one from paper test

[kris610]

While some propose to combat widespread illegal
copying of computer programs by attempting to
change people's attitudes toward pirating, others by
suggesting reducing software prices to decrease the
incentive for pirating, and still others by calling for
the prosecution of those who copy software illegally.
(A) by suggesting reducing software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
by calling
(B) by suggesting the reduction of software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
call
(C) suggest the reduction of software prices for
decreasing the incentive for pirating, and still
others call
(D) suggest the reduction of software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
by calling
(E) suggest reducing software prices to decrease the
incentive for pirating, and still others are calling

[subha_sri8]

IMO C: This question is about parallelism. Some propose, some suggest and some call.
All other choices distort this parallelism.

[kris610]

subha,
I followed the same reasoning and chose C, but apparently it is not the right answer.

I will give the right answer after a few more people try it.

[Mayur Sand]

IMO (E) is correct , please underline the incorrect part of sentence , it helps while reading trust me

[nikhilgirdhar]

IMO A
parallelism:
by attempting
by suggesting
by calling

[goelmohit2002]

Yes this is a OG question....was not able to understand why OG preferred E over C...

[dumb.doofus]

This is definitely E.

I think this must be a super example of parallelism.

Present tense: propose, suggest, are
verb-ing form: attempting, reducing, calling

[goelmohit2002]

This is definitely E.

I think this must be a super example of parallelism.

Present tense: propose, suggest, are
verb-ing form: attempting, reducing, calling

Thanks DD...what is wrong with C ?

[dumb.doofus]

This is definitely E.

I think this must be a super example of parallelism.

Present tense: propose, suggest, are
verb-ing form: attempting, reducing, calling

Thanks DD...what is wrong with C ?

Parallelism.. right? its not parallel as E is.. the parallel things in E that I have shown above.. C doesn't have those..
I mean that's all that came to my mind to eliminate C.

[goelmohit2002]

Parallelism.. right? its not parallel as E is.. the parallel things in E that I have shown above.. C doesn't have those..
I mean that's all that came to my mind to eliminate C.

But in C we have propose,....suggest...., call...

all looks to be parallel(atleast to me)....all present tense....

[dumb.doofus]

Parallelism.. right? its not parallel as E is.. the parallel things in E that I have shown above.. C doesn't have those..
I mean that's all that came to my mind to eliminate C.

But in C we have propose,....suggest...., call...

all looks to be parallel(atleast to me)....all present tense....

what about the rest? reduction needs to parallel attempting..

[tohellandback]

While some propose to combat widespread illegal
copying of computer programs by attempting to
change people's attitudes toward pirating, others by
suggesting reducing software prices to decrease the
incentive for pirating, and still others by calling for
the prosecution of those who copy software illegally.
(A) by suggesting reducing software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
by calling
(B) by suggesting the reduction of software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
call
(C) suggest the reduction of software prices for
decreasing the incentive for pirating, and still
others call
(D) suggest the reduction of software prices to
decrease the incentive for pirating, and still others
by calling
(E) suggest reducing software prices to decrease the
incentive for pirating, and still others are calling

IMO E
A and B are out of obvious reasons
C I rejected because of "reduction of software prices for
decreasing the incentive for pirating". to decrease would have been better.
D- because by calling is wrong in this context. you cannot combat widespread illegal copying of computer programs by calling for prosecution.

[goelmohit2002]

what about the rest? reduction needs to parallel attempting..

Yes Got it. Thanks.

[Stacey Koprince]

Received a PM asking me to respond, in particular regarding C vs. E.

We've got a few layers here.

While some propose to combat X by J, others by K, and still others by L.

It appears that J, K, and L need to be parallel, right? But that's not a complete sentence - there's no independent clause up there! So A is out, and we need a new basic structure for the sentence.

The "While" part isn't underlined, so we're going to have: "While some propose to combat X by J, others" no matter what. We need something to "close" that off - make an independent sentence - after the comma.

While I normally study every night, last night I went to a movie instead.

Something like that.

C, D, and E all start with "suggest" - so we have "While some <do X>, others suggest Y. That's a good start - the "others suggest Y" part can be our independent sentence.

Then, of course, we have two things still to come - some people suggest one thing and other people call for something else.

D gives us "While some propose to combat X by J, others suggest K, and still others by calling for L." Nope. That "comma and" means the final two (K and L) should be independent clauses. The third one (L) isn't. Dump D.

Here's where the trickiness comes in. Some people above have been saying that we're required to have parallelism in this circumstance. It is true that "and" is a parallelism marker. "And" also performs other functions in a sentence. A "comma and" set-up is used to indicate that we're trying to connect two independent clauses. Do those two clauses need to be totally parallel? No, actually.

I went to the store yesterday, and I am going to the pool today. Are "went" and "am going" parallel? Nope. Is that sentence okay? Yes.

You could also view it as: well, the two are parallel, because they both start with the same subject: I. Sure. But then C and E are both okay here from that perspective, because they both use "others" as the subject.

Bottom line: the two verbs (suggest and call / are calling) don't actually have to be parallel here. So we should basically ignore that split - it doesn't matter.

The other split we have is: "the reduction of software prices for decreasing the incentive" or "reducing software prices to decrease the incentive"

Why are people suggesting "the reduction of / reducing prices?" In order to decrease the incentive. E gets that meaning across - we suggest reducing prices in order to decrease the incentive.

What does C mean? I'm not even quite sure. "The reduction of" is awkward, sure - so let's change that to reducing. Others suggest reducing prices for decreasing the incentive. If I suggest reducing prices for something, it sounds like I'm going to say what it is I'm reducing, not why I'm reducing it: let's reduce the prices for computers. But that isn't what I want to say. I want to say why I want to reduce the prices: in order to decrease the incentive.

Overall, the distinction between choices C and E feels just a bit "fuzzier" than what I'm used to now on official problems. I think that's probably a consequence of the fact that this is from a (very old) paper test. I'm not sure this is the best one to study (at least in terms of answer C).

[goelmohit2002]

Overall, the distinction between choices C and E feels just a bit "fuzzier" than what I'm used to now on official problems. I think that's probably a consequence of the fact that this is from a (very old) paper test. I'm not sure this is the best one to study (at least in terms of answer C).

Hi Stacey,

This question is there in OG-10 too. Q160.