A migraine typically afflicts one side of the head, lasts for hours or

Hi all,

A migraine typically afflicts one side of the head, lasts for hours or days, and may recur as infrequently as once every other month or often, as daily.



The sentence says that a migraine does a few things:

a. it afflicts one side of the head,

b. it lasts for hours or days, and

c. it may recur:

i. either as infrequently as once every other month
ii. or as often as daily.



Error Analysis

This sentence has three errors:

1. The idiom used for the comparison is correct - "as infrequently as once every other month". However, the idiom used for the second error is not correct. The sentence uses the incomplete idiom "often as". We need "as" before that phrase to make the idiom complete.

2. This idiom error leads to parallelism error also. "as infrequently as once every other month" is not parallel to "often as".

3. Use of comma after "often" is incorrect. In the idiom "as X as", there is no comma.

PoE:

(A) as infrequently as once every other month or often, as: Incorrect for the reasons discussed above.

(B) as infrequently as once every other month or as often as: Correct. This choice uses the correct idiom for the second comparison and removes the comma also. By the way, this is the Official Answer

(C) infrequently, as often as once every other month, or often, like: Incorrect.
i. The modifier "as often as" is modifying "infrequently". These are two contrary terms that makes this choice non-sensical.
ii. Use of "like" is incorrect in this choice.

(D) infrequently, like once every other month, or often, like: Incorrect. Use of like is incorrect here.

(E) infrequently, like once every other month, or as often as: Incorrect.
i. Use of "like" is incorrect.
ii. "infrequently, like once every other month" is not parallel to "as often as".

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha.