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Head Injury

by gmataug08 » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:00 pm
Because of his closed head injury, Dr. Connors has not and possibly never will be able to practice medicine again.

(A) has not and possibly never will be able to practice
(B) has not and possibly will never be able to practice
(C) has not been and possibly never would be able to practice
(D) has not and possibly never would be able to practice
(E) has not been able to practice and possibly never will be able to practice

OA E

doesn't OA choice have redundancy?
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by umaa » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:10 pm
IMO C.

I'm little confused between C and D.

I believe we shouldn't use "will" in the below sentences. So, A, B and E are out.
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by Karen » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:17 pm
The key to this kind is that you have to be ruthless and machine-like in insisting on reading all partial verb phrases in terms of the phrases they're supposed to be parallel to, to make sure they're grammatically correct. If the one choice that is strictly parallel and makes sense is also ridiculously long-winded, so be it -- it's the choice that will score the point. Let e briefly explain what I mean:


(A) has not and possibly never will be able to practice

"has not" is not a complete phrase, so it has to be read as parallel to "never will" -- so A means "has not be able," which is gibberish

(B) has not and possibly will never be able to practice

same problem as with A -- has not *what*? "has not be able"?

(C) has not been and possibly never would be able to practice

OK, here at least the partial phrase at the beginning can make sense if it's read in parallel to the other phrase -- if "has not been" is parallel to "possibly never would be," then it means "has not been able"; so far so good, but there's no reason to use "would" here

(D) has not and possibly never would be able to practice

we're back to the same problem as with A and B -- it means "has not be able", plus we have this unjustified use of "would"

(E) has not been able to practice and possibly never will be able to practice

This one finishes both verb phrases -- "has not been able" and "never will be able" -- and makes sense, so it gets the point, even if it sounds long.
Karen van Hoek, PhD
Verbal Specialist

Test Prep New York
maximize your score, minimize your stress
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