Question
Because it regarded the environmentalists as members of an out-of-state organization, the city council voted that they are denied permission for participating in the parade.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
- Because it regarded the environmentalists as members of an out-of-state organization, (Dependent clause – Subject: it; Verb: regarded)
- the city council voted (Main Subject: the city council; Main Verb: voted)
- that they are denied permission for participating in the parade. (Dependent clause modifying ‘voted’)
The sentence seems to say that the city council voted to deny permission to the environmentalists to participate in the parade because the council regarded them as members of an out-of-state organisation.
The sentence has the following problems:
- The use of simple present tense ‘are denied’ is inappropriate here since the voting is for an action that ‘will’ or ‘should’ happen, not something that is already the case.
- “permission to participate” is preferred over “permission for participating”.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the reasons mentioned above.
(B) Incorrect. This option has the second error of the original sentence.
(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- “voted denying them” is not correct idiomatically.
- “permission to participate” is preferred over “permission for participation”.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- “voted the denial of permission” is not correct idiomatically.
- “that they participate” seems to modify ‘permission’. However, this modification doesn’t make sense since ‘that they participate’ doesn’t provide additional information about permission.
(E) Correct.
If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask in the comments section.
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Hello,
Everything is absolutely clear to me, except this-that they are denied permission for participating in the parade. (Dependent clause modifying ‘voted’)- can a dependent clause modify a verb?
Kindly apologize the novice, if the question is silly.
Thank you
Technically, the “that” clause is an object for the verb “voted”. However, since there are no specific grammar rules we use for objects, I categorize objects as modifiers.
Hi CJ,
Thank you for the detailed explanation.
I have the following queries in this particular explanation:
1. “permission for participating”- Is it a quality issue or deterministic issue? If it is a quality issue, can we reject the option choice if it has no other deterministic issue?
2. Do we have a meaning error in the original sentence: City council voted “that….”.
Council voted that permission be denied, but as per correct option we mean to say Council voted to deny (seems to be intention).
Thanks!
1. Quality issue. No
2. No. Both the meanings are acceptable.
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