Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after

Question

Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade,  when students can choose an either academic or a  vocational path.

A. when students can choose an either academic or a
B. after which students can either choose an academic or a
C. when students can either choose an academic or a
D. when students can choose either an academic or a
E. after which students can choose either from an academic or

Yuridias · Answer

"After "X", after which" combination does not really work, thus options B and E are eliminated.
Usage of article "an" in front of "either" is similarly wrong, hence A is removed too.
Since "either" relates to the type of path, not to an activity, option B should be eradicated as well. 
D is the one and only answer.

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CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

this question tests you on parallelism --

Option A - Incorrect

"choose an either academic or a vocational path" -- because of parallelism "an" is common to both parts of the construction 'either X or Y'.
the second part then would be "choose  an a  vocation path". Incorrect.

Option B and C - Incorrect

"either  choose an academic  or  a vocational path " -- not parallel.

Option D - Correct answer

"choose either  an academic  or  a vocational  path" -- perfectly parallel.

Option E - Incorrect

"choose either  from an academic  or  a vocational  path" -- not parallel.

NandishSS · Answer

veritasprep   Official Solution

The presence of the "either X or Y" construction should grab your attention immediately in this problem, and guide you directly to that decision point. With the "either X or Y" construction (and its siblings, "both X and Y," "not only X but also Y," etc.), the X and Y portions of the construction must be parallel. And a great way to test that is to stop reading at the word "either" and start reading again with the first word after "or" and determine whether that is a complete thought. If you start with A and perform that test, you'd have:

(A) Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade, when students can choose an a vocational path.

Since the sentence would have two adjacent articles ("a" and "an") it's clearly incorrect. If you hold the others to the same test:

(B) Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade,after which students can a vocational path. (Clearly wrong - it's missing the word "choose")

(C) Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade,when students can a vocational path. (Clearly wrong - it's missing the verb "choose")

(D) Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade, when students can choose a vocational path. (Nothing wrong here!)

(E) Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after ninth grade,after which students can choose vocational path. (Wrong - it's missing the article "a")

Therefore, choice D is correct. Note that you can also look at the problem simply testing the either X or Y construction to make sure that X and Y are parallel, but the technique shown above has proven to be a very quick and easy way for students to perform this test.

coldbrew · Answer

Does the use of "which" in B and E make those answer choices incorrect because the which makes what follows a non essential modifier?

VerbalBot · Answer

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Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after

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Across much of Western Europe, compulsory education ends after

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