Since 1986 when the Department of Labor began to allow investment officers’ fees to be based on how the funds they manage perform, several corporations began paying their investment advisers a small basic fee, with a contract promising higher fees if the managers perform well.
(A) investment officers’ fees to be based on how the funds they manage perform, several corporations began
(B) investment officers’ fees to be based on the performance of the funds they manage, several corporations began
(C) that fees of investment officers be based on how the funds they manage perform, several corporations have begun
(D) fees of investment officers to be based on the performance of the funds they manage, several corporations have begun
(E) that investment officers’ fees be based on the performance of the funds they manage, several corporations began

OA is d but I like c. Please explain

Try to pull out the core of the sentence; this can make it easier to see what is right with D and wrong with C.

C:
DOL began to allow that fees be based on how...

D: DOL began to allow fees to be based on performance...

C is using the subjunctive construction intended for use in one type of situation: the desire of a person or entity for another person or entity to do something. That is not the intention of this sentence - it is not a desire on the part of DOL that officers be allowed to do something. Rather, DOL allowed the officers to do something.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks.

you're welcome!

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Hey Stacey,

I agree with You
and D makes good sense than C
"based on the performance ...." is much better than " based on how"
BUT, the D is using passive "to be", and we should avoid passive construction, and once a person eliminate D by using POE, how one will reach the correct answer

two things.

first, and most importantly:
this is an official problem, and so the correct answer is officially correct.

see here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmat/

CORRECT ANSWERS ARE CORRECT.

everything in correct answers is correct.

therefore, if you (or anyone else) think that the passive voice is wrong in choice (d), then that means you're wrong, and that the gmat rules aren't what you think they are.
it doesn't mean that the problem is wrong. ever.
even we have to follow this rule. for example, our understanding of when the gmat does and doesn't allow ambiguous pronouns is still evolving.

--

second:

it is most certainly NOT the case that the passive voice is always wrong.

there are plenty of situations in which the passive voice is not only fine, but actually required by the context of the problem.
this is one of those contexts. if we say "X is based on Y", this construction is normally in the passive voice.

for instance, from a website:
the hotel's rating is based on the average of customers' responses

this is passive voice, but is the best way to state what is written here. if the website had said "we base the hotel's rating on...", not only would that be awkward, but it would also call undue attention to the activities of the website itself.

there are plenty of other contexts in which the passive voice is fine, too. the best way to learn is just to notice them when they come up.

Why is E wrong ??

* it's unidiomatic to use "allow" with the subjunctive.
the correct usage is "allow NOUN to be ..."
it's incorrect to say "allow that NOUN be ..."

* the present perfect is the ONLY tense that you're allowed to use in a clause modified by since...
i.e., because you have since 1986..., the main verb of the sentence must be in the present perfect.
(e) uses the past tense, so it's wrong.

Stacey mentions pulling out the core of the sentence to be able to better see it. Can someone please post an example of the correct way to read it without the fluff? Thanks!

stacey is referring mostly to the elimination of modifiers. how comfortable are you with identifying and eliminating modifiers?

she attempted to illustrate this process in the second post on this thread. if your question is more specific, i'm sorry -- i didn't catch the gist of the question. could you please pose a more specific question? thanks!

D is more more concise here, because "performance" is better than "how the fund they manage perform"). :)

this is not an issue of "concision" -- in fact, the preferred version here ("the performance of the funds they manage") is actually LONGER than the awkward version ("how the funds they manage perform")!
this is just a stylistic difference -- basically, a sop to those people who understand the stylistics of written english (usually those who have been professional writers or editors, or who trend toward the humanities side of college majors). it's not even a matter of right and wrong; it's a matter of stylistic preference, and, as such, will never be the only error in an incorrect answer.

the only real error in choice (c) is the incorrect use of the subjunctive ("to allow that X be based...") -- that's not a construction in which the subjunctive is allowed.

I have one more question regarding this question and I would appreciate if you could answer for me.

The pronoun 'they' how does it refer to 'investment officers' in the correct answer D? Because the construct is 'fees of investment officers' isnt 'investment officers' in this case too deep for 'they' to refer to?

Thanks,
Nitin

Hi Nitin,

Not sure what you mean by "too deep". Do you mean that "they" is too far from "investment officers"?

In any case, investment officers are the only possible antecedent of "they". There is no nothing else it can refer to.

Regards

Sunil

i think you're making this too complicated -- here's how you should handle pronouns:
1) use the meaning of the sentence to determine the NOUN for which the pronoun should stand;
2) go see whether that noun is there;
3) if it's there, check singular vs. plural.

this is actually all you need to solve over 99% of pronoun issues.

in this problem,
(1) it's obvious from context that "they" = "investment officers".
in the official answer,
(2) yes, it's there;
(3) it's plural, and "they" is also plural.

there you go.

there is no such thing as "depth" of pronouns; by considering such things, you're just adding completely unnecessary layers of complexity to the problem.