OG Verbal Review SC #24

[tonebeeze]

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.

a. in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
b. in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
c. partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
d. partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
e. partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

OA: E


I went with answer choice B in an attempt to remain parallel "partly because" with "partly because." However, the correct answer choice introduced the infinitive "to acquire", which threw my off. Any advice?

[VivianKerr]

Hi tonebreeze,

You are correct to look for Parallelism, so I too eliminated it down to C, D, and E. The GMAT loves to test infinitive/participle verb usage. My advice is to always be on the lookout for a secondary error, and keep the parallelism going through all the words of the clause.

The second-half of the sentence reads:

"partly because crossbreeding is said to provide..."

PARTLY BECAUSE...NOUN...PREDICATE VERB (present tense)....INFINITIVE....

So ideally we'll need a predicate verb and/or an infinitive in the first half. Only (E) is fully parallel. "their steers acquiring" is awkwardly worded and not fully parallel.

[Target2009]

+1 to E