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Parallel structure: confusing

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by Awais » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:11 pm
As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize

Is not E correct answer, to match the parallel structure?
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by lalabee » Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:14 pm
is the answer b?
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by Awais » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:32 am
Yes it is B, but can you please explain the reason!
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Re: Parallel structure: confusing

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Feb 07, 2008 11:17 am
Awais wrote:As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize

Is not E correct answer, to match the parallel structure?
(e) is NOT actually parallel.

If we look at the 4 verbs on the list, we have:

TO sell, take advantage, standardize and TO predict.

The "to" in front of predict destroys the paralellism. To fix the problem, we need to add "to" to every item in the list.

(b) fixes the problem by adding "to" in front of standardize and by changing "take" to "taking" (which is fine, since it's presented as a parenthetical comment modifying the previous item on the list). The list in (b) is:

To sell, to standardize and to predict,

which is parallel.
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by Awais » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:30 pm
Stuart,

Thank you for your explanation. That worked! :)

Cheers.
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tricky hidden subject

by resilient » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:37 am
that is a tricky yet fun one. E ruins the parallel structure. I learned that if you find the differences..play them agains eachother and it will give a better idea of the right answer.
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by mundasingh123 » Sun Nov 21, 2010 12:07 pm
Stuart Kovinsky wrote:The "to" in front of predict destroys the paralellism. To fix the problem, we need to add "to" to every item in the list.
(b) fixes the problem by adding "to" in front of standardize and by changing "take" to "taking" (which is fine, since it's presented as a parenthetical comment modifying the previous item on the list). The list in (b) is:
which is parallel.
But stuart can you please explain how is the sentence to be interpreted :
Comm. farming enables fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round by taking advantage of off-season demand
or
Comm. farming enables fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round thus taking advantage of off-season demand
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by sdas0112 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:10 am
Whats wrong with c?

TO sell, taking advantage, standardizing and TO predict.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:32 am
sdas0112 wrote:Whats wrong with c?

TO sell, taking advantage, standardizing and TO predict.
Here standardizing is not following rules of parallelism
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by kapur.arnav » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:49 am
mundasingh123 wrote:
sdas0112 wrote:Whats wrong with c?

TO sell, taking advantage, standardizing and TO predict.
Here standardizing is not following rules of parallelism
taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing its size and color... This means that u r standardizing demands size and color.... which is incorrect... modifier error...
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by anirudhbhalotia » Sat Dec 18, 2010 3:44 am
Don't know why E is not correct.
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by anshumishra » Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:42 pm
anirudhbhalotia wrote:Don't know why E is not correct.
Here is the question again :
As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
Whenever you are looking out for a parallel structure, make sure what needs to be in parallel.
Here there are 3 things, which commercial farming will enable fisheries:

1. To sell the shellfish year around, taking advantage of off-season demand (please note - "taking advantage of off-season demand" modifies "To sell the shellfish year around" to let us now "HOW". It is not one of the 3 things which commercial farming will enable fisheries.

2. To standardize standardize its sizes and colors,

3. To predict sales volume in advance

Hope that helps you to resolve the problem now.

Thanks
Last edited by anshumishra on Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by mundasingh123 » Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:44 pm
kapur.arnav wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:
sdas0112 wrote:Whats wrong with c?

TO sell, taking advantage, standardizing and TO predict.
Here standardizing is not following rules of parallelism
taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing its size and color... This means that u r standardizing demands size and color.... which is incorrect... modifier error...
Bi sthe OA and it is not what u r saying
E isn wrong because
As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

take advantage is not parallel with to predict and to standardize .U may either have a to before the total list or a to before each item in the list
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by anirudhbhalotia » Sun Dec 19, 2010 6:50 am
anshumishra wrote:
anirudhbhalotia wrote:Don't know why E is not correct.
Here is the question again :
As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
Whenever you are looking out for a parallel structure, make sure what needs to be in parallel.
Here there are 3 things, which commercial farming will enable fisheries:

1. To sell the shellfish year around, taking advantage of off-season demand (please note - "taking advantage of off-season demand" modifies "To sell the shellfish year around" to let us now "HOW". It is not one of the 3 things which commercial farming will enable fisheries.

2. To standardize standardize its sizes and colors,

3. To predict sales volume in advance

Hope that helps you to resolve the problem now.

Thanks

Thanks!
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by Target2009 » Mon Dec 20, 2010 7:07 pm
IMO - B
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