Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the hu

Hi there,

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.

There is no problem in the parallelism of the entities in the list because all the three entities are noun entities are grammatically parallel.

Yes, “sleeping on the job” is a gerund – a noun that denotes an action. However, “sickness” and “fatigue” are not Concrete Nouns. They are “Abstract Nouns”.

By definition, Concrete Nouns are those nouns that are perceivable through five senses whereas the Abstract Nouns are those nouns that can only be experienced or felt.

There is no problem in a gerund being parallel to other abstract noun phrases. Frankly speaking, we need not even get to these grammatical complications of these entities.



Remember, this is an official question. These entities, at least “sickness” and “sleeping on the job”, are in the non-underlined portion of the sentence. Hence, rather than asking whether usage is correct or not, we must learn such usages from these sentences as they ARE correct.

Also, “raising production…” is not a verb. Note that the verb-ing word by itself cannot be a continuous/progressive verb. It must be preceded by such helping verb as is/am/are/was/were etc. to function as a verb. For example:

1. I am writing a letter.
2. He was playing soccer.
3. They are going to school.

Hence, in the correct answer choice, there is just one verb – “have reduced”.

e-gmat concept Parallelism – Helpful Tips lists out the entities that can be parallel and that cannot be parallel.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Grammatical Constructions + Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• The “comma + and” (oxford comma) construction is used to join the last element of a list of more than two other elements.
• If a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction.
• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the last element in a list - "fatigue among shift workers" - with the other elements - "sickness" and "sleeping on the job"; please remember, the “comma + and” (oxford comma) construction is used to join the last element of a list of more than two other elements. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase "have raised", rendering it awkward and redundant; this phrase is needlessly wordy, as "have" can be deleted without a loss of clarity.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join the last element in a list - "fatigue among shift workers" - with the other elements - "sickness" and "sleeping on the job"; please remember, the “comma + and” (oxford comma) construction is used to join the last element of a list of more than two other elements.

C: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the “comma + and” (oxford comma) construction to join the last element in a list - "fatigue among shift workers" - to the rest of the list. Moreover, the sentence formed by this answer choice correctly uses a comma to join the earlier elements in the list. Further, Option C avoids the tense error seen in Option E, as it includes "fatigue among shift workers" in the list of nouns acted upon by the present perfect tense verb "have reduced", rather than introducing a new verb to act upon it, such as"was lowered" in Option E. Besides, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

D: The sentence formed by this answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join two elements in a list - "sickness" and "sleeping on the job"; remember, if a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction.

E: The sentence formed by this answer choice incorrectly uses a comma to join two elements in a list - "sickness" and "sleeping on the job"; remember, if a list contains only two elements, they must be joined by a conjunction. Further, Option E incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was lowered" to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past. Additionally, Option E uses the passive voice construction "fatigue among shift workers was lowered", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Comma Splices" and "Run-ons" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~6 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Why is "A" incorrect? Isn't the parallelism correct in that option - "Have reduced" and "have raised"
Whereas in option "c" it says - "have reduced" and "while raising"

Grouping is wrong. "reduced" is attached to sickness, fatigue but "raised" is attached to production efficiency. You have to use a contrast keyword. "and" is not contrast.

Just one step forward- The third factor of the reduced series namely 'fatigue' should be separated by a comma to indicate that the series is going to end. Only C and E are eligible contenders. Between them, E is a jumble of unparallel and ungrammatical active and passive voice mix. C survives

Concept tested: Parallelism, “items in a list”
Difficulty level: Hard
Illustration: When we provide a list of items using commas we must maintain the
following structure.
A, B, C and D.
This is a proper parallel structure concerning items in a list, and this structure
needs to be maintained in a clause. Another thing of importance in this sentence
is the contrast that is presented.
This sentence says that “shift work equations” has reduced some stuffs but raised some other stuff. So using “and” to connect this two
relationship affects the meaning of the sentence.
In A, parallel structure is brokenusing the sudden “have”, “and item in the list” construction is not maintained.
According to “item in the list” the construction could be “A has reduced X, Y and Z,but has raised P, Q and R.
So we definitely need “and” before “fatigue among shift
workers”
This concept eliminates A and B.
D uses redundant construction “reduced” + “lowered”, which could also act as a fatal double negative.
E breaks voice parallelism.
We can’t suddenly introduce a passive voice in a list construction where other items are in active voice.
C is the correct answer which maintains “item in thelist” and introduces the contrast using “while”.

How to ***** is A no parallel ? Seriously, answers like this are killing me.

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job,fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.

Perfectly parallel

Ok, let me try and break this down for you.

THE TRICK HERE : whenever you see a comma(,) before 'and' then it is a list in the form of x,y, and z and you have to make parallel all three x and y and z.

Thus we have to parallel have reduced [sickness] [sleeping], and [fatigue] - parallel nouns while raising the efficiency.

Therefore C must be the correct answer.

I really hope this helps you

First figure out which ones are parallel. recently implemented XYZ has reduced three things
First list which has 3 items
a) sickness
b) sleeping
c) fatigue.

and increased one thing a) productivity.- Second list with only one item

Three items in the first list have to be parallel, which means there should be "and" prior to fatigue because that is the last item in the first list.
Now let's see the answer choices
(A) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
this choice is incorrect because it assumes productivity as part of the first list.


(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
This choice is incorrect because it assumes raised productivity as part of the first list.

(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
This choice is correct as it correctly adds "and" prior to fatigue adn that closes the first list. while raising correctly describes the second part/effect
of the xyz implementation

(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
This choice is incorrect because of 2 things a) lowered is redundant as we already have reduced. b) there is no "and" in front of fatigue

(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising
This choice is incorrect because lowered is redundant.

Hope that helps

I get your same question.. In this sentence the three factors can't be parallel following the MGMAT rule.

Is it allowed use two different verb tense in two parallel clauses? have reduced... and raising ?!?!

C is the right answer.

construction is of the form: have reduced A, B, and C while raising

E is wrong because the word lowered is redundant.

Yes, the following are accurate parallelism rules:
Simple Gerunds cannot be parallel to Action Nouns.
Complex Gerunds can be parallel to Action Nouns.
Simple Gerunds cannot be parallel to Complex Gerunds.

In this example, none of these three have been violated. The three parallel items in the list are sickness, sleeping on the job, and fatigue. "Sleeping on the job" is definitely a simple gerund phrase which cannot parallel to action nouns, but "sickness" and "fatigue" are not action nouns, so we are safe.

It is true that you should avoid making action and concrete nouns parallel. In this sentence, "sleeping on the job" has an action element to it, but the other nouns are not concrete nouns. Concrete nouns refer to things, people, places and time periods/events. "Sickness" and "fatigue" are are abstract nouns - a type of noun that refers to something with which a person cannot physically interact, i.e. concepts, ideas, experiences, states of being, feelings, etc.). There is no restriction of making simple gerunds parallel with abstract nouns.

KW

My doubt is ,:

1. While is a dependent clause marker , so where si the caluse after it ?

thought I could arrive at the anwer choic c by implementing the rules of parallelism.

Hi,

I am unclear about the sentence structure in this question.

Recently implemented “shift-work equations” based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.

Meaning:
Shift-work equations have been recently implemented. They are based on studies on the human sleep cycle.
According to the question stem they have reduced 3 things:
-sickness
-sleeping on the job
-fatigue among shift workers

And these equations have raised production efficiency

Error Analysis:
1. SV pair is correct: equations-have
2. Verb is in correct tense.
3. Modifiers are properly placed
4. Parallelism : 3 entities which have been reduced have been joined with a "," & "and" coming together- thus the list has some error.

POE:
We need and to correctly connect the list without a comma before it. C and E take care of this. E has redundancy issue hence is rejected.

Thus correct choice is C.

My question is about the "while raising" part. I understand it cannot be parallel with previous list because it brings in a contrast. But what is the structure of "raising" here...? Is raising a verb-ing modifier which modifies the effect of the previous action of reducing 3 items? It can't be a verb of the subject equations because if we look at it like this that equations have done 2 things: reduced and raised? "raising" does not go with that. Thus I got confused in this step and while marking the answer was debating between A and C. What am I not understanding?

Thanks!

Hi Purnima,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

Yes, "while" works as a dependent clause marker ONLY WHEN it is followed by a Subject-Verb pair. When it is not, then it does works as a dependent clause marker because it is not followed by any clause.

Words such as "while, because, after, before, although" etc MAY or MAY NOT be followed by an SV pair. Depending on the structure of the sentence, we need to decide whether these words are acting as a dependent marker in the sentence or not.

In this official sentence, "while" is not working as a dependent marker because it is not followed by an SV pair.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi starry9,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

Choice A is certainly incorrect because the list of three things that the "shift-work equations" have reduced are not connected properly by a marker or proper conjunction.

Now let's talk about Choice C. In this choice, while is NOT presenting contrast. If you analyze all the effects of the "shift-work equations", they are all positive effects. Yes, a few things have reduced, and something has increased. However, all these effects are positive. Hence, we do not have a contrast. Actually, "while" here presents simultaneity of action. Two things happened together by implementing "shift-work equations". For example:

I tripped while walking.
My sister finished cooking while talking to me on the phone.

Now let's talk about the role of "raising". This word here is a verb-ing noun, commonly known as gerund.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Doesn't the comma before the "and" suggest the last item is an Indempendent Clause?

I thought the "and" in the end of a list could not have a comma before it, otherwise it would suggest a new clause would start from there.