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09 Sep 2014, 09:34
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Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!
Difficulty:
5%
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Question Stats:
85% (01:05) correct
15%
(01:11)
wrong
based on 161
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A seminal work for contemporary feminists, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex adopts a tone that is often scientific, sometimes contentious, and always authoritative.
A) adopts a tone that is often scientific, sometimes contentious, and always authoritative
B) adopts a frequently scientific and sometimes contentious tone that is always authoritative
C) adopts a tone often scientific, sometimes contentious, that is always authoritative
D) uses the adoption of an often scientific tone, sometimes contentious, that is always authoritative
E) uses the adoption of a tone that is often scientific, is sometimes contentious, and always authoritative
A) adopts a tone that is often scientific, sometimes contentious, and always authoritative
B) adopts a frequently scientific and sometimes contentious tone that is always authoritative
C) adopts a tone often scientific, sometimes contentious, that is always authoritative
D) uses the adoption of an often scientific tone, sometimes contentious, that is always authoritative
E) uses the adoption of a tone that is often scientific, is sometimes contentious, and always authoritative
09 Sep 2014, 15:49
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gabriel87
Dear gabriel87,
I'm happy to help.
Frankly, I don't think this is a very well written question. It is not as tight as a good SC question should be. There is absolutely nothing wrong with (A) --- correct parallelism, with three elements of the form [adverb][adjective]. Furthermore, (A) has a good flow --- it "sounds" like a well-written sentence.
The trouble is: there's really nothing all that wrong with (B). Remember that parallelism is a structure that is based on logic as much as on grammar. Logically, we may feel that emphasizing what the book "always" is should stand apart logically from what it "frequently" or "sometimes" is. Such logic would fully justify the departure from three-fold parallelism seen here. This is also a very well-written sentence, and nothing is really wrong with it.
Admittedly, (C) is a bit awkward in the radical departure from parallelism --- no combination of logic would justify that. Choices (D) & (E), with that distended monstrosity "uses the adoption of," are wholly irredeemable. So we have three 100% unambiguously wrong answers in these last three, and two answers that could reasonably be considered correct.
It is as if the author of this particular question has fallen in the trap about which I warn so many students: parallelism is not pure mechanical. It's not purely a matter of lining up everything that is in the same grammatical form. Logic is irreducibly part of parallelism and cannot be neglected in any analysis of parallelism. Here's an article about parallelism, with three high quality GMAT SC practice questions:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/parallelis ... orrection/
My friend, if you were stuck between (A) and (B), the problem was not at all your understanding of GMAT SC. The problem is in the very construction of the question.
BTW, you may find this review illuminating as well:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/princeton- ... ok-review/
Does all this make sense?
Mike
