SC - Parallelism

karthikpandian19 wrote:After surveying public schools across the nation, a researcher reported that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than those who had never learned.


(A) that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than

(B) that children having an ability to read music perform better on an aptitude test than

(C) that children who are able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than would

(D) that when children had the ability to read music, that they performed better on an aptitude test than - awkward!

(E) that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test as did

IMO A?

After surveying public schools across the nation, a researcher reported that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than those who had never learned.

(A) that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than
(B) that children having an ability to read music perform better on an aptitude test than
(C) that children who are able to read music performed better on an aptitude test than would
(D) that when children had the ability to read music, that they performed better on an aptitude test than
(E) that children who were able to read music performed better on an aptitude test as did

A- looks fine
Meaning : Group A children are better at aptitude test than group B. GroupA are those who read music

B -A is more parallel because we have who in second part so better to have in first part
C - C is less better than A as in second part we have had so we need second event in past not in present
D- 2 had is not required . we use 'had' when we have another event in past which occured after the action with 'had verb'. Here both are 'had' we dont have second later event
E- with better we need than not 'as'
A looks fine
whats the OA

The correct answer is a since it keeps the correct sequence of tenses - past tense is used in the whole sentence following the first past form "reported". It also follows the parallelism rule related to the use of comparison with "then". The third type of mistake which appears in other answer choices is redundancy. This answer conveys the intended meaning while being concise.

OA is A