doubt 4

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 774
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 4:32 am
Thanked: 46 times
Followed by:14 members

doubt 4

by aditya8062 » Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:26 am
Researchers have discovered a new species of sparrow that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees and whose coloring is completely different from all other sparrows.

A) that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows in cypress trees and whose coloring is completely different from

B) that lives only in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and has coloring completely different from that of

C) living only in cypress groves, is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from

D) that lives only in cypress groves, almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from that of

E) living only in cypress groves, depending almost wholly on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and having coloring completely different than

my doubt: though i got this question correct, I still have one query

if D (modified D) were as follows: that lives only in cypress groves, that is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from that of

will the bold portions be still parallel?
i have read in Manhattan SC book that "whose clauses" can be parallel to only "whose clauses" and that "that clauses" can be parallel to only "that clauses" so i am really curious as whether my modified D would be parallel?

Best

GMAT/MBA Expert

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 147
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:52 pm
Thanked: 53 times
Followed by:21 members

by David@GMATPrepNow » Wed Sep 10, 2014 8:11 am
Hi aditya8062,

If we take your modified sentence and place it in the full passage, we have the following:

Researchers have discovered a new species of sparrow that lives only in cypress groves, that is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from that of all other sparrows.

The repetition of "that is" in the first and second clauses makes it unacceptably awkward. But to answer your question about correct parallelism, let's remove the first instance of "that is" as follows:

Researchers have discovered a new species of sparrow that is almost wholly dependent on the berries of a certain type of vine that grows on cypress trees, and whose coloring is completely different from that of all other sparrows.

This is correct, i.e shows proper parallelism. It would not be correct to replace the "whose" in the final clause with "that."