Verb Tense, Mood and Voice Strategy

[bharathholla]

Hello,

Question from CAT 3:

State lawmakers are considering a law allowing children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent with whom they will live, which will likely dissuade those parents from disciplining or punishing their children

Right answer:
B. that would allow children as young as seven whose parents are divorced to choose the parent with whom they will live, a policy that would likely dissuade those parents
Vs
E. that will allow children as young as seven with divorced parents to choose which parent with whom to live, a policy likely dissuading their parents

The study guide 8 on page 111 says "avoid mixing present tense with conditional tense"
Since the sentence says that "State lawmakers ARE considering.." one would apply the usual sequence present + future hence "that will allow" instead of "that would allow"; however, IMO the explanation defies what is mentioned in the study guide.
Exp: The future tense will allow suggests that the law is certain to go into effect, contradicting the sentence’s description of the law as under consideration. Since the law is still under consideration, the conditional (would allow) is more appropriate.

I agree with the rest of the explanation for the wrong answer such as pronoun mismatch etc., But can you please shed some light on why "Present + Conditional" is used/preferred here?

Cheers!
-B

[jnelson0612]

Hi,
This forum is for general verbal questions. Since this is a CAT question, will you please repost your question in our Verbal CAT forum? Here's the link: manhattan-gmat-cat-verbal-f33.html

Once it is moved someone will help you there and I will delete this thread. Thanks!

[bharathholla]

Done! you can delete this thread now.

[tim]

...or lock it!