Despite protests from some waste-disposal companies, state health officials have ordered the levels of bacteria in seawater at popular beaches to be measured and that the results be published.

(A) the levels of bacteria in seawater at popular beaches to be measured and that the result be
(B) that seawater at popular beaches should be measured for their levels of bacteria, with the result being
(C) the measure of levels of bacteria in seawater at popular beaches and the results be
(D) seawater measured at popular beaches for levels of bacteria, with their results
(E) that the levels of bacteria in seawater at popular beaches be measured and the results

OG explains, "the state's orders can be expressed using either of two idioms: order x to be y or order that x be y".
I thought that the answer C was using the first idiom - order x(the measure...and results) to be y(published)[/u]
For answer E, OG states that [i]that and be are omitted for the sake of conciseness. So when should I omit "that" and "be"? and when shouldn't?

Thanks in advance.

As far as omitting 'that' and 'be': You can omit these the SECOND time they occur, in a PARALLEL structure. That's actually the case for a great many 'helping words' like that, be, and others. Here's another example:

The stores' front windows had been smashed and their goods destroyed.

In this sentence, the helping words 'had been' are deleted the second time: '...their goods [had been] destroyed'.

One more thing that's hopefully obvious: you can never delete the helping words the FIRST time around!

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Choice C has a couple of problems. First of all, there's incorrect diction: measurement, not measure, is the proper noun to use in this sort of context. Second, there's faulty parallelism: the first half of the (non-)parallel structure starts with a noun (THE MEASURE(ment) of...), but the second half starts with a verb in the subjunctive (the results BE...). We can't have that.

Hope that helps.

Hi Ron, thanks for your explanation.

How do you define "helping words"? Is there a way to detect them?

I thought that "the measure(ment)" and "the result" together were the object, and so I thought that C was correct. =(

I can't think of any really easy definition. Try this on for size: 'Helping words' are often either helping verbs (that's an actual grammatical term) like 'be', or connectors like 'that'.

Still, there's no easy way to capture it all. Sometimes, even verbs are omitted, as in the following perfectly grammatical sentence:
Finland won the gold medal, and Sweden the silver.

In any case, the 'helping words' I'm talking about are always the SAME words in both parts of the construction. If 'that' and 'be' are deleted in the second part, then that means the first part has to contain 'that' and 'be'!

I've also noticed that prepositions are essentially NEVER deleted. You can't, for instance, say 'Summers are hotter in San Jose than San Francisco'; you must say '...than in San Francisco'.

Thanks Ron!
The rule for not omitting preposition is great! =)

Ron,

Isn't Measurement Parallel to "The Results" I think both are noun here, the makes ---"The result" as Noun.

Saurabh Malpani

First, remember that 'measure' is the wrong word; it should be 'measurement'. That's a matter of diction - easy for a native speaker, not so easy for a non-native speaker. If you have to memorize it, then do so.

The parallelism problem is still there: the first half is essentially just a noun, with a modifier tagged onto it ('the measure[ment] OF stuff'). The second half is actually a clause, with a subject and a verb ('the results BE...'). You can't have that - either both of them have to have verbs, or neither.