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to Realize or Realization ..

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by DonPaw » Thu May 20, 2010 9:11 pm
One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the
realization that as a person ages, their concerns change as well.
(A) the realization that as a person ages, their
(B) the realization that as people age, their
(C) to realize that when a person ages, his or her
(D) to realize that when people age, their
(E) realizing that as people age, their


Can any one help me in understanding what would be the answer and how we should think over it..
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by akhpad » Thu May 20, 2010 11:10 pm
DonPaw wrote: One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that as a person ages, their concerns change as well.
(A) the realization that as a person ages, their
(B) the realization that as people age, their
(C) to realize that when a person ages, his or her
(D) to realize that when people age, their
(E) realizing that as people age, their


Can any one help me in understanding what would be the answer and how we should think over it..
One legacy of X is the realization that ...

Between A and B, B is better.
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by atul2100 » Fri May 21, 2010 6:17 am
What about choice C?


(C) to realize that when a person ages, his or her

To realize(infinitive) + a person ->instead of their his or her should be used. Not sure about the solution
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Fri May 21, 2010 8:44 am
Choose B


"is" in the middle of the sentence is acting as a parallel marker. "one legacy" is a noun so a noun should come immediately after the parallel market. In this case "the realization" is a noun. In A, "their" is incorrect. Choose B.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri May 21, 2010 10:48 am
Osirus is dead on on this one - this is a well-crafted Parallelism/Equivalent Elements problem. "One legacy", a singular noun, cannot be "realizing", a present-tense verb. The legacy must be a noun, and "the realization" is the only one that fits.

The choice between A and B, then, is a Pronoun problem: "a person" cannot use the pronoun "their", so A is incorrect. The plural "people" fits with the plural "their" in B, and so B is correct.

On questions like this, I highly recommend taking modifying phrases, such as the one that starts with "of" (a common indicator of a modifying phrase) out of the equation so that you get a better sense of the kinds of agreement you need in these sentences (subject-verb agreement, modifier agreement, parallel agreement, etc). Here, if you get rid of that modifier, you have:

One legacy is...the realization/to realize/realizing.

If you see it that clearly, taking away the GMAT's "weapons of mass distraction", your decision becomes a lot easier to make.
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by akhpad » Fri May 21, 2010 7:26 pm
Hi Brian

I understood that it requires parallelism but I confused. what should be the background knowledge I need.

One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the realization that as people age, their concerns change as well.

A result of the recent election is the realization that in this increasingly urban areas, voters now worry more about crime than health care.

What indicates that it required parallelism?

I came to OA for above problem because I saw similar problem https://www.beatthegmat.com/recent-election-t58145.html
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by synfist » Sat May 22, 2010 12:28 pm
DonPaw wrote:One legacy of Madison Avenue's recent campaign to appeal to people fifty years old and over is the
realization that as a person ages, their concerns change as well.
(A) the realization that as a person ages, their
(B) the realization that as people age, their
(C) to realize that when a person ages, his or her
(D) to realize that when people age, their
(E) realizing that as people age, their


Can any one help me in understanding what would be the answer and how we should think over it..
One legacy ........ to appeal to people ...and to realize

Clearly parallelism question

A, B, E are out

(C) to realize that when a person ages, his or her
(D) to realize that when people age, their

We are talking about people , so keep it people in the second part as well
Losing All Hope Is Freedom !
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue May 25, 2010 8:33 am
Hey, akhp - good question. I'd argue that the single-greatest challenge in Sentence Correction is the recognition of the errors (note that I didn't say "recognizing" - that would have made the same mistake as in that SC problem!). There's no "smoking gun" for knowing when parallelism is required, but generally you can use some of the following clues to help you to determine where it may be a consideration:

-a list of items that are all taken in the same way (i.e. "my favorite activities are swimming, running, and to bicycle" would be wrong - "bicycling" should follow so that all three activities are in the same form)
-a comparison (i.e. "I run faster than you" is wrong; we can't compare my running speed to you as a human, so this should be "I run faster than you do")
-(like the question above) look for logic - can "a legacy" (a singular thing) be an active verb? It's subtle, but keep in mind that the answer choices can tip you off to the need for parallel structure, and, honestly, that may be the easiest way to recognize that:

-if the answer choices show 2 or 3 ways to phrase a portion of the sentence, that can clue you in to the fact that you need to make a decision, and parallelism is one point to consider in doing so. In this sentence, you're asked (if indirectly) to choose among "the realization", "to realize", and "realizing"; at that point, you may want to ask yourself what the function of that portion of the statement is. It's being linked, or compared, to "one legacy", so you'll want to ask which of the choices could even be considered "one legacy", and that should lead you to A or B.
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by adi_800 » Tue May 25, 2010 9:21 am
We have something like linking verbs....When there are linking verbs present in the sentence, both sides of the linking verbs should be parallel.... You might be knowing about this but putting this for other members..:)
Linking Verb does not show what action the subject is performing.. Instead these linking verbs indicate what condition the subject is in...
Below is a list of linking verbs...
To be verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being..
Other linking verbs are: appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, represent, resemble stay, sound, seem, taste, turn...
Now when you have these kinda of verbs just make sure that two sides of the verb are parallel...
In the above sentence, there is no parallelism between to appeal and to realize...The parallelism is between one legacy and one more noun that should come after the linking verb is...
So B, is correctly the answer..
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Tue May 25, 2010 9:45 am
Memorize these and if you see them check for parallelism

linking verbs:

is, are , was, were, am, be, been, being,
appear, become, grow, feel, look, remain, represent, resemble
seem, smell, sound, stay, turn, taste.

If you see those, sometimes parallelism will be required, sometimes it won't be. It really depends on if those verbs are being used as an intransitive or transitive verb, and its really not worth learning the difference, so just memorize those verbs and check to see if any of the differences in the answer choices are differences in parallelism. If so, parallelism is being tested.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

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by akhpad » Tue May 25, 2010 10:19 am
I am really happy from this thread and finally got it clarify.


Some more about linking verb
--------------------------------------

Sometimes these verbs are linking verbs; sometimes they are action verbs.

If you can substitute am, is, or are and the sentence still sounds logical, you have a linking verb on your hands. If, after the substitution, the sentence makes no sense, you are dealing with an action verb instead.

Here are some examples:
Sylvia tasted the spicy squid eyeball stew.
Sylvia is the stew? I don't think so! Tasted, therefore, is an action verb in this sentence, something Sylvia is doing.
The squid eyeball stew tasted good.
The stew is good? You bet. Make your own!

The linking verbs above are often followed by adjectives instead of adverbs. In such situations, the adjective describes the subject of the sentence rather than the verb. Study the examples below to learn the difference.

"¢ Mary seemed sad. => Correct
"¢ Mary seemed sadly. => Not Correct
"¢ The cake tastes good. => Correct
"¢ The cake tastes well. => Not Correct
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by adi_800 » Tue May 25, 2010 4:49 pm
Simply put it...
Linking verbs are not followed by adverbs but adjectives...
This point has been mentioned in the manhattan gmat sc book...
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by shimbal80 » Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:05 am
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey, akhp - good question. I'd argue that the single-greatest challenge in Sentence Correction is the recognition of the errors (note that I didn't say "recognizing" - that would have made the same mistake as in that SC problem!). There's no "smoking gun" for knowing when parallelism is required, but generally you can use some of the following clues to help you to determine where it may be a consideration:

-a list of items that are all taken in the same way (i.e. "my favorite activities are swimming, running, and to bicycle" would be wrong - "bicycling" should follow so that all three activities are in the same form)
-a comparison (i.e. "I run faster than you" is wrong; we can't compare my running speed to you as a human, so this should be "I run faster than you do")
-(like the question above) look for logic - can "a legacy" (a singular thing) be an active verb? It's subtle, but keep in mind that the answer choices can tip you off to the need for parallel structure, and, honestly, that may be the easiest way to recognize that:

-if the answer choices show 2 or 3 ways to phrase a portion of the sentence, that can clue you in to the fact that you need to make a decision, and parallelism is one point to consider in doing so. In this sentence, you're asked (if indirectly) to choose among "the realization", "to realize", and "realizing"; at that point, you may want to ask yourself what the function of that portion of the statement is. It's being linked, or compared, to "one legacy", so you'll want to ask which of the choices could even be considered "one legacy", and that should lead you to A or B.


I am confused because I found this question in OG 12 , and it said to salvage is should parallel to have it processed. Because of "to salvage" we should use inifinitive after "is". but "to have it processed" is not parallel with the "only way".
Therefore I am confused for the question above for choosing "d" or "b". In "d" to appeal is parallel with to realize.

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is
to process them quickly into juice concentrate before
they rot when warmer weather returns.

(A) to process them quickly into juice concentrate
before they rot when warmer weather returns

(B) if they are quickly processed into juice
concentrate before warmer weather returns to
rot them

(C) for them to be processed quickly into juice
concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer
weather returns

(D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice
concentrate before they rot when warmer
weather returns

(E) to have it quickly processed into juice
concentrate before warmer weather returns and
rots the fruit

Here the answer is E
Could you explain more?

Thank in advance
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:33 am
Hey shimbal,

Good question - here I'd say to keep in mind that the structure of a sentence in its base form is Subject-Verb-Object:

I kicked the ball

"I" is the subject
"kicked" is the verb
"the ball" is the object

Some verbs don't really need objects, but the fact that one has an object and another doesn't does not make it not parallel:

I sneezed and then blew my nose

"Sneezed" is really all you need in a verb - there's not much way to add an object to it, but "blew" really begs for an object. But the two are parallel because they're both past-tense verbs.


In this case that you've offered, "To salvage" has the object "citrus" and "to have" has the object "it" (referring to "citrus"). It may not look perfectly parallel because "it" is followed by "quickly...", but when you strip down the verbs it's just two infinitive verbs:

To salvage...to have

And so they are, indeed, parallel.


One other major decision point here is the pronoun - we have "them", "they", and "it". Them/they is plural and could confuse by maybe referring to "growers", whereas "it" is singular and can only refer to "citrus", so that's another reason that E is correct.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:41 pm
adi_800 wrote:We have something like linking verbs....When there are linking verbs present in the sentence, both sides of the linking verbs should be parallel.... You might be knowing about this but putting this for other members..:)
Linking Verb does not show what action the subject is performing.. Instead these linking verbs indicate what condition the subject is in...
Below is a list of linking verbs...
To be verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being..
Other linking verbs are: appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, represent, resemble stay, sound, seem, taste, turn...
Now when you have these kinda of verbs just make sure that two sides of the verb are parallel...
In the above sentence, there is no parallelism between to appeal and to realize...The parallelism is between one legacy and one more noun that should come after the linking verb is...
So B, is correctly the answer..
Where do we have a linking verb in this sentence ?
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