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Intended Meaning / Parallelism

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by fangtray » Wed May 02, 2012 5:33 am
After moving to Switzerland in the 1890's, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing a foundation for his future work in mathematical physics.



attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and he developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, developing

attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and developing

I was deciding between A and B in this one, but I feel both are gramatically correct, but how do we know which is the intended meaning?

For example, A means that Albert Einsten received training, and developed a foundation....as a result of attending school.

B is parallel also, but it means that in 1980s Attended school, and Developed a foundation, perhaps this foundation has no relation to his going to school.

OA is A
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by GmatKiss » Wed May 02, 2012 10:10 am
fangtray wrote:After moving to Switzerland in the 1890's, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing a foundation for his future work in mathematical physics.

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and he developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, developing

attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and developing

IMO: A ; Good one!!
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by hey_thr67 » Wed May 02, 2012 1:07 pm
B should be right here as sequence is shown here.
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by fangtray » Wed May 02, 2012 3:35 pm
hey_thr67 wrote:B should be right here as sequence is shown here.
i like B too, but OA is A.
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by avik.ch » Thu May 03, 2012 12:39 am
fangtray wrote:
hey_thr67 wrote:B should be right here as sequence is shown here.
i like B too, but OA is A.

For parallelism, the items making correct sense has to be parallel.

In A : attended ..., receiving ...and developing....

Here "receiving..." and "developing.." are the adverb of result for his action "attended..".So this two should be parallel.

In B : "developed" after a comma in this type of construction, generally signify passive action. "attended" is a main verb while "developed" is a participle derived from (be + past participle). So this two can't be parallel in any way. Hence, this is wrong.


Hope this helps !!
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by EducationAisle » Thu May 03, 2012 3:05 am
avik.ch wrote: In B : "developed" after a comma in this type of construction, generally signify passive action. "attended" is a main verb while "developed" is a participle derived from (be + past participle). So this two can't be parallel in any way. Hence, this is wrong.
Actually "developed" is used as a Simple Past Verb here and not as a Participle.

As you have rightly mentioned, both "in-depth training" and "foundation for future work" are "results" of the main verb "attended". Hence, A is correct.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu May 03, 2012 3:41 am
fangtray wrote:After moving to Switzerland in the 1890's, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing a foundation for his future work in mathematical physics.



attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and he developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, developing

attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and developing

I was deciding between A and B in this one, but I feel both are gramatically correct, but how do we know which is the intended meaning?

For example, A means that Albert Einsten received training, and developed a foundation....as a result of attending school.

B is parallel also, but it means that in 1980s Attended school, and Developed a foundation, perhaps this foundation has no relation to his going to school.

OA is A
The purpose of COMMA + VERBing is to express CONTEMPORANEOUS ACTION: an action happening at the same time as the action of the preceding clause.

B incorrectly implies that the actions here were DISTINCT: that Einstein attended the school and -- as a separate action -- developed a foundation for his future work. The intended meaning is that the actions were CONTEMPORANEOUS: when Einstein attended the school, at the same time he was RECEIVING in-depth training and DEVELOPING a foundation for his future work.

Only A conveys the intended meaning.
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by fangtray » Thu May 03, 2012 4:45 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
fangtray wrote:After moving to Switzerland in the 1890's, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing a foundation for his future work in mathematical physics.



attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and he developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, developing

attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and developing

I was deciding between A and B in this one, but I feel both are gramatically correct, but how do we know which is the intended meaning?

For example, A means that Albert Einsten received training, and developed a foundation....as a result of attending school.

B is parallel also, but it means that in 1980s Attended school, and Developed a foundation, perhaps this foundation has no relation to his going to school.

OA is A
The purpose of COMMA + VERBing is to express CONTEMPORANEOUS ACTION: an action happening at the same time as the action of the preceding clause.

B incorrectly implies that the actions here were DISTINCT: that Einstein attended the school and -- as a separate action -- developed a foundation for his future work. The intended meaning is that the actions were CONTEMPORANEOUS: when Einstein attended the school, at the same time he was RECEIVING in-depth training and DEVELOPING a foundation for his future work.

Only A conveys the intended meaning.

how do we know which is the intended meaning? they both seem logical.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu May 03, 2012 5:55 am
fangtray wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
fangtray wrote:After moving to Switzerland in the 1890's, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing a foundation for his future work in mathematical physics.



attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developing

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis and developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and he developed

attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, received in-depth training in quantitative analysis, developing

attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, and developing

I was deciding between A and B in this one, but I feel both are gramatically correct, but how do we know which is the intended meaning?

For example, A means that Albert Einsten received training, and developed a foundation....as a result of attending school.

B is parallel also, but it means that in 1980s Attended school, and Developed a foundation, perhaps this foundation has no relation to his going to school.

OA is A
The purpose of COMMA + VERBing is to express CONTEMPORANEOUS ACTION: an action happening at the same time as the action of the preceding clause.

B incorrectly implies that the actions here were DISTINCT: that Einstein attended the school and -- as a separate action -- developed a foundation for his future work. The intended meaning is that the actions were CONTEMPORANEOUS: when Einstein attended the school, at the same time he was RECEIVING in-depth training and DEVELOPING a foundation for his future work.

Only A conveys the intended meaning.

how do we know which is the intended meaning? they both seem logical.
If the original sentence is error-free and conveys a clear and logical meaning, then that clear and logical meaning is -- by definition -- the INTENDED MEANING.

B contains a parallelism error: whereas receiving is a PARTICIPLE -- a verb serving as an ADJECTIVE -- developed is a simple past tense VERB.
The situation might be easier to see if we reverse the order:

Receiving in-depth training in quantitative analysis, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.
We can see here that receiving is an adjective modifying Albert Einstein.

Developed a foundation for his future work, Albert Einstein attended the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.
The sentence above makes no sense. Clearly, developed is NOT serving as an adjective modifying Albert Einstein. Hence, developed must be serving as a simple past tense verb.

Since receiving and developed are not parallel, eliminate B.
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by heymayank08 » Thu May 03, 2012 8:40 am
it has the
cause effect so -ing after comma is preferred
but for the other noun develop
it should be in sync with the rest of the sentence i.e.
it should be developed
IMO: B
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