A 2 min read

A recent court decision has qualified a 1998 ruling that workers cannot be laid off if they have been given reason to believe that their jobs will be safe, provided that their performance remains satisfactory.

 

Meaning Analysis

• A recent court decision has qualified a 1998 ruling

The sentence presents the decision of a court. It says that a court recently permitted a specific ruling. Continue reading:

• that workers cannot be laid off
  • if they have been given reason to believe
    • that their jobs will be safe,

This part of the sentence describes the ruling mentioned earlier. Per the ruling, a worker cannot lose his job provided a certain condition was met during the course of the worker’s tenure. The condition is that the worker should have received the assurance that his job was secure.

• provided that their performance remains satisfactory.

The last part of the sentence presents another condition for the ruling to work. We get to know that the ruling will uphold the assurance of a secure job only if another condition is met. The condition is that the worker assured of the security of his job should have performed satisfactorily in his job.

 

To sum up, the sentence explains a court ruling. The ruling safeguards workers against losing their jobs on two conditions. The first condition is that the workers should have received the assurance of the security of his job. The second condition is the workers should have performed satisfactorily in his job.

 

Error Analysis

 

 

 

This sentence clearly conveys the intended meaning of the author and doesn’t contain any grammatical mistakes.

 

POE

Correct

 

This is the correct answer choice for reasons pointed out in the error analysis.

Incorrect

 

1.  Verb Tense Error

 

Use of simple present tense are given is incorrect as it fails to convey that the assurance has been given over a period of time.

 

2.  Idiom Error

 

The phrase reason for believing is not correct. The correct expression in this context is reason to believe.

Incorrect

 

1.  Modifier Error

 

Use of having been given is incorrect because this modifier is used to denote an action that was done before another action. For example:

 

Tom, having finished his breakfast, went to office.

 

The above mentioned sentence means that Tom first finished his breakfast. Then he went to office.

 

However, this answer choice does not talk about any past event. Hence, use of this modifier is absolutely incorrect.

 

2.  Idiom Error

 

This choice repeats the idiom error of Choice B.

Incorrect

 

1.  Modifier Error

 

This choice repeats the modifier error of Choice C.

 

2.  Meaning Errors

 

The phrase their jobs to be safe fails to convey that the jobs will be safe in the future. This phrase seems to suggest a characteristic of the jobs.

Incorrect

 

Meaning Errors

 

Use of given reason to believe fails to clearly convey the intended condition required for the jobs to remain safe in the future. Therefore this choice has a meaning error.