Unlike most severance packages, whiich require workers to

[jlucero]

Hi Ron
I am just wondering what "they" in E is referred to. Can "workers"(or people in general) be "scheduled"?
Thanks!! <3
Monica

Yes, it refers to workers, and the idiom is "scheduled to do X", which is entirely acceptable.

I was scheduled to teach a class this morning.

[jlucero]

very hard.

in

the last day they are scheduled to collect

"they" refers to "packages"

and so

packages are scheduled to collect

is wrong because

"packages can not "collect"

is my thinking correct?

Correct.

[thanghnvn]

I fail on this question and each time I restudy it, I feel not confident.

but I think that gmat dose have a pattern with which to create the sc problems.

the pattern, situation here is that when relative pronoun /clause and the "last verb" appear, the object of the last verb (collect) becomes obscure. gmat uses this obscureness to make wrong answer choice e, which make us not willing to take mba.

this hard situation is played by gmat many times, each time , a new sentence based on the same pattern.

my tip/strategy for this situation is that

when ever we see relative pronoun and "last verb", ask ourself which is the object of the "last verb" . this way help us to realize the meaning illogicness fast because the illogic is in the object of the "last verb"

above thing is the way I will study sc. if we study this way, we put us in place of the creators of gmat sc. the creators can not play the game without the pattern/situation. in fact the creators alway use some same/old situations for different questions which we think new.

we highly appreciate the experts's posting here. we want them to post more and some times repeated information. repeatation is good because finally real gmat test is a repeatation.

[jlucero]

I don't see a question in there, so I'll assume you are good on this one.

[pjreddy]

I have a quick question: Is there anything incorrect with using "the last day scheduled..." versus "their last day scheduled.." This was a split I noticed and used to eliminate answer choices. Was this a wrong move to make?

[tim]

This was a wrong move if and only if you were unable to identify a specific reason why one of these options was incorrect. If you cannot definitively rule out an answer choice as incorrect, you should leave it in play. Keep in mind that not all splits presented in sentence correction have one right version and one wrong version. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with either option..

[pjreddy]

This was a wrong move if and only if you were unable to identify a specific reason why one of these options was incorrect. If you cannot definitively rule out an answer choice as incorrect, you should leave it in play. Keep in mind that not all splits presented in sentence correction have one right version and one wrong version. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with either option..

Thanks Tim. That's a good point to keep in mind. I definitely always thought that splits were always put in for a reason. I still feel like there has to be a logical reason behind why it makes sense to say "their last scheduled day" over "the last day scheduled to collect" since we are referring specifically to the workers collecting THEIR severance packages. Can you explain why the latter would be incorrect (if it is)?

[tim]

the latter would be incorrect only if it failed to convey the meaning the sentence requires. notice that some of the choices that have this construction provide that clarification later in the sentence, so in those cases the word "the" isn't a problem at all..

[543596411@qq.com]

why i find OA is E in other forum .can someone tell me the REAL OA（providing evidence such as screenshot from prep soft program)

[mcmebk]

because that's grammatically incorrect in general, which muddles the meaning

What's wrong with the grammar here.

if you say "the last day that they are scheduled to collect", this means that "day" must be a direct object.

this makes no sense, unless the employees are collecting days (which they clearly aren't).

--

another example:

"the time that we were scheduled to meet" is incorrect. the literal reading of this (which is the only reading you care about, by the way) is that you were scheduled to meet the time itself. (ron: "hi, time!" time: "hi, ron!")

(in case you're wondering, the correct way to say this would be "the time at which we were scheduled to meet", since the preposition "at" must be conserved.)

Hi Ron

What about in a sentence like this - We are surprised at the news that he resigned. in this sentence, that is an appositive of "the news", what is the difference of the "THAT" here in E?

Thanks.

[tim]

why i find OA is E in other forum .can someone tell me the REAL OA（providing evidence such as screenshot from prep soft program)

I got the impression from reading this thread that our instructors are pretty much in unanimous agreement that D is the correct answer. If you found a different forum that said E, you just have to decide whom you find to be more credible. :)

[tim]

what is the difference of the "THAT" here in E?

Thanks.

Please clarify your question. It is linguistically invalid to talk about the "difference of" something. In order to talk about a difference, we need to have a difference *between* two things or a difference *among* three or more things, not a difference *of* one thing.

[mcmebk]

Hi instructors:

Sorry if my previous post was not clear, the question I have on the usage of "that" is:

Ron said in this structure "the last day that they are scheduled to collect", means they are scheduled to collect "the last day", which is illogical;

However, we do see sentences like this: "The news that he was killed..." this is a valid construction, why that is ok here since news can not be killed?

For D, I have a question about the usage of "in order to collect"...

I read many books in order to prepare the upcoming exam - It is my purpose to prepare the exam

I talked to him to understand better the questions - It is my purpose to understand better the questions.

I require a better car to drive faster - I want to drive faster...etc

All those examples indicate the subject of clause, not the object after the verb, as the one who holds those purposes.

Why in this question D: WHICH (severance packages) requires workers to stay until....in order to collect.... Okay? according to the examples above, it seems to suggest the severance packages did those things in order to collect...

Where am I wrong?

Thank you Ron.

[harishmullapudi]

uff... this question is too tough even to understand the explanation. Is there any other way to explain why D is right and E is wrong? I didn't understand the explanation that was provided... :(

[jlucero]

Hi instructors:

Sorry if my previous post was not clear, the question I have on the usage of "that" is:

Ron said in this structure "the last day that they are scheduled to collect", means they are scheduled to collect "the last day", which is illogical;

However, we do see sentences like this: "The news that he was killed..." this is a valid construction, why that is ok here since news can not be killed?

For D, I have a question about the usage of "in order to collect"...

I read many books in order to prepare the upcoming exam - It is my purpose to prepare the exam

I talked to him to understand better the questions - It is my purpose to understand better the questions.

I require a better car to drive faster - I want to drive faster...etc

All those examples indicate the subject of clause, not the object after the verb, as the one who holds those purposes.

Why in this question D: WHICH (severance packages) requires workers to stay until....in order to collect.... Okay? according to the examples above, it seems to suggest the severance packages did those things in order to collect...

Where am I wrong?

Thank you Ron.

I don't know where you got that first quote from Ron, but I'm sure that it was in reference to a larger sentence. There are times when that expression is right. I think you need to double check the meaning of an appositive, since you've mentioned it incorrectly on a few posts.

In this case, THAT is a relative pronoun introducing a noun modifier:

The dog that is red belongs to me.

"that is red" provides extra information about the dog. It is not an appositive though. (side note- learning the names of these things is far more trouble than it is worth on test day. I had no idea what an appositive was when I took my GMAT and did just fine)

Second, you're asking something that isn't underlined, again, not something you should be focused on on test day. But the usage is absolutely correct, because the severance packages require workers to stay until their last day. The packages don't enforce this, but in order to receive a package, the worker will need to stay until his or her last day. So it's ok.