The budget for education refelects the administration's

[ranjithc]

I get in grammar "it" refers to "budget" but i don't get the meaning of the whole sentence. When we use B, the sentence reads as follow:

"The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities."

how can the budget "allows the local school districts to spend the money"? can you help? Thanks!!!

this is well within the meaning of "budget".
a budget is a plan or set of rules that dictates how money (or another resource, such as water or fuel) is spent. as such, it can allow, or disallow, specific expenditures.

what do you think is wrong here? this is actually a pretty common usage:
my budget won't allow me to purchase these gourmet foods.
etc.

Can IT refer back to administration's rather than Budget?

[RonPurewal]

Can IT refer back to administration's rather than Budget?

according to rules previously propounded by gmac (specifically the dreaded "possessive poison" rule), no, it can't.
of note is the fact that gmac has actually redacted this rule -- it's no longer cited in the second edition verbal supplement (compare the explanations to 2nd ed. #81 to 1st ed. #86 if you are really interested) -- although i have still never seen a problem in which they have written a correct answer in violation of it.

[skyhi]

Hi Instructors,

I have a small doubt. Can you please help me ?

It was clear that non-underlined portion that this sentence was testing present subjunctive verb.
"demand that" + infinitive ( without "to" )
Eg. The attorney proposed that the session BE adjourned until the following day.

But, the object pronoun "them" in the underlined portion should refer back to the administration. Correct?

My understanding:
Possessive pronouns can only refer back to possessive nouns. However, subject and object pronouns CANNOT refer to possessive nouns. Therefore the object pronoun "them" is used incorrectly to refer back to administration's.


Please correct me.

1)
The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that .......................................on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

B. the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only

In 2nd main clause starting with but - subject prounoun "it" refers to subject "budget" in previous clause. "Them" object pronoun refers to "school district" object of relative clause starting with the "that the ....."

pronoun and the antecedent agree in case and number.

Also note that possessive pronoun may refer to non possesive nouns.

why isnt the "it" reference ambiguous here? is it because if we go with the meaning of the sentence "it" can only refer to "budget" and not "money"?
I also selected D because I thought "it" reference is ambiguous, even though I noticed the subjunctive.

Please help...

[tim]

Pronoun ambiguity is pretty much NEVER an issue on the GMAT. If you think a pronoun is ambiguous, that doesn't mean the answer choice is wrong; instead it means you have probably not interpreted the sentence correctly..

[tkotw79]

Hello,

Is it ok to strike out options A,C, and E on the basis of parallelism i.e. at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence we require ''Only'' to maintain the parallelism - Only on A, Not on B

[RonPurewal]

Hello,

Is it ok to strike out options A,C, and E on the basis of parallelism i.e. at the end of the underlined portion of the sentence we require ''Only'' to maintain the parallelism - Only on A, Not on B

Correct. "Only" is misplaced in those choices.
Because not is followed directly by "on B", only must be followed directly by "on A".

Good observation.

[bodhisattwabiswas]

Sorry to dig up the post...
My humble query is --- here 'demand' is used as noun, not verb (I suppose the verb is 'reflects'); is it still considered an example of subjunctive mood? don't we need demand/request/etc. as the main verb of the sentence?

[RonPurewal]

Sorry to dig up the post...
My humble query is --- here 'demand' is used as noun, not verb (I suppose the verb is 'reflects'); is it still considered an example of subjunctive mood? don't we need demand/request/etc. as the main verb of the sentence?

It works the same way for both.

The manager demanded that workers be at the store by 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night.
The manager's demand that workers be at the store by 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night was unreasonable.
Both correct.
Same thing if "request", "order", etc. are used as nouns rather than verbs.

[bodhisattwabiswas]

Sorry to dig up the post...
My humble query is --- here 'demand' is used as noun, not verb (I suppose the verb is 'reflects'); is it still considered an example of subjunctive mood? don't we need demand/request/etc. as the main verb of the sentence?

It works the same way for both.

The manager demanded that workers be at the store by 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night.
The manager's demand that workers be at the store by 9 p.m. Thanksgiving night was unreasonable.
Both correct.
Same thing if "request", "order", etc. are used as nouns rather than verbs.

thanks a lot for the explanation...

[jlucero]

Glad it helped.

[Crisc419]

B. the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only

"it" in grammar refers to the budget , in meaning it should refer to the administration's demand, right? anyone could clarify?


thanks.

[Crisc419]

I have another question.

when i first read the original sentence, i thought "but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other matherial or activities" parallel with "the money is controlled by the local schoold districts.

could a "but" clause exist in a "that" clause?


thanks

cris.

[RonPurewal]

B. the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only

"it" in grammar refers to the budget , in meaning it should refer to the administration's demand, right? anyone could clarify?


thanks.

"it" = "the budget"
...and this is most certainly the intended meaning, too.

what places restrictions on the allocation of money?
...the budget does.

if a pronoun represented something other than the intended meaning, the sentence would be WRONG!

[RonPurewal]

I have another question.

when i first read the original sentence, i thought "but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other matherial or activities" parallel with "the money is controlled by the local schoold districts.

could a "but" clause exist in a "that" clause?


thanks

cris.

i don't understand what you are asking here.

...but, if that's the meaning you got when you read the question, then you were reading TOO FAST -- and you should have SLOWED DOWN and taken the time to understand the meaning better.

if the parallel structures were the 2 things you mentioned here, then, the first part of the sentence (with "the administration's demand") wouldn't really make any sense.
...so, once you saw that, you'd have to come up with another interpretation.

[Crisc419]

I have another question.

when i first read the original sentence, i thought "but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other matherial or activities" parallel with "the money is controlled by the local schoold districts.

could a "but" clause exist in a "that" clause?


thanks

cris.

i don't understand what you are asking here.

...but, if that's the meaning you got when you read the question, then you were reading TOO FAST -- and you should have SLOWED DOWN and taken the time to understand the meaning better.

if the parallel structures were the 2 things you mentioned here, then, the first part of the sentence (with "the administration's demand") wouldn't really make any sense.
...so, once you saw that, you'd have to come up with another interpretation.

My question is i don't know (c) should be parallel with (a) or (b)

(a)The budget for education reflects the administration's demand
(b)that the money is controlled by local school districts
(c)but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

In other words:
(1)The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that the money is controlled by local school districts, but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

VS
(2)The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that the money is controlled by local school districts, but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or activities.

and i always have hard time figuring out the parallel in the such forms.

SUBJECT+VERB+THAT............... , AND/BUT +SUBJECT+VERB

Cris