “ included ” don’t work logically with “ has formed ”. Choice C is incorrect not necessarily on a verb TENSE error but via subject-verb agreement, as the verb “include” needs to agree with “government”, so it should be “includes”. Choice D is incorrect as the present verb “including” does not work logically with the past-tense verbs throughout the sentence. And choice E is incorrect as the “and includes” portion set off by hyphens doesn’t logically link anything to “includes” via the linking term “and”. Choice  B  is correct.

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