The school board implemented a mandatory after school progra

[ghong14]

I think I should have posted this question here since it was a thursday with Ron question. Sorry about duplication.

The school board implemented a mandatory after school program that requires the teachers of underachieving students to be tutored in core academic subjects.

A) teachers of underachieving students to be tutored in core academic subjects
B) the tutoring of teachers of underachieving students in core academic subjects
C) teachers to tutor underachieving students in core academic subjects
D) underachieving students be tutored in core academic subjects by their teachers
E) students who are underachieving to be tutored by their teachers in core academic subjects

This is a question from a thursday with RON class filled in by Tommy Wallach on January 5, 2012.

I had a question about choice
D) underachieving students be tutored in core academic subjects by their teachers.

Other than the to be issue is there anything wrong with the choice? I feel like the sentence may be ambiguous because of the academic subjects by their teachers construction. Make it sound as if the academic subject were created by their teachers. Is that a correct interpretation?

[jlucero]

That's the big error in this sentence (also, the word "the" should be underlined in your original sentence). There's also a subtle change in meaning between using active and passive tense here. I'm not sure that the GMAT would ever isolate this issue as the only reason to eliminate D, but you generally say that. It's much cleaner to say "the program requires teachers to do something" rather than "the program requires students to have something done to them". It would be awkward to require cars to have annual checks done to them. Rather, you require people to check their cars.

[RobertoO434]

Hi,

I thought that Requires is a "bossy" verb and therefore needs the following structure: Bossy Verb + THAT + subject + Command Subjunctive

For example: The agency REQUIRED that Gary BE ready before noon.

Then why are we not using another THAT after the requires and why are we using TO for the correct answer?

Thanks in advance!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Good suggestion about using the command subjunctive, but don't forget that words can be used in different ways. Even with so-called "bossy" verbs, we don't have to use the command subjunctive. Think of the (correct) example: "He asked me to buy some milk." I'm sure that your good feel for English tells you that it's correct. We can also say "He asked that I buy some milk." although it sounds pretty formal! The same applies to require, we can use a command subjunctive, but we don't have to.

[JbhB682]

Hi Sage - I was able to eliminate A and B but could you please help eliminate between C / D and E

Here is my analysis

E : "To be" = wrong (is this a fair way to eliminate ? i have read E is unnecessary long but to my knowledge, length is not necessarily wrong)

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Eliminated C because i thought there was ambiguity in C

meaning 1 ) teachers are only teaching underachievers currently enrolled in core academic subjects (like math / science and English) only

meaning 2 ) teachers are only teaching ALL underachievers in the school the core academic subjects

hence I removed C and kept D

Please let me know where is the issue please !

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

This is a tough one for sure. I have a question for you:

E : "To be" = wrong

Please could you explain this?
Regarding C, as I understand it, you're saying that the phrase 'in core academic subjects' might be modifying 'underachieving' or it might be modifying 'to tutor'. That's a good point; well done for seeing that.

My answer would be that this nuance of meaning is far more subtle than the problems in the other answer choices. On reflection, the two meanings are so close that I don't think it's a big problem. I mean, if the students are underachieving in core subjects then they'll probably be tutored in core subjects too. That said, I read the explanation for this problem that rejects answers D and E on account of the passive voice and I don't find that reason terribly convincing. I would encourage you not to spend too long on this problem.