Question: Constructing a New Bridge

Comment on Constructing a New Bridge

Hello Brent,
I am confused about why "discussions are to be postponed "is not correct?
gmat-admin's picture

Good question.

This is a matter of idiomatic construction. The correct idiom is "proposed that X be Y."

As with all idioms, there isn't a nice grammatical rule that governs this construction; that's just the way it is.

For more on idioms, watch: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1180

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Do you happen to have a video on command subjunctive? I know other verbs such as demand, suggest, insist, require, recommend...take on the same construction as "Propose that X be Y." Or are they all just idiomatic expressions?
gmat-admin's picture

We don't have a video on the command subjunctive. From what I've seen (with regard to official GMAT questions), these fall under the idiom category.

Cheers,
Brent

Hi brent,

Two questions:

1.) If the question stem read: Councilor Davison concluded that discussions..........are to be.....
Would this make sense over: concluded that discussions.....be.... ?
Concluded seems like more like an authoritative decision to make single handedly rather than proposing something which sounds more like a result of a cooperative discussion.

Am i overthinking this ? Should i just understand that "That x be y" is the idiom no matter what verb preceeds that ?

2.) usage of that makes sense since we are restricting the scope of the proposed action isnt it ? Councilors proposal could be anything but using that narrows it to what it is about.
Also, upon eliminating the "that" clause, the sentence makes no sense.

Am i correct in thinking like this ?
gmat-admin's picture

1) I would say that, in the spirit of concision, "concluded that discussions.....be postponed" is preferred.
Also, CONCLUDED can be associated with a single entity or a group.
For example we can have, "The 10 members of the committee CONCLUDED that discussions be postponed."
Or we can have, "Joe CONCLUDED that discussions be postponed."

2) I believe you may be thinking of a different usage of THAT
You're referring to the THAT vs WHICH usage, in which THAT is used to take a group of nouns and restrict the topic of discussion to a smaller group.
For example: This is the shirt THAT I bought in Paris.

In the "Councilor Davison" sentence, THAT is part of the PROPOSED THAT idiom

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Office Hours

On December 20, 2023, Brent will stop offering office hours. 

Change Playback Speed

You have the option of watching the videos at various speeds (25% faster, 50% faster, etc). To change the playback speed, click the settings icon on the right side of the video status bar.

Have a question about this video?

Post your question in the Comment section below, and a GMAT expert will answer it as fast as humanly possible.

Free “Question of the Day” emails!