Sentence Correction

source: McGraw Hill's Conquering GMAT Verbal and writing

Faced with repeated crippling budget de�cits, the state
legislature had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the
governor submit a balanced budget.

A. had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
submit
B. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
must submit
C. had no choice except to pass a law mandating that the governor
should submit
D. was left with no choice except passing a law mandating the
governor to submit
E. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor has
to submit

If you choose a choice please explain why.

OA-A

IMO E

arora007 wrote:source: McGraw Hill's Conquering GMAT Verbal and writing

Faced with repeated crippling budget de�cits, the state
legislature had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the
governor submit a balanced budget.

A. had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
submit - No need of using had.
B. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
must submit - mandate that and must are redundant
C. had no choice except to pass a law mandating that the governor
should submit - Same as A
D. was left with no choice except passing a law mandating the
governor to submit - was left...except passing is awkward construction
E. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor has
to submit - Correct

If you choose a choice please explain why.

What is OA

A should be the answer.

The stmt require the use of subjunctive mode..." ..mandating that the governor submit is the correct construction".

Please provide the OA.

I don't understand how the answer is A. My question is that the state legislature faced issue before passing the law. In that case how can we use 'had' for passing the law?

Isn't it correct that 'had' should be followed by simple past tense. Here simple past tense is followed by past perfect tense. Please help me to understand the concept.

arora007 wrote:source: McGraw Hill's Conquering GMAT Verbal and writing

Faced with repeated crippling budget de�cits, the state
legislature had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the
governor submit a balanced budget.

A. had no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
submit
B. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor
must submit
C. had no choice except to pass a law mandating that the governor
should submit
D. was left with no choice except passing a law mandating the
governor to submit
E. has no choice but to pass a law mandating that the governor has
to submit

If you choose a choice please explain why.

OA-A

Hey reply2spg,

Good question - you're correct on the rule for the past-perfect ("had ____ed") tense, but in this case take another look at the word "had" in choice A:

...the legislature had no choice...

There isn't another verb next to "had", so this isn't the past-perfect tense, but rather the simple past tense of the verb "to have" meaning "to possess".

Because A correctly uses the simple past tense, it's correct. Consider another example:

CORRECT: I had the chicken pox in fourth grade.

INCORRECT: I had contracted the chicken pox in fourth grade.

In the first, "had" means "possessed" in simple past tense.

In the second, "had" is used to make "contracted" past-perfect, and because there is only one action it's wrong.



As for the rest of the sentence, it's pretty cleverly written because the use of "had" in the original gets you immediately thinking about verb tense. Actually, this one comes down to redundancy in quite a few situations.

In choice B, as arora007 correctly mentions, "mandate" means "require", so the "must" is redundant.

Similarly, though, choice E is incorrect because "mandating" already implies "has to", so "has to" is redundant.

Choice C isn't really redundant, but just illogical - "mandate" means "must", but "should" is conditional, so it's a nonsensical extra word.

Choice D is awkward in a couple ways: because it says "no choice but...", "passing" isn't parallel, but the original sentence (A) uses the infinitive "to pass" and is therefore okay. Also, "mandating...to submit" is an awkward and unidiomatic construction.

I hope that helps...

Thanks for your reply Brian, so take away is, if there is no verb after had and all other choices have some error with them, then we can think that 'had' as the past tense of verb 'to have'. I am thinking correct?

I have one more question. What is the difference between 'should' and 'would'. I know we use 'would' for hypothetical scenarios and for conditional cases, but as you have mentioned in your reply that 'should' is also conditional. So what is the difference between 'should' and 'would'?

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey reply2spg,

Good question - you're correct on the rule for the past-perfect ("had ____ed") tense, but in this case take another look at the word "had" in choice A:

...the legislature had no choice...

There isn't another verb next to "had", so this isn't the past-perfect tense, but rather the simple past tense of the verb "to have" meaning "to possess".

Because A correctly uses the simple past tense, it's correct. Consider another example:

CORRECT: I had the chicken pox in fourth grade.

INCORRECT: I had contracted the chicken pox in fourth grade.

In the first, "had" means "possessed" in simple past tense.

In the second, "had" is used to make "contracted" past-perfect, and because there is only one action it's wrong.



As for the rest of the sentence, it's pretty cleverly written because the use of "had" in the original gets you immediately thinking about verb tense. Actually, this one comes down to redundancy in quite a few situations.

In choice B, as arora007 correctly mentions, "mandate" means "require", so the "must" is redundant.

Similarly, though, choice E is incorrect because "mandating" already implies "has to", so "has to" is redundant.

Choice C isn't really redundant, but just illogical - "mandate" means "must", but "should" is conditional, so it's a nonsensical extra word.

Choice D is awkward in a couple ways: because it says "no choice but...", "passing" isn't parallel, but the original sentence (A) uses the infinitive "to pass" and is therefore okay. Also, "mandating...to submit" is an awkward and unidiomatic construction.

I hope that helps...

Exactly right on the word "had", reply - if it's not used in conjunction with another verb to form the past-perfect, then it can be a standalone past-tense verb of its own.

"Should" means either that something is likely to happen (e.g. "The temperature should cool off after this afternoon's ran") or that the decision-maker wants for something to happen (e.g. "My mother told me that I should visit the dentist twice a year"). In either case, the outcome is not definite...it's likely or preferable that it will happen, but there's some doubt. In this case, the word "mandate" is stronger than just wanting it to happen, so the word "should" is redundant and even softens the meaning of the sentence illogically.

Brian,

I have not seen any example in OG which is using should/must.
So can we assume that should/must are always wrong in GMAT.

when do you think that should/must be used in English language ?

Please check 'Canadian scientists' question in OG 11. Please search between Q # 120 - Q # 130

paes wrote:Brian,

I have not seen any example in OG which is using should/must.
So can we assume that should/must are always wrong in GMAT.

when do you think that should/must be used in English language ?

reply2spg wrote:Please check 'Canadian scientists' question in OG 11. Please search between Q # 120 - Q # 130

paes wrote:Brian,

I have not seen any example in OG which is using should/must.
So can we assume that should/must are always wrong in GMAT.

when do you think that should/must be used in English language ?

In this problem also, the answer choice with 'should' is wrong.
The same point, I want to ask whether should is always incorrect in GMAT.