Either or usage

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:10 pm

Following is a sentence correction right answer choice from Kaplan Test-3

Although the most modern-day American parks are either modeled on the "romantic" landscape or the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

As I know, The idiom "either X or Y" : X and Y should be in parallel.

But in the above sentence X and Y are not parallel,

Can somebody put some light on it.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:10 pm

ankurmit: Legendary Member; Posts: 516; Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:42 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Mumbai; Thanked: 14 times; GMAT Score:710

by ankurmit » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:36 pm

Ya its not parallel

sentence must be

Although the most modern-day American parks are either modeled on the "romantic" landscape or on the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

--------
Ankur mittal

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:54 pm

paes wrote:Following is a sentence correction right answer choice from Kaplan Test-3

Although the most modern-day American parks are either modeled on the "romantic" landscape or the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

As I know, The idiom "either X or Y" : X and Y should be in parallel.

But in the above sentence X and Y are not parallel,

Can somebody put some light on it.

The statement clearly has parallelism error -
The construction by ankurmit is correct.

An alternative construction can be -

Although the most modern-day American parks are modeled on either the "romantic" landscape or the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

Moreover, the use of article the before most is fishy. Is sentence trying to say that only the most modern parks are modeled on the "romantic" landscape or the English garden while other parks which are not most modern are modeled on other designs?

A Kaplan instructor, if around, may clarify.

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:39 pm

I think that the sentence given by Ankur i s not correct.

Only the following choice will be correct :

Although the most modern-day American parks are modeled on either the "romantic" landscape or the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:10 am

paes wrote:I think that the sentence given by Ankur i s not correct.

Only the following choice will be correct :

Although the most modern-day American parks are modeled on either the "romantic" landscape or the English garden, there are other park designs from the Italian Baroque that are equally worthy of imitation.

On second thoughts, yes ankur's statement is not perfect. It does not gel well with the remaining part of the sentence. Mine is perfect though.

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Stuart@KaplanGMAT: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3225; Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:40 pmFollowed by: 614 members; Location: Toronto; Thanked: 1710 times; GMAT Score:800

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:15 am

If the original sentence is quoted correctly, there's definitely a parallelism problem.

Paes, would you please PM me the question ID? I'll get it fixed.

Thanks!

Oh.. the best fix is niksworth's - moving "modelled on" to before "either" fixes everything perfectly.

Stuart Kovinsky | Kaplan GMAT Faculty | Toronto

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:12 am

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:If the original sentence is quoted correctly, there's definitely a parallelism problem.

Paes, would you please PM me the question ID? I'll get it fixed.

Thanks!

Oh.. the best fix is niksworth's - moving "modelled on" to before "either" fixes everything perfectly.

QN : 17
Test : 3

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