Dealing With Partial Underlines in Sentence Correction (Part 2)
Last time, we introduced a new way of dealing with partial underlines: explicitly trying to figure out how the non-underlined (and therefore correct) part of the sentence fits with the underlined portion. Were going to try out another GMATPrep Sentence Correction question along the same theme today. Set your timer for 1 minute and 15 seconds and go!
Until Berta and Ernst Scharrer established the concept of neurosecretion in 1928, scientists believed that either cells secreted hormones, which made them endocrine cells and thus part of the endocrine system, or conducted electrical impulses, in which case they were nerve cells and thus part of the nervous system.(A) either cells secreted hormones, which made them
(B) either cells secreted hormones, making them
(C) either cells secreted hormones and were
(D) cells either secreted hormones, in which case they were
(E) cells either secreted hormones, which made them
[Note to those who already read the first article in this set: did you spot any similarities? How did they help you on this one?]
Okay, ready to dig into this thing? What did you think when you read the original sentence?
The first thing I noticed was that its long, yet only a short part is underlined. Theres a lot of non-underlined stuff that I have to make sure matches the answer I choose.
The next thing I noticed was how the underline starts: with the word either. Either is a part of the either X or Y idiom and its also a parallelism marker. Its part of the underline, though, so I dont know for sure whether it will be in the correct answer. I glance ahead, though, and verify that there is an or in the original sentence as well, so I do have the full either X or Y idiom.
Next, I glance through the beginning of each answer choice; theres an either in each one. Okay, so parallelism is an issue, and the first part (the X) is part of the underlined portion, while the second part (the Y) is set in stone because its part of the non-underlined portion.
My first task is to figure out the Y half that goes along with the non-underlined portion. In this case, we have:
or conducted electrical impulses
What is the full either X or Y structure in the original sentence?
either cells secreted hormones, <noun modifier that well talk about later>, or conducted electrical impulses, <another modifier>.
Okay, so the X follows either and the Y follows or. Are the X and Y parallel?
No. X begins cells secreted hormones while Y begins conducted electrical impulses. X begins with a noun and Y begins with a verb. Further, if we try to construct the sentence only with the X and then only with the Y, we get:
Scientists believed that cells secreted hormones.Scientists believed that conducted electrical impulses.
The first sentence (with the X) is fine. (Note that you drop the idiom marker, either, when using this technique.) The second sentence, however, is not fine. We need to say that something conducted electrical impulses. The word cells however, is part of the X, so we cant reuse that word for the Y. Whatever is after the either can only be used for X and whatever is after the or can only be used for Y.
We can eliminate answer A and then we want to try to reuse that same reasoning to eliminate any other answers (if possible). We already know that we have the either parallelism marker in every answer choice; further, we know that the Y has to be conducted electrical impulses. That part of the sentence cant change.
Answers B and C both repeat the error in A; that is, X consists of cells secreted hormones. Eliminate both of these answers.
Answers D and E switch things up: they pull cells out in front of the either idiom. In both cases, we have:
Scientists believed that cells either secreted hormones, <modifier were ignoring for now>, or conducted electrical impulses, <another modifier were ignoring for now>.
On the either X or Y issue, both answer choices D and E are fine. For the problem in the last article, we were actually able to get to one answer choice just on the idiom issue. For this one, we have to look at something else to figure out whether D or E is the right answer.
So lets take a look at those two modifiers that we ignored at first. X and Y each have their own modifier, and each modifier is serving a parallel purpose. X and Y themselves describe two different hypotheses, and each modifier describes a result of that hypothesis. A simpler sentence with the same structure might be:
Either Im hungry, in which case I eat, or Im thirsty, in which case I drink.
Because the modifiers are serving the same kind of purpose for X and Y, ideally, we also want them to be parallel. The modifier for Y begins in which case they were and thats enough for us to choose D over E.
The correct answer is D.
We can also dig a little bit deeper here, just to make sure we fully understand why these two should be parallel (and there is also another error here in wrong answer E). Notice that an either / or structure implies that only one of the two things is true its either X or Y, but not both. If X is true, then another thing is true (the cells are endocrine cells); if Y is true, then another thing is true (the cells are nerve cells). The in which case introduction, then, also fits the meaning of the sentence: in the first case, a certain thing would be true, and in the second case, a different thing would be true.
Further, both D and E contain pronouns, but theres a problem with the pronoun in E. Pronouns have to match certain characteristics of the nouns to which they refer; for example, we need to use a plural pronoun to refer to a plural noun. If the portion of the sentence with the pronoun is also using parallelism in some way, then we have to make sure that the structure of the parallelism does not point to the wrong noun.
For both D and E, the answer begins identically: cells either secreted hormones. The word cells is the subject of the sentence cells secreted hormones, and the word hormones is the object.
D says in which case they were endocrine cells. The word they is a subject pronoun. E says which made them endocrine cells. The word them is an object pronoun.
This is where the explanation gets a little tricky. Its actually okay to have an object pronoun that refers to a subject noun or vice versa that isnt automatically wrong. Were required to make sure theres absolutely no ambiguity, however. When you have parallelism, its more common to see object pronouns referring to object nouns and subject pronouns referring to subject nouns. In D, weve got a subject pronoun referring to a subject noun. No problem. In E, weve got an object pronoun referring to a subject noun; thats not as good as D. Further, the object noun, hormones, is also a plural noun, so its possible that them could actually refer to hormones. That introduces enough ambiguity that we cant pick E over D. (Note that you could also use that reasoning to eliminate A.)
So, there are a couple ways to get there, but all (correct!) paths lead to the same end: the correct answer is D.
Finally, if you did both todays problem and the problem in the last article, what were the connections? We had the either X or Y idiom in both, of course. Notice another thing: in both, only one half of the idiom was underlined. The other half was not underlined, so the key was really finding the part that was not underlined and then making the underlined part match that. When a problem is testing an X/Y idiom, its often the case that only half will be underlined and this general process will be the same so now you have a new pattern that you can recognize more easily in future!
Key Takeaways for Partial-Underline Sentences on SC:
(1) Partially underlined sentences contain, by definition, some portion of a sentence that cant change and therefore must be correct. Ask yourself how that non-underlined portion connects to the rest of the sentence. What clues exist to help tell you what that connection is or might be?
(2) When parallelism is required, the X and Y portions must be both structurally and logically parallel. The part of speech of the main word should be the same for both, and the full sentence should be able to be written with just the X or just the Y and still be grammatically correct.
(3) For X/Y format idioms, check to see whether half is underlined and half isnt; then determine the structure of the non-underlined portion and make the underlined portion match.
* GMATPrep question courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.