Sentence Correction

Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only.
A. in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, not buying a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but they leave with a basketball only
B. in department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not also buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well
C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but leave with only a basketball
D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well
E. department stores, shop impulsively very little; someone will not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball but will leave with only a basketball

The answer is D. This is an example of a sentence made up of a mix of dependent and independent clauses. The example sentence is incorrect for several reasons, one of which is that it treats all of the phrases the same. There are different grammar rules for each though. A dependent phrase is separated by commas, but an independent phrase is separated by a semicolon or dash.

The example sentence is also unparallel, using different verb tenses to describe sporting goods store shoppers. It also lacks a pronoun to refer back to the 'shoppers' in the first part of the sentence. It looks like it could be contrasting sporting goods shoppers and department stores, rather than sporting goods shoppers and department store shoppers

D is correct because it corrects the sentence by adding the pronoun 'those' in, to refer to shoppers. It also takes the independent clause (which is actually a stand alone sentence) talking about what they will buy and places a semicolon in front of it, following the rules for independent clauses.

Is the structure of Option C...wrong ???

I understood there are two independent clauses connected without a conjunction.
but both sentences " do buy..." and "do not....." describe the characteristics of the shoppers...isnt it ....

also i dont see any problem with its reference to the right noun.

I would go with C. Don't like the structure of D especially in the end when it uses as well, looks unidiomatic.

IMO D.

C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping, do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but leave with only a basketball

C suggests that shoppers in sporting stores
a)do very little impulse
b)do not buy a pair of skis and .....

as compared with shoppers in department stores. As the original sentence suggests, the comparison is regarding the part a) only and part b) exemplify the issue and is concerned with only shoppers in sporting stores. In nut shell, C creates a run-on sentence making the comparison illogical.

So, D is the best choice.

Shoppers in sporting goods stores, unlike in department stores, do very little impulse shopping,

There is no clear reference of the shoppers in the second half.

So answers having those in the beginning are contenders and we reject A,B and E

So we are left with C and D

D. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping; someone who comes in for a basketball will leave with a basketball only and not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang as well

The word someone is important because from a group of general population, a particular example is given,which definitely needs to be pointed out to a person from that group

So I will go with D

Should be D.

'those in' is definitely required for parallelism. So we are left with C and D. In C I do not like the 'do not buy a pair of skis' after the comma, doesnt make sense. hence D it is.

C do not create a run on sentence.

why C is wrong. pls help explain

duongthang wrote:C do not create a run on sentence.

why C is wrong. pls help explain

Any thoughts on the above?

duongthang wrote:C do not create a run on sentence.

why C is wrong. pls help explain

1 They do X, do Y, but do Z.
2* They do X, do not Y but Z
3. They do X, and do not Y but Z
4. They do x, but do not Y but Z

2 is incorrect. The pattern of 3 fits (2).

There is another problem as well: X, Y and Z are not semantically parallel. So, you got two issues with the choice C.

This pattern is another GMAT favorite: they dont test two clauses; they try to catch weak souls with three clauses, two of them parts of another parallelism.


Another advice: every wrong choice has, at minimum, 2 faults. OG answers do not deal with every fault: if they do, there is no fun in testing people. In other words, the test writers don't wanna spill beans;-)

I guess the issue is comma and BUT in C. If there was a subject after BUT, I guess it will correct - provided there is AND earlier.

C. those in department stores, do very little impulse shopping AND do not buy a pair of skis and a boomerang when they come in for a basketball, but THEY leave with only a basketball