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Parallelism Issue

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sungoal Rising GMAT Star Default Avatar
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Parallelism Issue Post Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:54 pm
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    So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.
    A. and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent,
    B. and lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, so that
    C. her lobbying for wage and hour reform persistent, that
    D. lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent,
    E. so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that

    I have few doubts in the correct answer choice E. Correct explanation says that we need to maintain parallelism between "So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry" and the underlined portion of the sentence.

    Below are my doubts:
    a) In parallelism the items in parallel list are connected using "and" .As it is a list of two things, isn't "and" required to connect the list to main parallelism?
    b) isn't "so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform" missing a verb in option E?

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    Post Sun Nov 13, 2011 8:42 pm
    Hey sungoal - the same problem is being discussed here! http://www.beatthegmat.com/so-x-so-y-that-z-t95943.html

    To answer your specific questions:

    1. In this case (an unusual one, to be sure) the "and" is not needed, it is implied; we tried to explain it in that other thread
    2. In the second phrase, the verb "was" is understood, based on the structure

    Hope this helps!
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    GmatKiss GMAT Titan Default Avatar
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    Post Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:22 pm
    So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

    A. and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent,
    B. and lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, so that
    C. << missing >> her lobbying for wage and hour reform persistent, that
    D. lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent,
    E. so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that

    IMO: E

    sam2304 GMAT Titan
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    Post Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:29 am
    IMO E.

    A B D can be eliminated as it doesn't have so x, that y structure. C is incomplete.

    sungoal wrote:
    Below are my doubts:
    a) In parallelism the items in parallel list are connected using "and" .As it is a list of two things, isn't "and" required to connect the list to main parallelism?
    See ron's explanation in

    http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc-set-27-question-17-so-dogged-were-frances-perkins-investi-t1777-15.html

    Quote:
    b) isn't "so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform" missing a verb in option E?
    'lobbying' is the verb. Hope this helps Smile

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    Post Mon Nov 14, 2011 12:48 am
    sam2304 wrote:
    Quote:
    b) isn't "so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform" missing a verb in option E?
    'lobbying' is the verb.
    Sorry, no - 'lobbying' is a gerund; 'lobbying' is the subject of this sentence, and thus a noun.

    That middle bit of this problem could be rephrased to this basic sentence structure:

    Her lobbying ... [was] so persistent that ...

    The word "was" is implied based on the structure of the first bit about her dogged investigations.

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    Post Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:29 am
    sungoal wrote:
    So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.
    A. and her lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent,
    B. and lobbying for wage and hour reform was persistent, so that
    C. her lobbying for wage and hour reform persistent, that
    D. lobbying for wage and hour reform was so persistent,
    E. so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that

    I have few doubts in the correct answer choice E. Correct explanation says that we need to maintain parallelism between "So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry" and the underlined portion of the sentence.

    Below are my doubts:
    a) In parallelism the items in parallel list are connected using "and" .As it is a list of two things, isn't "and" required to connect the list to main parallelism?
    b) isn't "so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform" missing a verb in option E?
    I received a PM asking me to comment.

    Parallel structures sometimes employ ELLIPSIS: the omission of words whose presence is understood.

    To illustrate:
    John is the fastest swimmer on the team; Mike, the slowest.
    The sun was so bright, the sky so blue, that John could not wait to start the day.

    The portions in red employ ellipsis. Words have been omitted, but their presence is understood. Without ellipsis:

    John is the fastest swimmer on the team; Mike is the slowest swimmer on the team.
    The sun was so bright and the sky was so blue that John could not wait to start the day.


    Ellipsis allows for a more concise sentence, with no loss of meaning.

    Here is the OA to the SC above:

    So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry, so persistent her lobbying for wage and hour reform, that Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

    The portion in red employs ellipsis. Words have been omitted (and and was), but their presence is understood. If we were to include the omitted words, the sentence would read as follows:

    So dogged were Frances Perkins’ investigations of the garment industry and so persistent was her lobbying for wage and hour reform that Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt recruited Perkins to work within the government, rather than as a social worker.

    Be on the lookout for ellipsis if you notice the following:

    -- a series of parallel structures
    -- the omission of words whose presence seems to be understood

    If you suspect ellipsis, hold onto the answer choice. Look for errors in the other answer choices.

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