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Question

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

1.enabling it to withhold

2.for it to withhold

Guys, ETS says first one is correct.... can some one explain why is second one not so preferable?

Thank you

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

pokhwhy is second one not so preferable?

Just from the sound of it, it's pretty awful! Here's the general framework:

The court awarded the agency powers for it to withhold ...

Suppose you only read this far. powers to withhold is what is being said. So it's saying that the agency had powers that it (the agency) could or should withhold. The agency had the power and also might withhold the power - that is, withhold its own power. The whole idea is incoherent. It's like, "I'm giving you spending money to save" or "Here's a book for you not to read".

Only later do you get a different object of the infinitive withhold, namely, identities. But by that time, you're so confused that you have to start over and read the sentence again from the beginning!

CJ

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