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.
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B is the best answer
1. it maintains parallelism
2.c,d,e use like but like is not used for examples .... and A violates parallelism...
correct me if i am wrong
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What's the difference between "infrequently" and "frequently" anyway?

I was looking for that word in the answer choices but didn't find one. Any thoughts?

"as infrequently as" - I haven't encountered this idiom. Sucks to be a non-native.

Hi Shraddha

Couldn't understand why "infrequently, like once every other month" is not parallel to "as often as".
Please elaborate.. Thanks

Hi there,
"Frequent" means regular. "Infrequent" is just the opposite. It means "irregular". If we say that something takes place "infrequently", we mean that that action does not place regularly.

Now the migraine sentence here presents any one of the two possible states of the recurrence of the pain:
a. "either it occurs as infrequently" as once every other month". So migriane may recur once every alternate month. This means that recirrence is not regular. It happens in long intervals. That's why the sentence uses the adverb "infrquently".
b. "or as often as daily". So migraine pain may recur everyday. Now this is frequent as this action may take place everday.

Don't feel disheartened if you are unable to understand anythung. It is not possible to master any language 100%, not even our native language. Every language is changing everyday with new omissions and commissions in words, their usages, so on and so forth.
Post your doubts on forums like these and increase your knowledge

Hope this helps.
Shraddha
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Hi Vaibhav,

According to the logical intended meaning of the sentence, the migraine may recur either X or Y. Here the entities X and Y should be parallel. Now per choice E, about which you have a doubt, these two entities are:
X = infrequently, like once every other month
Y = as often as

Grammatically, entity X is incorrect anyway because use of “like” is incorrect here. Structurally also, these two entities are not parallel. The second entity uses the correct idiom “as often as daily” which is not parallel “infrequently, like once every other month.” We need the same idiomatic structure to make the entities parallel. And in this context, it is absolutely possible to make these two entities structurally identical as evident in Choice B, the correct answer.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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I chose B for parallelism and clear concise structure

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 as often as daily.

Can anyone please explain, why like is incorrect? When is it okay to write like?

how long should this question take me to answer correctly?

This is an easy question (check the stats in the firs post), so ideally you should solve it under 2-minutes. Currently the average time for correct answer is 01:06 minutes, so I'd say anything around this is OK.
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Hey valeriacastro11

This is a pretty easy question. Anything upwards of 30 seconds is too long if you're targeting, or are at, a V40+. That said, don't be alarmed if you're not there yet. Take your time working on the basics. You'll be there soon enough.

Best,

Abhishek
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