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Superficial parallelism vs Actual Parallelism..

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by Pooja Bhula » Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:03 am
I have been refering to the Manhattan book for SC. It gives an eg. of superficial parallelism where there is a main clause and subordinate clause. It is illustrated in the eg. below:

'Ken travelled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture.'

At first it might not sound right but according to Manhattan ppl the main clause is that 'Ken travelled around the world' and that 'visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture' is part of the subordinate clause, and it only provides additional information about the travel....

According to this, ''Ken travelled around the world, visited historic sites, ate native foods, and learnt about new cultures'... would be incorrect because equal importance is given to all the clauses...


I totally understood this concept but now when i do sentences sometimes I cannot differentiate between sentences that require different parallelism in the main clause and subordinate clause and one's that do not...


So please give me clarity on this concept, and also help me with the following sentence:



The galloping boulder bumped against the hillside, kicking up cloud of dust, and slightly changed direction.

A. kicking up cloud of dust
B. a cloud of dust is kicked up
C. a cloud of dust is kicking up
D. kicks up a cloud of dust
E. kicked up a cloud of dust

Normally I would select E as the answer, but after knowing the rule of superficial vs actual parallelism I chose A, because according to me kicking up a cloud of dust is just a result of the boulder bumping against the hillside....

So now I'm waiting for help to know the right ans..and the logic behind it too...
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by 2010gmat » Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:47 pm
i would choose A too...dust of cloud was the result of boulder bumping against the hill...boulder itself didn't kicked the dust of cloud...

simple yet gud question...

i was also stuck between A and E...

wats the OA??
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by Pooja Bhula » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:28 am
Well you can say 'the boulder kicked up a cloud of dust', it's not wrong but according to the logic of superficial parallelism A should be the answer. OA is E. I think we need an expert's explanation...
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by 2010gmat » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:46 am
whats the source of this question?? any OE ??
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by viju9162 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:12 am
I have gone through this topic in MGMAT SC guide. But, don't you think in this parallel structure ( If I can term), the last term is in the past tense(slightly changed direction).

In the stated MGMAT SC example, apart from the base verb, all other verbs are in different tense( but same tense). If in case, the MGMAT SC example would state like this:

'Ken travelled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learned about new culture".. then other verbs such as visiting, eating - would be in past tense.

This is my understanding. I would be eager to hear more meaningful explanation from experts :-).

Regards,
Viju
"Native of" is used for a individual while "Native to" is used for a large group
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by brick2009 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:32 am
Difference between A and E:

tense issue...

a: bumped...kicking and changed ---> shouldn't all the verbs be in same tense

e: bumped...kicked ...and changed.......-> it is here...

also...i don't see the need to apply parallelism rule for this sentence. . Main error is Tense error...secondary: is parallism.

Anyone concur with me???
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by 2010gmat » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:38 am
tense error -- i wont concur { dun wrry i am really poor when it comes to SC ;) }

i think main issue here is of parallelism....whether we want the second element as a modifier or a parallel element in the list....
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by gmatpill » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:57 am
I actually arrived at the answer E within 10 seconds without even considering the other answer choices.
How? Let me explain--it's actually pretty simple.

You are confusing parallelism with "-ING" verbs in the context of "phrase, main sentence" structures.
The galloping boulder bumped against the hillside, kicking up cloud of dust, and slightly changed direction.

A. kicking up cloud of dust
B. a cloud of dust is kicked up
C. a cloud of dust is kicking up
D. kicks up a cloud of dust
E. kicked up a cloud of dust

Step 1) Examine the sentence structure: I noticed there were a bunch of commas and then the key word "and"--indicating this is a list of stuff......a, b, and c.

Step 2) Know that with lists (a, b, and c) all three items MUST be consistent. If one is in past tense, then they all must be in past tense. If one is an -ING verb, then they all must be -ING verbs.

Step 3) Notice the non-underlined portion has PAST-tense verbs: "bumped" and "slightly changed"

Step 4) Know that the form of "kick" must be "kicked"---which only answer E has. So I'm pretty confident E is the answer. I mark it and move on.

All that happened within 10 seconds.

Now let's look at the first sentence you brought up:
'Ken travelled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture.'

Step 1) Notice the verb is "travelled"
Step 2) Notice there's a bunch of other verbs "visiting" "eating" "learning"---but wait a minute! These are -ING verbs!

What do we know about -ING verbs especially when they are located next to commas? They modify the SUBJECT of the main sentence---which is Ken.

Step 3) Flip the sentence so it's easier to read:
"Visiting historic sites, Ken travelled around the world."
"Eating native foods, Ken travelled around the world."
"Learning about new culture, Ken travelled around the world."

Step 4) Recognize that the -ING verbs are just descriptive phrases that describe Ken as he "travelled around the world."

This sentence structure is TOTALLY different from the other example where you have a list of A, B, and C!

Hope that helps!

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by 2010gmat » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:00 am
the confusion was whether the boulder kicked the dust of cloud or the act of boulder striking the hill kicked the cloud....

if a boulder can kick the dust of cloud then E is the answer.....else i wud still stick to A....
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by Birgit Anne » Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:36 pm
In my understanding as a non-native speaker I would say that it clearly all happened in sequence:

1) bumped against the hill
2) kicked up a cloud of dust

Even if the third part (and slightly changed direction) was not there, you can still answer with E.
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by capnx » Wed Dec 02, 2009 3:42 pm
always use the information given.

we have 3 verbs: bumped, kick_____, and changed...

given the position of the comma, it is most likely that the three verbs are parallel in that they are all predicates to the noun. "The bolder bumped... kicked... and changed..."

another clue is that A is missing an article
kicking up cloud of dust
usually we say "a cloud of dust" or "clouds of dust", but never "cloud of dust". So E is better
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by Pooja Bhula » Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:44 pm
capnx wrote:always use the information given.

we have 3 verbs: bumped, kick_____, and changed...

given the position of the comma, it is most likely that the three verbs are parallel in that they are all predicates to the noun. "The bolder bumped... kicked... and changed..."

another clue is that A is missing an article
kicking up cloud of dust
usually we say "a cloud of dust" or "clouds of dust", but never "cloud of dust". So E is better

Hey I am really sorry about the article, it is present in the original sentence, i did not type it, my mistake...sorry again...so you can not take that as a reason to eliminate the first answer...

Well I kind of agree with Zeke's list theory, that it should be parallel because it is a, b and c... but I am just wondering how to identify superficial parallelism...do you have more such examples to share so that we can see certain patterns and improve at identifying superficial and actual parallelism...or does anyone have similar examples?
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by Pooja Bhula » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:24 pm
hi guys I have found one more question on superficial parallelism...so lets see who gets it...



The Achaemenid empire of Persia reached the Indus Valley in the fifth century B.C., bringing the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and southern Indian alphabets.
A) the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and
B) the Aramaic script with it, and from which deriving both the northern and the
C) with it the Aramaic script, from which derive both the northern and the
D) with it the Aramaic script, from which derives both northern and
E) with it the Aramaic script, and deriving from it both the northern
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by capnx » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:29 pm
try this one:

As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
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by capnx » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:37 pm
Pooja Bhula wrote:hi guys I have found one more question on superficial parallelism...so lets see who gets it...



The Achaemenid empire of Persia reached the Indus Valley in the fifth century B.C., bringing the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and southern Indian alphabets.
A) the Aramaic script with it, from which was derived both northern and
B) the Aramaic script with it, and from which deriving both the northern and the
C) with it the Aramaic script, from which derive both the northern and the
D) with it the Aramaic script, from which derives both northern and
E) with it the Aramaic script, and deriving from it both the northern
always analyze sentences from the basics: agreements, pronoun ambiguities, tenses...

in A and B, "it" is referring to the empire, so logically "from which" is referring back to "it" and the "empire". but the languages aren't derived from the empire but Aramaic script. so A and B are out.

E "deriving from it" is not idiomatic

D's "derives both norther and southern" has agreement error: derives cannot agree with plural "northern and souther"

only C is left: with it (empire) the Aramaic script, from which (script) derive both A and B... no problems.
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