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although+ellipsis

by tanviet » Thu Dec 06, 2012 11:34 pm
the following is from og 12. pls help explain why "although never sighted at" is wrong in C. why can we not use the ellipsis here.

Sunspots, vortices of gas associated with strong electromagnetic activity, are visible as dark spots on the surface of the Sun but have never been sighted on the Sun's poles or equater.

(A) are visible as dark spots on the surface of the Sun but have never been sighted on
(B) are visible as dark spots that never have been sighted on the surface of the Sun
(C) appear on the surface of the Sun as dark spots although never sighted at
(D) appear as dark spots on the surface of the Sun, although never having been sighted at
(E) appear as dark spots on the Sun's surface, which have never been sighted on
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by David Mahler » Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:57 am
The problem with "although never sighted at" really comes down to bad parallelism. The word "although" means there's a contrast, which means the two things that are contrasted must be parallel.

In C, the first part of the contrast is "appear on the surface of the sun..." Whatever follows the word "although" must match up with appear. In this case, that means what matches has to be a verb in the present tense. However, what follows "although" is the phrase "never sighted on..." "sighted" in this context is a participle, which does not match "appear."
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by tanviet » Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:04 am
David Mahler wrote:The problem with "although never sighted at" really comes down to bad parallelism. The word "although" means there's a contrast, which means the two things that are contrasted must be parallel.

In C, the first part of the contrast is "appear on the surface of the sun..." Whatever follows the word "although" must match up with appear. In this case, that means what matches has to be a verb in the present tense. However, what follows "although" is the phrase "never sighted on..." "sighted" in this context is a participle, which does not match "appear."
I still do not understand


Though asked frequently, I never answer.

is correct, I think because above sentence is shortened. The full sentence is

Though I am asked frequently, I never answer

it is possible that gmat dose not accept the ellipsis in case of "though" . is this correct ?

pls help
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by David Mahler » Wed Dec 12, 2012 7:26 am
In the sentence, "Though asked frequently, I never answer." the first haf of the sentence is a modifying phrase (describing I). Therefore, parallelism is not relevant. In the question regarding sunspots, however, although is creating a contrast in the main clause of the sentence. Therefore, the two things that it is contrasting must be parallel in the correct version of the sentence.

And, indeed, that is the case. In the correct answer (A), the sunspots 1) are visible as dark spots but 2) have never been sighted on the Sun's poles or equators.
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