1000 SC #48

[IAmSam]

48. According to some analysts, whatever its merits, the proposal to tax away all capital gains on short-term investments would, if enacted, have a disastrous effect on Wall Street trading and employment.
(A) its merits, the proposal to tax
(B) its merits may be, the proposal of taxing
(C) its merits as a proposal, taxing
(D) the proposal’s merits, to tax
(E) the proposal’s merits are, taxing


Can you please explain why the answer is a and not b?

[RonPurewal]

It looks like the decision is predicated on the difference in idiomatic usage between "proposal to tax..." and "proposal of taxing...". I think you'll agree that the former is better.

The usage of 'whatever' in this sentence is somewhat old-fashioned, but by no means incorrect. It's essentially equivalent to both words of 'regardless of' rolled up into one.

HTH. In any case, 1000SC problems are often not as clear-cut as the genuine article.

[agautamdai]

the issue which i have wth this question is that how "ITS" can be a pronoun for the anteceedent " proposal" because, I thought that the case of the pronoun needs to match that of the anteceendent.

[jnelson0612]

the issue which i have wth this question is that how "ITS" can be a pronoun for the anteceedent " proposal" because, I thought that the case of the pronoun needs to match that of the anteceendent.

Yes, and we have a match here, since "its" is a singular pronoun; thus it matches nicely to the singular noun "proposal".