Superficial parallelism vs Actual Parallelism..

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by Pooja Bhula » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:05 pm
heshamelaziry wrote:
capnx wrote:
capnx wrote:here's another one

St. John's, Newfoundland, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John's residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

(A) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking
(B) residents are less likely to sit at outdoor cafes, and more to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or be seeking
(C) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking
(D) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, they are more likely to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or seek
(E) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or to be seeking
OA is[spoiler] A[/spoiler]

A and C are grammatically correct. Why C is wrong ? I don't understand the difference in meaning ?
Hi Capnx,
Well I think the only reason C can be wrong is that the idiomatic expression is less likely to do this.... than to do that...which automatically means ' the person is less like to do one thing and more likely to do another'... so saying less likely and more likely may not be required.


Also if you carefully read sentence A:
residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking

It means that residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes ...than... to be doing x or y or z....

Whereas,

C conveys:
residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking

that residents are more like to do x and y or z...

Therefore C does change the meaning to an extent....

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by capnx » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:23 pm
good analysis Pooja. I think you're getting this :)

try this one (pretty straight forward I think)

All-terrain vehicles have allowed vacationers to reach many previously inaccessible areas, but they have also been blamed for causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging the nation's recreational areas.

(A) deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging
(B) deaths and injuring thousands, and serious damage to
(C) deaths, thousands who are injured, as well as seriously damaging
(D) deaths and thousands of injuries, as well as doing serious damage to
(E) deaths, thousands are injured, and they do serious damage to

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by aspirant1 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:54 pm
(D) because ......."causing hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, as well as doing serious damage to "

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by hmboy17 » Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:44 am
Answer of last question is D. What's the OA?
Pooja, I have one request for you in on of the post you mentioned MGMGMAT practice questions? where did you get those from? Ialso have SC book from them but dont have any practice questions...Please shre those questions if possible.

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by capnx » Fri Dec 04, 2009 11:30 am
yes, OA is D

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by Pooja Bhula » Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:28 am
capnx wrote:good analysis Pooja. I think you're getting this :)

try this one (pretty straight forward I think)

All-terrain vehicles have allowed vacationers to reach many previously inaccessible areas, but they have also been blamed for causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging the nation's recreational areas.

(A) deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging
(B) deaths and injuring thousands, and serious damage to
(C) deaths, thousands who are injured, as well as seriously damaging
(D) deaths and thousands of injuries, as well as doing serious damage to
(E) deaths, thousands are injured, and they do serious damage to

Hi Capnx,
Thanks for the question, my answer to this would be A.

When I 1st read the question I was looking for something that changed the last part of the sentence, something on the lines of 'and serious damage to' because causing is already present...so it would be ' causing serious damage to'... but though it is present in B ..the rest of the sentence is not parallel... But I stick by A because it can be read as 'Causing hundreds of deaths, causing injury to thoudsands, and seriously damaging'...so u have causing and damaging....

I don't agree with D, because i think A and B, as well as C is not a correct structure...and doing serious damage can be better worded as seriously damaging...

Please tell me the OA...

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by varchar » Mon Dec 07, 2009 1:18 pm
All-terrain vehicles have allowed vacationers to reach many previously inaccessible areas, but they have also been blamed for causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging the nation’s recreational areas.

(A) deaths, injury to thousands, and seriously damaging
(B) deaths and injuring thousands, and serious damage to
(C) deaths, thousands who are injured, as well as seriously damaging
(D) deaths and thousands of injuries, as well as doing serious damage to
(E) deaths, thousands are injured, and they do serious damage to

Answer : D
I choose D because it maintains the tense + parallelism.

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by capnx » Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:27 pm
D's structure: blamed for causing deaths and injuries as well as doing damage
so: blamed for A (x and y) as well as B...

everything else is not parallel

your reason for picking A: because it can be read as 'Causing hundreds of deaths, causing injury to thoudsands, and seriously damaging'

if you compare "causing hundres of deaths, causing injury to thousands..." with "causing deaths and injuries", isn't D better?

additionally, A's "causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands" is not parallel. should be "thousands of injuries"

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by Pooja Bhula » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:41 am
capnx wrote:D's structure: blamed for causing deaths and injuries as well as doing damage
so: blamed for A (x and y) as well as B...

everything else is not parallel

your reason for picking A: because it can be read as 'Causing hundreds of deaths, causing injury to thoudsands, and seriously damaging'

if you compare "causing hundres of deaths, causing injury to thousands..." with "causing deaths and injuries", isn't D better?

additionally, A's "causing hundreds of deaths, injury to thousands" is not parallel. should be "thousands of injuries"
Hey I get it now...thanks..i just wasn't sure if A and B as well as C was a correct way to put it... that was my main concern...

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by lunarpower » Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:06 am
heshamelaziry wrote:
capnx wrote:
capnx wrote:here's another one

St. John's, Newfoundland, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John's residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

(A) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking
(B) residents are less likely to sit at outdoor cafes, and more to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or be seeking
(C) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking
(D) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, they are more likely to be brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or seek
(E) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or to be seeking
OA is[spoiler] A[/spoiler]

A and C are grammatically correct. Why C is wrong ? I don't understand the difference in meaning ?
nope. (c) is wrong because the list has bad parallelism.
specifically, compare the last two elements of the list.
the second element, marked off by the comma, is just "shoveling snow".
the third element, marked off by "comma + or", is "TO BE seeking".
these aren't parallel.
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by lunarpower » Thu Dec 10, 2009 6:09 am
hmboy17 wrote:Answer of last question is D. What's the OA?
Pooja, I have one request for you in on of the post you mentioned MGMGMAT practice questions? where did you get those from? Ialso have SC book from them but dont have any practice questions...Please shre those questions if possible.
interestingly, that "kicking up dust" problem is NOT ours (i went through our entire bank of problems, and it is definitely not there).
it's probably from "manhattan review", a company that desperately wants to be us. :)
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