political forces

[akhp77]

Source: MGMAT CAT

Though once powerful political forces, labor unions have lost much of their influence, which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor management.

A: which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim to favor
B: resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim favors
C: which has resulted in a political climate that some analysts claim that favors
D: resulting in a political climate that some analysts claim to be in favor of
E: which has resulted in a political climate that has been claimed by some analysts to favor

OA: B

I have eliminated A, C, and E. I selected D but it is wrong.
What is the difference in meaning between B and D? I believe "CLAIM" is a verb.

[tim]

Remove the words "some analysts claim" from both answer choices and read directly from the sentence what some analysts claim we have:

B: a political climate that ... favors management
D: a political climate that ... to be in favor of management

Because we are introducing the relative clause, we a need a political climate that does something. In B it favors management whereas we have no indicative verb in D (the infinitive cannot be used here - hopefully you can see how absurd it is when written this way)..

Also, "some analysts claim to be in favor of management" is definitely not what we are trying to say with this sentence, and that's what D seems to suggest..

[akhp77]

Thanks Tim
I got it. "favors" is the action verb.

One more question.
Why not it is like this? Can we use it in possessive case?
some analysts' claim

[mschwrtz]

That would make "claim" a noun. That might work in another sentence, but not in this one.

[aritra.banerjee]

Hi There,

I recently got stuck up on this question too. I landed up with both B & D as contenders and chose D because I thought that 'Claim To Be' was a correct idiom. I understand the correct answer from Tim's explanation, however, was wondering if someone could provide more examples of this kind of scenario. Basically, I am looking for a pattern here so I can make a mental note to watch out and prevent this mistake from happening in the future.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Aritra

[jnelson0612]

Aritra, nothing is coming to me right off the bat. Maybe someone else will have more ideas for you. I do think the important thing here is to keep in mind Tim's excellent explanation and technique when you have an idiom split between two answers.

[cpugreat]

Dear instructors,

Sorry about the rediscussion of this question.

After reading explanations mentioned above, I still don't get it "why and how can I tell that some analysts claim is just an additional part of the sentence" ?!

Just as other student said, I also consider "claim to be" a correct idiom... so it is hard for me to tell "some analysts claim" is actually an additional part of the sentence!

I try to analyze the sentence into:
1., resulting in a political climate that favors management
2. Some analysts claim that the political climate favors
management
Am I right? How to deconstruct the sentence in (B)???

Thank you for your patience! Really hope to get instruction to my question!

[tim]

You have used the phrase "additional part of the sentence" twice, including once in quotes, which indicates you think someone else must have used that phrase. I do not see that phrase anywhere in the thread other than in your post, so can you clarify your question without referring to an "additional part of the sentence" that no one discussed?

[navjotdhillon18]

Remove the words "some analysts claim" from both answer choices and read directly from the sentence what some analysts claim we have:

B: a political climate that ... favors management
D: a political climate that ... to be in favor of management

Because we are introducing the relative clause, we a need a political climate that does something. In B it favors management whereas we have no indicative verb in D (the infinitive cannot be used here - hopefully you can see how absurd it is when written this way)..

Also, "some analysts claim to be in favor of management" is definitely not what we are trying to say with this sentence, and that's what D seems to suggest..

Hi Tim,

As per the explanation given here ... I understand that 'some analysts claim' is not affecting the sentence. Can you please mention how we can ensure this (to remove and check the appropriateness) ... as so far I have learned that claim to and claim that are two acceptable idiomatic forms. Please correct me and help me to understand.

[tim]

If you have "some analysts claim that ...", the "that" introduces a subordinate clause. Any subordinate clause can be analyzed independently.

If you have "some analysts claim to ...", the part comes next is an action that analysts claim to do. In particular, since this is an action it will not include a subject; it will just lead directly into a verb.

Please let me know if this clears up your confusion. I am happy to help further if you have additional questions.

[KenH482]

Hi Tim,
Sorry for bringing this up again ...I still don't fully get the difference between "claim that..." and "claim to..."

For example:

1. "The president claims the USA to be a free country"
2. "The president claims that USA is a free country"
3. "USA is a country that its president claims to be a free country"
4. "USA is a country that its president claims is a free country"

The correct answer choice in this question seems to suggest that the 4th sentence is a correct sentence. Though I'm not a native speaker, this sentence still sounds really strange to me because it contains 2 verbs - "Claims" and "is".

Could you please help to clarify? I really appreciate it!

Ken