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Good question - Archaeology values

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Good question - Archaeology values

by schumi_gmat » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:56 am
Q 19:
In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation
of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries
of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for
archaeological sites.
A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and promoting
C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and when promoting
D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the
revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
E. between explaining archaeology’s value and workings, in the
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and in promoting


OA - B

This question test parallelism and use of among. See how GMAC create confusion
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IMO

by kc_raj » Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:40 am
IMO B is correct

A,c,E between is incorrectly used for list of more than 2 things,

Between B and D, B uses revealing..., and promoting parallelism correctly .
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Re: Good question - Archaeology values

by rahulg83 » Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:03 pm
schumi_gmat wrote:Q 19:
In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation
of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries
of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for
archaeological sites.
A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and promoting
C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and when promoting
D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the
revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
E. between explaining archaeology’s value and workings, in the
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and in promoting


OA - B

This question test parallelism and use of among. See how GMAC create confusion
Very good question, I chose B as none of the other choices are parallel.
is this an official question?
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by cramya » Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:28 pm
Use between when there are 2 things.
Use among for 3 or more...

Down to B and D

B-> Parallelism

explaining
revealing
promoting

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CR
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by tanviet » Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:17 am
I want to get a help.

I miss this question, a question from GMATPREP software, which, I think, need careful study.

It is easy to understand the explanation for this question. But, I need you to show me the METHOD OF ATTACKING for this kind of question.

The problem is that, we can not understand the meaning of the sentence and so can not decide which phrase is parallel with which phrase. How to solve this problem, pls, HELP.

We can understand the explanation for this question but can miss the similar question in the test because of the problem above.

There is not hard grammar problem inhere. GMATPREP play very fair. No hard grammar but very hard and easy to miss question. Many preparation companies offer hard questions based on hard grammar and this is not relevant to gmat, I think.

Ok, pls, comment on METHOD OF ATTACKING this question.
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by aspirant2011 » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:19 am
I doubt whether the usage balance among is correct, don't you guys think that balance between is the right usage always?????
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by saketk » Wed Oct 12, 2011 3:32 am
aspirant2011 wrote:I doubt whether the usage balance among is correct, don't you guys think that balance between is the right usage always?????
Balance among is correct usage because there are more than 2 things mentioned in this sentence.

You can directly eliminate options starting with 'between'

only option B and D will be left.

Choose B for parallelism .
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by moindanawala » Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:58 am
Theres once argument which states we should use among and not between, where more than two things are being compared

But theres also an argument which states that a balance can be created only between two things and amongst multiple things

In this case there could be an assumption that "explaining archaeology's value and workings, in the
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures" are to be balanced with "promoting respect for archaeological sites)

Very confusing as a question.

Any experts in the house who want to touch upon the technical aspect and solve this problem?
aspirant2011 wrote:I doubt whether the usage balance among is correct, don't you guys think that balance between is the right usage always?????
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by neptune28 » Thu Oct 24, 2013 3:17 am
aspirant2011 wrote:I doubt whether the usage balance among is correct, don't you guys think that balance between is the right usage always?????
I'm not sure I'd say that "balance among" is wrong, but "balance between" just sounds better to me. In addition, a Google search reveals that use of the latter is about 30 times as common!

Concerning using between when only two things are involved and among when more than two things are involved, well, it's a bit more complicated than that. :) Here's a helpful usage note from the The American Heritage Dictionary on the matter:

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=between
Usage Note: The -tween in between comes from the same Indo-European root that gave us two, twain, and duo, and the -mong of among comes from an Old English word that meant "crowd" or "throng." It is thus unsurprising that a traditional rule requires between to be used only for sentences involving two items and among for sentences involving more than two. Indeed, in sentences involving two items, no rule is needed; native English speakers spontaneously use between (as in the differences between [not among] karate and judo). But when there are more than two items, practice is mixed. Many careful writers observe a more subtle distinction, using among when the sentence refers to the entities collectively or as a mass, as in There were many outstanding players among the teams in the quarterfinal round or A thistle is growing among the roses, but preferring between when the sentence refers to relationships involving particular pairs of entities from within the group, as in We haven't yet assigned the matchups between teams in the quarterfinal round or I have sand between my toes. In such sentences, the twoness of between has not, so to speak, been lost in the crowd-the pairings within the larger group are important to the meaning of the sentence and thus influence the writer's choice of preposition.
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by [email protected] » Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:30 pm
Hi All,

There SC is based on a specific style issue and parallelism:

1) "Between" vs. "Among": the word "between" applies to 2 ideas; "among" applies to 3 or more. Here, we have a list of 3 items, so the word "among" is correct. Eliminate A, C and E

2) A 3-item List requires parallel items (in the same format). B uses 3 "-ing" verbs; D uses 1 "-ing" verb, 1 noun and 1 infinitive verb. Eliminate D.

Final Answer: B

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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:08 am
neptune28 wrote: I'm not sure I'd say that "balance among" is wrong, but "balance between" just sounds better to me. In addition, a Google search reveals that use of the latter is about 30 times as common!
Be careful! This is an excellent example of how the GMAT tricks your ear with uncommon expressions that are, in fact, correct! You can't simply rely on your ear if you want to get a good score. Other commenters are correct: "between" is used to compare two things, and "among" to compare 3 or more. "Balance between" sounds better and is more common because in real life, we talk more often about balancing 2 things than balancing 3 or more (just picture a circus performer doing a balancing act - balancing 2 things is easier than balancing 3 things!).

Whenever you notice a comma followed by AND, you're looking at a parallel structure. So in this original, as soon as you see "... , and to promote..." you should ask yourself what the parallel list is. In the original sentence, the list was:
... a balance between:
1. explanation of the value and workings of archaeology
2. revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures
3. to promote respect for archaeological sites

Whenever we see parallelism, we want to check 2 things: MEANING and STRUCTURE. Should these 3 things be parallel from a meaning perspective? Sure, these are all objectives of the field of archaeology. Are they structurally parallel? No. So, look through the answer choices and simply find the one with matching structures:

A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and promoting
C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology,
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and when promoting
D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the
revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and to promote
E. between explaining archaeology's value and workings, in the
revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures,
and in promoting
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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