Sentence Correction

OK, let's take a look:

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

Step 1) Identify that there are 2 commas separating the 3 segments of the sentence. 1 segment starts with an -ING verb and another starts with "from which"

Step 2) Look closely at "from which was derived both northern and southern Indian alphabets."
Flip this around:
"Both northern and southern Indian alphabets derive from [it]"

Step 3) What is [it] referring to? It's referring to the empire. Is that what we want? NO! It makes more sense that an alphabet derives from a script.
So we have to flip the underlined portion so the word "script" is at the end.

Step 4) Identify that choices C, D, and E have the word "script" at the end of the phrase. With C/D being more relevant to what we are going for.

Step 5) Note that the phrase "both northern and southern" is plural--and must be followed with "derive" instead of "derives". Choice (C) has "derive" so (C) is the answer.

Mark (C) and move on.



Now for the other question capnx posted:

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

Step 1) Notice keyword "and" in the format: a, b, and c.
Since the last term c is not underlined, this will dictate what the other guys have to be.
"to predict sales" is what we have to follow.

Step 2) Identify a and b.
a: "to sell"
b: "to standardize"

Step 3) Only choices (B) and (E) have "to standardize"

Step 4) Note that the -ING phrase "taking advantage of off-season demand" is just a descriptive phrase describing the first part of the sentence. Also, the phrase in (E) "take advantage of" does not fit the "to take advantage of" pattern so it cannot be correct.

Step 5) Mark (B) and move on.

You should be able to arrive at the correct answer pretty quickly if you have the correct and efficient thought process.

Let me try this:

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

From the question, I understand " to sell" and "to predict" are parallel to each other. The word "and" is used as conjunction for the two sentences.

let's look into the other phrases.

(1) taking advantage of off-season demand,
(2) standardize its sizes and colors

They are further explaining the advantages to sell the shell fish year -round. Hence, if these two needs to be in parallel,
C satisfies the answer.

capnx : Let me know whether I am correct

for the "researcher" question, OA is B

Hi Zeke Lee, capnx,

Can you let me where I went wrong? I am trying to figure out ....

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

viju9162 wrote:Hi Zeke Lee, capnx,

Can you let me where I went wrong? I am trying to figure out ....

for C to work in that question, the parallel structure would have to be something like: "to sell... taking adv AND standardizing... and to predict..." so you have "to A... (x-ing and y-ing) modifying A, and B"

BUT as gmatpill pointed out, the structure is actually "to A, x-ing (modifying A), to B, and to C". so only choice B fits.
the hardest part is trying not to be tricked. look for the punctuation, the conjunctions, and the given verbs for clues to the parallel structure

Hey Capnx,
Your explanation was very good...ur really good at this..you have selected the correct answer...thanks...do you have any suggestions wrt material that I should use for practicing sentence correction? I am reffering to the archaemenid question...

Thank you very much capnx.

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

I think that there is nothing wrong with A, uses the idiomatic expression less ... than...and also maintains the parallel structure shoveling and seeking....

What is the OA ?

And my 2nd best option for this is... C because of less likely to be... and more likely to be...but this would mean that they are more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills or or to be seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

I would also go with A.

lunarpower wrote:

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

if you insert "a" between up and cloud in (a), then either (a) or (e) could be the answer to this question. you can't eliminate (a) on the basis of parallelism; the only reason (a) is incorrect is the lack of an article before "cloud".

the presence/absence of articles is something that, to my knowledge, has never been tested on the gmat before, and i doubt they're going to start anytime soon. (if they tested this, it would probably be seen as a cheap shot against native speakers of east asian languages, which generally don't have articles or anything else analogous to them.)

but in terms of parallelism, either (a) or (e) could make sense.

if kicking up a cloud of dust is the result of the first action, then (a) is better.

if the three actions are seen as independent, then (e) is better.

again, (e) is the uniquely correct answer in this case - but only because (a) lacks an article (again, a concept that is not tested on the gmat).

where'd you get this question? dubious source.

Hi i did mention that the article missing is a typing error from my end i clarified that to eveyone... n well this is manhattan practice material...so if the article is not missing how will you choose the answer...

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]

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 ?