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.

A. allowing children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent with whom they will live, which will likely dissuade those parents

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

C. that would allow children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent that they will live with, a policy that will likely dissuade their parents

D. allowing children as young as seven whose parents are divorced to choose the parent who they will live with, likely dissuading those parents

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 right answer is B, but I need come clarification to the explanation given for the wrong choice E
Exp for E: 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.

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".

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

Hi there, great question! Please go back and look at page 111 again in the strategy guide. Notice that this stipulation is for "reporting sentences", and this is not a reporting sentence.

Thanks!

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

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.

allowing children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent with whom they will live, which will likely dissuade those parents

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

that would allow children of divorced parents as young as seven to choose the parent that they will live with, a policy that will likely dissuade their parents

allowing children as young as seven whose parents are divorced to choose the parent who they will live with, likely dissuading those parents

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


In regards to this question isn't considering that unidiomatic.. the correct idiom is consider x y

Please explain

Varun, "are considering" is a different construction from "consider". The idiom rules for "consider" do not necessarily apply to "are considering". For more information on "consider", please check out this thread: idiom-consider-t2758.html

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor