I am having issues with the following question on GMATPrep:

The agreement, the first to formally require industrialized countries to cut emissions of gases linked to global warming, is a formal protocol by which 38 industrialized countries must reduce emissions of these gases by 2012 or face heavy penalties.

A) by which

B) for which

C) under which

D) such that

E) wherein

I picked "C" which was correct, but the reasoning was because it sounded better. My question is, why are the other choices incorrect?

Tough question but excellent one.

This is an idiom issue - note the split with different prepositions. As a result, using your ear is probably a good way to go, especially as your ear led you to the right answer : )

Can you elaborate with more detail? My ear didn't do as well.

this is just a matter of experience / exposure. there's absolutely no way for you to figure out this sort of question via logical analysis; hence stacey's "ear" comments above.
or:
that's just the way it is.

in general, "under" is the preposition used when discussing the stipulations of a particular set of rules/regulations/whatever.
"under rhode island billiards rules, players must pull a ball out of the pocket whenever they scratch.[/i]"

--

this question is brutal - it's almost like a cheap potshot at the non-native speakers among the test-taking contingent. i figured that, in testing idiom issues, the gmat would at least combine those issues with something systematic/grammatical. i guess i was wrong.

what is wrong with E

"wherein" is also used for rules and regulations ?

hi - "wherein" is basically the same as "in which".
this is unidiomatic: you don't do things in a protocol. (the correct idiom is to do things according to or under a protocol.)

Ron,

Don't we do things 'by protocol'? If not is there any way to figure out why choice A is wrong?

apparently not -- that's clearly the only error in choice (a), since it's essentially the only construction in that choice!

i'm not 100% sure, however, whether this is absolutely a universal rule regarding the use of the word “protocol”. i do know that, whenever you are referring to some sort of rules or regulations, the prepositions normally used are "under" or "according to".
the protocol cited in this problem is very clearly a set of rules that governs the emissions reductions, so this idiom applies here.

still, however, i'm about 99% sure that "doing things by a protocol" / "a protocol by which you do things" is incorrect.

Thanks Ron.

:)

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

When do we typically use "such that?" I have not seen its usage in written in the past.

Thanks

I haven't really noticed this expression much on the GMAT, but what is there conforms to Standard Written English. Gloss the adverbial modifier "such that" as "in such a way that."

Some people use "such that" as a noun modifier, and this gloss won't work for that usage, but that usage strikes me as arguably nonstandard, so I doubt you'll see it on the GMAT.

en, I have noticed in another SC from prep invlove the usage of such that, but I also never see it before, can some one tell me about the usage of such that in GMAT?
Since 1975 so many people have been moving to Utah such that Mormons who were once 75 percent of the population are now only accounting for half of it.
A. so many people have been moving to Utah such that Mormons who were once 75 percent of the population are now only accounting for half of it
B. many people have been moving to Utah, so Mormons once 75 percent of the population are now accounting for only half
C. that many people have been moving to Utah, such that the Mormons that were once 75 percent of the population are now accounting for only half of it
D. many people have been moving to Utah such that the Mormons, who once represented 75 percent of the population, now only account for half
E. so many people have been moving to Utah that the Mormons, who once represented 75 percent of the population, now account for only half

please post questions about that problem on a thread that is about that problem:
since-1975-so-many-people-t8013.html