Lesson: Parallelism - Part III

Comment on Parallelism - Part III

Please refer to the Buzz cannot explain example.

Doesn't "those not so exposed" imply the degree of exposure and mean different?
gmat-admin's picture

You'd be right...if the sentence included the word "so" (as in "those not so exposed." That would indicate degree of exposure.
However, the sentence examines two opposite scenarios (exposed and not exposed). So, there's no degree of exposure here.

Appreciate the prompt revert.

If you refer to the sentence explained from 4:18 to 4:25, the sentence includes "those not SO exposed".
gmat-admin's picture

Ahhhh, I didn't see that. That's a typo. Good catch. We'll re-record that video shortly,

Thanks Admin! The video clips are pretty good. Appreciate the effort.

Brent,

At 3:45, could I write "The Ice Cream Factory sells sundaes wiht and without peanuts" or "The Ice Cream Factory sells sundaes wiht peanuts and without"?
gmat-admin's picture

Those are acceptable, but I'd prefer to use "or" in those cases.

Sir in this question how than do those of is an option for the following question
The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters.


A) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, thus allowing it
B) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, allowing them
C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it
D) Because they adapt to darkness more quickly than any other animal yet tested, the eyes of the elephant seal allow it
E) Because the eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, it allows them
gmat-admin's picture

There are some great analyses of this question here: http://www.beatthegmat.com/the-eyes-of-the-elephant-seal-adapt-to-darkne... and here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-eyes-of-the-elephant-seal-adapt-to-darkne...

Please review those answers and let me know if you need any additional help.

Hi,

I eliminated the answer choice C, because firstly, I don't know to which word the participle phrase refers to.
Secondly, "it" does not have an unambiguous antecedent(seal or darkness).

Could you please explain how do I need to reframe my understanding of SC so that I don't eliminate correct choices like that.

Thank you in advance
gmat-admin's picture

Link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-eyes-of-the-elephant-seal-adapt-to-darkne...

(C) The eyes of the elephant seal adapt to darkness more quickly than do those of any other animal yet tested, allowing it to hunt efficiently under the gloomy conditions at its feeding depths of between 300 and 700 meters.

It's not always easy to determine whether we have an ambiguous pronoun reference.
The structure here is: Here's a fact about a seal's eyes, and this fact RESULTS in something.

Is it possible that IT refers to DARKNESS? Maybe.
So, our objective is to determine whether there are any answer choices that completely eliminate any possible ambiguity.

KEY CONCEPT: In SC questions, the goal is to determine the BEST answer, not the FLAWLESS answer.

Cheers,
Brent

Hi,

In the ice cream factory example can the sentence be re-written as:
The ice cream factory sells sundaes with and without peanuts.
OR should 'or' be used instead of 'and' in this case?

Thanks!
gmat-admin's picture

"The ice cream factory sells sundaes with AND without peanuts." It suggests that a single sundae could simultaneously have peanuts and not have peanuts.

If we want to use AND here, we can avoid ambiguity as follows: "The ice cream factory sells sundaes with AND sundaes without peanuts."

Or we can use OR and write: "The ice cream factory sells sundaes with or without peanuts."

Hey Brent.

Is splitting the infinitive form still considered incorrect by the GMAT makers? Or did they kind of change on that?

cheers,

Philipp
gmat-admin's picture

The test-makers are very reluctant to split infinitives. So, if you see a split infinitive, it's very likely that answer choice incorrect.

For more on this, see 2:10 of the following video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat-sentence-correction/video/1171

At the time of the Mexican agrarian revolution, the most radical faction, that of Zapata and his followers, proposed a return to communal ownership of land, to what had been a pre-Columbian form of ownership respected by the Spaniards.

(A) land, to what had been a pre-Columbian form of ownership respected by the Spaniards

(B) land, a form of ownership of the pre-Columbians and respected by the Spaniards

(C) land, respected by the Spaniards and a pre-Columbian form of ownership

(D) land in which a pre-Columbian form of ownership was respected by the Spaniards

(E) land that had been a pre-Columbian form of ownership respected by the Spaniards

Source -Og

Meaning of the sentence and POE
gmat-admin's picture

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/at-the-time-of-the-mexican-agrarian-revolutio...
Super tricky question!! In fact it has a mere 29% success rate on GMAT Club.

Intended meaning: Some group proposed a return to communal ownership of land. This form of land ownership used to exist before before Columbus arrived. This form of ownership was respected by the Spaniards.

B) OWNERSHIP OF THE PRE-COLUMBIANS implies someone owned the pre-Columbian people. ELIMINATE B.

C) There's a parallelism issue with RESPECTED (adjective) and a PRE-COLUMBIAN FORM (noun). ELIMINATE C.

D) This option is a hot mess. Some group proposed a return to communal ownership of land in which a pre-Columbian form of ownership was respected by the Spaniards. What is "in which a pre-Columbian form of ownership was respected by the Spaniards" modifying? ELIMINATE D.

E) .....LAND that had been a pre-Columbian form of ownership. This suggests the LAND was once a pre-Columbian form of ownership, when, in fact, COMMUNAL OWNERSHIP was once a pre-Columbian form of ownership. Eliminate E.

Answer choice A is the least awful.

NOTE: There seems to be agreement among GMAT experts that this isn't an official question. I would have to agree. Most of the time, if you Google a certain GMAT question, one of the search results will be a pdf of a former Official Guide.

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