Financier wrote:
The hognose snake puts on an impressive bluff, hissing and rearing back,
broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but having no dangerous fangs and no venom, eventually, if its pursuer is not cowered by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
- broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but having no dangerous fangs and no venom,
- broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom,
- broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigning repeated strikes, but it has no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
- broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
- broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
The question has been discussed many times, but one point is unclear for me:
MGMAT instructor said that the meaning of the sentence clearly indicates that the forms of
broaden and
feign should be parallel to "hissing and rearing", since all of those things are actions that occur during the "impressive bluff". But why? How these 2 words define parallelism? For me, these 2 words should be paralleled to each other, without influencing other words, which have their own parallelism story... And it's way better to say
broadens... So, for me structure in B is preferrable... Please anybody explain.
Thanks!
Jozu wrote:
The hognose snake puts on an impressive bluff, hissing and rearing back, broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but, having no dangerous fangs and no venom, eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
(A) broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but, having no dangerous fangs and no venom,
(B) broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom,
(C) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigning repeated strikes, but it has no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
(D) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
(E) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes, but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and
FIRST OF ALL THIS IS NOT A TEST OF PARALLELISM. FORGET ABOUT MAKING PHRASES OR CLAUSES PARALLEL. YOU CANNOT DO IT FROM ANY GIVEN OPTION. EITHER A,B,C,D,E.
This one is quite a funky one, Checking for parallelism is a forlorn exercise in this sentence.
The hognose snake
PUTS on an impressive bluff,
hissing and rearing back,
BROADENS the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, FEIGNS repeated strikes, but, having no dangerous fangs and no venom, eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
Since
hissing and rearing back is bound by commas on either side therefore it is used to provide extra information, it can be seen as a parenthetical term and can be ignored.
NOW If this was a test of parallelism then PUTS, BROADENS, FEIGNS have better parallelism.
BUT if
hissing and rearing back are included then in that case PUTS, HISSING, BROADENING, FEIGNING cannot be parallel.
(Correct option C uses these verb forms)So
PARALLELISM is NOT BEING TESTED in this sentence.
In this sentence knowledge of conjunctions and their rules is being tested.
Every option except option C is incorrect because they do not have a clear subject after the conjunction "but"
(A) broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes,
but, having no dangerous fangs and no venom, eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
WRONG:- subject missing.
after "but" there is no subject in the second clause
(B) broadens the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes,
but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
WRONG:- subject missing.
after "but" there is no subject in the second clause
(C) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigning repeated strikes,
but it has no dangerous fangs and no venom, and eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
CORRECT:-Has a proper subject "it" in the second clause. "it" refers to the hognose snake
(D) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does and feigns repeated strikes,
but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
WRONG:- subject missing.
after "but" there is no subject in the second clause
(E) broadening the flesh behind its head the way a cobra does, feigning repeated strikes,
but with no dangerous fangs and no venom, and eventually, if its pursuer is not cowed by the performance, will fall over and play dead.
WRONG:- subject missing.
after "but" there is no subject in the second clause
THE CORRECT ANSWER IS C