SO AS TO

[chsriramaraju]

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide workers with unpaid leave so as to care for sick or newborn children.

(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they
(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can
(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and

Is SO AS TO right in GMAT......

[allegro2012]

the general usage is "Require someone TO do Something".

so that leaves us B and D.

in D -- they is ambigious so i would choose B.

[RonPurewal]

Congress is debating a bill requiring certain employers provide workers with unpaid leave so as to care for sick or newborn children.

(A) provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(B) to provide workers with unpaid leave so as to
(C) provide workers with unpaid leave in order that they
(D) to provide workers with unpaid leave so that they can
(E) provide workers with unpaid leave and

Is SO AS TO right in GMAT......

"so as to..." is certainly a legitimate construction, but you have to know how to use it.
since it isn't followed by a whole clause -- it's just followed by a verb in infinitive form -- the subject of that infinitive verb must be the same as the subject of the preceding part. for instance, if i say i bought a bunch of blankets so as to avoid paying too much for heating bills, then that makes sense, because i (the preceding subject) am the one who is going to avoid paying too much for heat.

in this sentence, "so as to" doesn't work, because "workers" (the people who actually have to care for the children) isn't the preceding subject.
according to this sentence -- depending on how you process it -- either congress or the employers would be the ones taking care of the children. that doesn't make sense.

[allegro2012]

Ron -- would you choose D then

[RonPurewal]

this is an official problem, with correct answer (d).

[aru]

Taking further this discussion. I found this question from veritas book.

Last month, thousands of customers decided to switch to prepaid cellular phones so as to avoid the monthly charges imposed under most cellular phone contracts.

Since in this case the subject can logically refer to customers, the usage of so as to should be correct?

The answer given is : so that they could avoid

Thanks!

[jlucero]

Taking further this discussion. I found this question from veritas book.

Last month, thousands of customers decided to switch to prepaid cellular phones so as to avoid the monthly charges imposed under most cellular phone contracts.

Since in this case the subject can logically refer to customers, the usage of so as to should be correct?

The answer given is : so that they could avoid

Thanks!

I doubt the GMAT would give you a split like this and say one is grammatically or meaning-wise incorrect. "so as to" = "in order to", so this sentence makes perfect sense with customers switching X in order to avoid Y. And this sentence doesn't have the meaning error that the GMAT Prep question does.