A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a

ExpertsGlobal5

my doubt is w.r.t this phrase- ''government is doing too much and has become too powerful'' it is an independent clause preceded by ''saying''. However ''saying'' modifies the preceding clause before the comma.

structure of the sentence ''- modified clause, ing verbal + independent clause -'' I have not come across such a construction before.

usually ing verbal is followed by a noun phrase and not an independent clause

That's not what is happening here.
"Is doing" is just a verb, in what's known as the present continuous tense (IS/ARE + ___ING).

This tense is used for actions that are ongoing in the timeframe of the sentence itself (which must be the present!).


Please note the contrast with the so-called present tense, which does not indicate that an ACTION is currently ongoing. Actions in the present tense are typical / habitual actions performed by the subject. E.g., Grandmothers in that culture repair clothes for their families —> This isn't necessarily happening in the exact timeframe of the narration, but it's something that grandmothers REGULARLY do in the culture described.

The present tense for verbs describing STATES, on the other hand, does indicate that whatever state obtains right now (at the time of narration).
E.g., Fuel prices are high as a result of several effects of the Russia-Ukraine war. (Gas prices are high RIGHT NOW.)
There's no present continuous tense for state verbs. E.g., it's not possible to write "Gas prices are being high..."

By the way—Just to make sure you understand properly, the parallel structures in this sentence are the two VERBS:
is doing too much
AND
has become too powerful.

Hello himanshu0123,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here "saying" is a reporting verb - a verb used to refer to the act of relaying information; the independent clause "government is doing too much..." refers to the information that is being conveyed.

Thus, "saying" modifies the previous clause to refer to a subordinate action of "denounce", and "government is doing too much..." modifies "saying" to convey what "they" - the people - are saying.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

RonTargetTestPrep GMATGuruNY MartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun - This is what (a) says

A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e.,
they denounce the big government
while at the same time
supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

Is "while at the same time" an indicator for an upcoming clause (similar to whenever, wherever, while, whoever , after , before, untill ....) ?

If so, shouldn't there be a subject in the pink bit specifically ?

I don't see a subject in the pink at all.

"while at the same time" IS NOT A PARALLELISM indicator for sure but "while at the same time" is an indicator for an upcoming clause per my understanding.

Hello jabhatta2,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "while at the same time supporting..." is a present participle phrase that modifies the preceding clause; thus, it does not have its own subject, as such, rather it acts upon the subject of the preceding clause ("they" in this case).

Such a construction conveys that the subject of the clause took the action referred to by the participle, but since participles are not active verbs, we cannot form a complete sentence by directly acting upon the subject with the participle; we need to an active form of the verb.

In this case, it would be "They support many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment."

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

Not sure I agree

A present participle phrase begins with a VERB ING. The phrase in pink DOES NOT.

Also, present participle phrases BEGIN with a comma.

In the case of (A), the comma is present prior to the pink --> but the comma BELONGS to the non-essential modifier : saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful

RonTargetTestPrep - could you assist please.

A VERBLESS clause is a clause in which the subject and verb are omitted but implied.
The implied verb is typically a form of TO BE (is, are, was, were, has been, have been, etc.).

An OA from GMAC:
Although eradicated in the United states, polio continues elsewhere.
Here, the implied subject for the verbless clause in blue is POLIO.
Conveyed meaning:
Although [it has been] eradicated in the United states, polio continues elsewhere.
The words in brackets are omitted but understood, with it standing in for polio.



Many people...denounce big government, while at the same time supporting many specific government programs.
Here, the implied subject for the verbless clause in blue is MANY PEOPLE.
Conveyed meaning:
Many people...denounce big government, while at the same time [they are] supporting many specific government programs.
The words in brackets are omitted but understood, with they standing in for many people.
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Hi egmat, I'm unclear what parts of the sentence are parallel.

The people hold both conservative and liberal views. Therefore, shouldn't the 2 contrasting ideas "denounce" and "support" be parallel?

I understood it as follows:

A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views;
i.e., they denounce big government,
saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful,
while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

My analysis of this question -

(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting

"they" logically refers to people ✅

"saying government is..." & "supporting many specific" are both modifying the clause "they denounce the big government" and logically parallel ✅

Option (A) looks good. Let's keep it.

(B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time

"denounce big government" & "supporting at the same time..." is not logically parallel.

i) "denounce big government" → verb + noun (object of verb)
ii) "supporting at the same time..." → verb-ing modifier

Can safely eliminate Option (B).

(C) they denounce big government, say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time

Seems to be a parallelism error here.

i) "they denounce" → noun + verb
ii) "say" → noun + verb
iii) "they support" → noun + verb

Why can't we have a structure "they say", they "denounce" while "they support"

For that to work, we would need a conjunction between them to make it work. Something like "they say.. and denounce... while they support..." ✅

With the above statement reason, can eliminate Option (C) safely.

(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting

We do not have an independent clause here.

We do not have a verb for any of the subjects here.

Can eliminate Option (D)

(E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time[/quote]

Similar error as Option (D).

Can eliminate Option (E)

Answer is Option (A)!

Takeaways -

i) "while" can indicate parallelism even though it is not a part of FANBOYS.
ii) A more technical takeaway, in Option (A) "saying" is actually a "noun modifier" not a "verb-ing modifier" since it is followed by a clause. It actually represents the usage of noun+noun modifier.

"saying" + (that) + "government is doing...."

Leading us to our final takeaway,

iii) "that" can be eliminated when it is used as a connector.

"Bobby Axelrod diluted the stake that he was going to give to Wendy" ✅

"Bobby Axelrod diluted the stake he was going to give to Wendy" ✅

Side Note - While re-reading the question the "while" & "at the same time" stood out to me as redundancy but after going through the forums, re-reading the question, I would not eliminate solely on that.

Do let me know if you disagree with any of my points. Always open to become better!

Thanks for reading!

Hi Experts,

AndrewN GMATNinja @GMATNinjaTwoMartyTargetTestPrep AjiteshArun RonTargetTestPrep KarishmaB

I am aware of the other errors in Option (B) but is the usage of the clause "they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful" incorrect?

Also, in my above post would is takeaway (ii) okay?

Thanks!

To join two independent clauses, we need either a semi colon or a 'comma + coordinating conjunction.'
We don't join independent clauses with dashes.
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A recent poll indicates that many people in the United States hold a combination of conservative and liberal political views; i.e., they denounce big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment.

Option Elimination -
Here are the different usages of "while."
While + subject + verb: This is the most common usage of "while" to introduce a contrasting clause. For example: "While I was studying, my friend was watching TV."
While + gerund or noun phrase: "While" can be followed by a gerund (verb form ending in -ing) or a noun phrase. For example: "While running, he tripped and fell." or "While on vacation, they visited several museums."
While + prepositional phrase: "While" can be followed by a prepositional phrase. For example: "While on the bus, she read a book."
While + adverb or adverbial phrase: "While" can also be followed by an adverb or adverbial phrase. For example: "While quietly, she entered the room."

I shared these usages (other than to familiarize ourselves) to share a perspective that you please don't get stuck on the "while" issue. In this case, we can conveniently fill in the verb from the earlier clause (same subject and a verb of being), which means "they denounce big government while at the same time (they are) supporting many specific government programs for health care, education, and the environment. But the other options have much more serious issues. "While" is used as a conjunction to convey contrast; as long as it does that, we are good. There is no rule that "while" has to have a clause only after it.

(A) they denounce the big government, saying government is doing too much and has become too powerful, while at the same time supporting - ok

(B) they denounce big government- they say that government is doing too much and has become too powerful-but supporting at the same time - Before "but," we have a clause, and after "but," we have a phrase. Wrong.

(C) they denounce big government, say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful, while they support at the same time - They denounce (verb), say (verb) - The intent here is not that they denounce and they say - the intent here is to describe adverbially how they denounce the government. Moreover, even if you look from another perspective, we can't miss out on "they" in one and use it in the other two.

(D) while they denounce big government, saying that government is doing too much and has become too powerful, at the same time supporting - There is no independent clause here after the semicolon (;) which is used to join two independent clauses.

(E) while they are denouncing big government- they say that government is doing too much and it has become too powerful-supporting at the same time - There is no independent clause here after the semicolon (;), which is used to join two independent clauses. The part between the dashes is just additional information.