Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools
while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.

(a) Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award to businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools
(b) Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving to be vital economic development tools
(c) Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools
(d) Supporters consider tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools
(e) Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider the tax breaks to be vital economic development tools

According to the explanation, the pronoun "them" in the phrase "to prevent them" correctly refers to "businesses'. I had assumed that "them" illogically referred to "Supporters", which is the subject of the sentence. Why does "them" clearly refer to businesses? It wasn't an issue in this example, but there are times I falsely eliminate an answer choice because I think the pronoun's antecedent is ambiguous.

My pick : C

Supporters of tax breaks that local governments award businesses each year to prevent them from moving consider them vital economic development tools

First them -- > correctly points to businesses
Second them --> correctly points to tax breaks

What is OA?

IMO (D)

Doesn't the last portion of the answer "to prevent them from moving vital economic development tools"
sound incorrect - It sounds as if businesses are "moving" "vital economic development tools" ?

thanks.

The antecedent of "them" is clearly enough "businesses," despite the presence of many plural nouns (supporters, tax breaks, governments, and businesses). The structure of the sentence is a big part of the reason.

The correct answer is (D):
Supporters consider tax breaks (that local governments award businesses (each year) (to prevent them from moving)) vital economic development tools while critics denounce the tax breaks as corporate welfare that helps some localities but weakens the national economy.

In bold, you see the main core of the sentence: Supporters consider tax breaks vital economic development tools.

In parentheses, you see modifiers. There is a relative clause modifying "tax breaks." Within that relative clause, there are two adverbial modifiers of "award": "each year" (how often the governments award), and "to prevent them from moving" (why the governments award). Notice that "them" is buried in a modifier within a modifier, far removed from the main sentence subject "supporters" or even the modified noun "tax breaks." For clarity, such a pronoun is more likely to have an antecedent within the same modifier.

But that still leaves "governments" or "businesses" as possible antecedents. If "governments" were the intended antecedent, the phrase would have to read "local governments award businesses...to prevent themselves from moving." The reflexive pronoun "themselves" would be necessary because "governments" is the subject of the verb "award" whereas the pronoun is the object of the verb "prevent." Think of the simple example "I hit the tennis ball to myself."

Both "businesses" and "them" are objects of their respective verbs, so that similarity links them together. Plus, "businesses" is both the most logical and the closest antecedent.

There are two main things going on in this question:
(1) The idiom "X considers Y Z" (incorrectly given in some choices as "X considers Y to be Z")
(2) The repetition (or not) of "them."

On the GMAT, if you use a particular pronoun more than once, it must refer to the same antecedent every time. Thus, (A) and (C), which both use "them" first to refer to "businesses," then later to refer to "tax breaks," are incorrect.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

I did a split based on Supporters of tax break vs. Supporters consider and chose the latter to be parallel with the second part of the sentence that contains "while critics denounce". This helped me narrow the answer choices to B and D. However the OA does not mention anything about this split. Was my split correct or was I lucky?

Interesting. I like your desire to use parallelism here, because I think parallelism helps to make an annoying sentence a bit more clear. But you also got a little lucky, because parallelism isn't required here - just preferred. :)

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Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

A quick question (sorry to revive an old thread).
So what the supporters support (tax breaks) does not need to be stated as was in the orignial sentence?

This is purely about meaning (i.e. not grammar).

You'd only need to say "of tax breaks" if it weren't clear which supporters were meant. But here,
(1) "supporters consider tax breaks...vital...tools" If tax breaks are "vital," these people must support the tax breaks.
(2) "while critics denounce the tax breaks" "While" sets up a contrast between supporters and critics; the tax breaks are clearly the focus for the critics, so we can infer it's the tax breaks at issue for the supporters as well.

_________________
Emily Sledge
Instructor
ManhattanGMAT

Stacey, why isn't parallelism required and only preferred, given we're using while to draw a comparison?

The word "while" indicates a contrast between two nouns; when making a comparison (or contrast), those two things are required to be logically and structurally comparable - but ONLY those two things. Those two nouns are "supporters" and "critics." It is appropriate to compare or contrast the supporters of something and the critics of that same thing.

"Critics" is the subject of the second half and that can't change. Every answer choice uses "supporters" as the subject of the first half. So there isn't a way for you to choose NOT to have the required parallelism here.

The parallelism you described using goes beyond what is required for this sentence.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Hey,

Sorry to revive an old thread.

I am having a difficulty in understanding that why is choice B incorrect. The only add on is "to be". is it because of parallelism?

thanks.

Right idiom is "consider X y" not "consider X to be y" . So all choices with "to be" are wrong.

Reduce the sentence to "Supporters of tax breaks consider them tools." for better understanding."
Consider them tools
Consider X Y

thanks sanjeev,

Why has E been eliminated?..

Is there any grammatical error in E? or did it get eliminated because it is wordy?.