Sentence Correction

audiophiles.

Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction-on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs-audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(B) music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to

(C) music, transferring them from one format to another, copy them, and digitally alter them with little effort and no damage to

(D) music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(E) music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to

audiophiles is the subject of the main clause.

alanforde800Maximus wrote:Hello,

Hello.

alanforde800Maximus wrote: Can you also share your reasoning to eliminate incorrect options

Lets do it together.

A)Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction-on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs-audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

There is a fact cited as a reason (usage of since to indicate causation)[ please refer to initial dependent clause].

And that reason opens up a possibility for audiophiles [refer to main clause/independent clause].

And then are cited 3 ways in which audiophiles can actualize that possibility [ refer to 3 adverbial modifiers modifying the preceding clause or main clause].


audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music
How?
by
-->transferring them from one format to another,
-->copying it, and
-->digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

Now ask yourself:
Is it music which can be transferred from one format to another format
or
Is it collections of music that can be transferred from one format to another format

OR,

you can also ask:
Is it music which is in formats--digital format or analog format.
or
Is it collections of music which is in formats--digital format or analog format.

It is music that is transferred from one format to another( digital to analog or analog to digital ).
That is,
You transfer music.
You accumulate collections-- collections of music, collections of stamps etc.

Therefore, them in option A is problematic.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

Further note that demaging is not parallel with anything.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

Let's delve a little further into this one ( just for the sake of fun).

Focus on the bolded parts:

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

with little effort is a prep phrase.
A prep phrase can function either as an adjective OR as an adverb.
with little effort modifies altering.
with little effort, therefore, functions NOT as an adjective BUT as an adverb.

Further with little effort is followed by and--a parallel marker.
What it means is that what appears on LHS of and MUST be parallel with what appears on RHS of and.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

with little X and no Y.
X and Y should have been parallel.

Have a look at other answer choices to see whether there exists any other choice with this issue and what are the alternates available.

There are two reasons we do this verticle scanning:

1) GMAC deploys what we in tutoring community call 3/2 split, one of the favorite tools of GMAC.

2) In GMAT SC, you NEVER NEVER, NEVER EVER, EVER EVER analyze answer choices ABSOLUTELY. You always analyze answer choices RELATIVELY.
Now because GMAC knows that you will resort to 3/2 split analysis and RELATIVE vs ABSOLUTE analysis, it oftentimes places distractions so that you waste precious seconds on issues that don't matter in GMAT SC.

Therefore, please keep in mind that NOT ALL 3/2 splits are genuine.
At times, there are also fake splits, which should never let you distract from other glaring errors in incorrect answer choices.
( Like everything else in GMAT SC, you get better at it ONLY with practice).

Coming back to the point of verticle scanning we were discussing:

Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction-on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs-audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(B) music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to

(C) music, transferring them from one format to another, copy them, and digitally alter them with little effort and no damage to

(D) music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(E) music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to

Parallelism is between noun and noun.

with little X and no Y, where X and Y are nouns, and little and no are adjectives modifying effort and damage respectively.

How much effort?
little effort.
How much damage?
no damage.

A and D lack parallelism.
Eliminate them.

Here are the other 3/2 splits that we have identified in this SC:
-->them vs it

Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction-on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs-audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(B) music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to

(C) music, transferring them from one format to another, copy them, and digitally alter them with little effort and no damage to

(D) music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(E) music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to

-->adverbial modifier vs verb&verb parallelism. ( Please note that this type of an error will always be accompanied by at least one other error in the incorrect answer choice).

Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction-on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital video discs-audiophiles can accumulate vast collections of music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

(A) music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(B) music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to

(C) music, transferring them from one format to another, copy them, and digitally alter them with little effort and no damage to

(D) music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging

(E) music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to

No issue with structual parallelism in D and E.

Faulty logical parallelism is at play, however.

Again RELATIVE REASONING is the key to identify all logical errors( errors that pertain to meaning as opposed to grammar), such as faulty logical parallelism.

There are also other errors in C, D, and E.
And that is for you to figure out.