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Sentence correction

by BTGmoderatorRO » Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:40 pm
Unlike the virginal, whose single set of strings runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are placed at right angles to its front edge.

A. whose single set of strings runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are -
B. in which a single set of strings run parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are -
C. which has a single set of strings that runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, in the case of the harpsichord, several sets of strings are-
D. which has a single set of strings that run parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord has several sets of strings are-
E. with a single set of strings running parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the several sets of strings of the harpsichord are-
QA is d

(1) Why is option A wrong in this question?
(2) Can you explain why option C is chosen as the correct answer to this question?
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by elias.latour.apex » Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:50 am
This sentence starts with "Unlike the virginal." This indicates that we are comparing the virginal, a musical instrument, to something else in the sentence. What is comparable to the virginal? Are "several sets of strings" comparable to a musical instrument? Or are we trying to compare the virginal to the harpsichord?

(D), the credited response says: "Unlike the virginal, ...the harpsichord..." This is the correct way to compare these two things.
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by ErikaPrepScholar » Mon Sep 18, 2017 9:59 am
Whenever we see the word "unlike", we know that we will be using the structure, "Unlike X, Y ______" or "Y, unlike X, ______", where X and Y are parallel.

Right now, we have a bunch of stuff breaking up the X and the Y in our comparison, which is what makes this question tricky. We know that anything set off by commas should not be grammatically necessary to our sentence, let's cut out "whose ... instrument" to make it easier to see what we are comparing:

"Unlike the virginal, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are placed at right angles to its front edge. "

So our X and Y are "virginal" and "harpsichord's several sets of strings. The virginal is an instrument, so we want to compare it to another instrument (like the harpsichord), not an instrument's strings. We can eliminate A.

We can scan through our answer choices to see that only D successfully compares "virginal" to "harpsichord". (Note that C does not follow the correct idiomatic "Unlike X, Y" structure, introducing "in the case of".)
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by Ali Tariq » Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:29 pm
Roland2rule wrote:Unlike the virginal, whose single set of strings runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are placed at right angles to its front edge.

A. whose single set of strings runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are -
B. in which a single set of strings run parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord's several sets of strings are -
C. which has a single set of strings that runs parallel to the front edge of the instrument, in the case of the harpsichord, several sets of strings are-
D. which has a single set of strings that run parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the harpsichord has several sets of strings are-
E. with a single set of strings running parallel to the front edge of the instrument, the several sets of strings of the harpsichord are-
QA is d

(1) Why is option A wrong in this question?
(2) Can you explain why option C is chosen as the correct answer to this question?
Answe choice D has not been transcribed properly.
There is no are at the end of that answer choice.
Please edit accordingly.
Thank you.

PS:
not QA but OA ; )
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