Any theory of grammar should answer three basic questions: what consti

Question

Any theory of grammar should answer three basic questions: what constitutes knowledge of grammar, how  it is acquired, and how it is put to use .

(A) it is acquired, and how it is put to use

(B) is knowledge of grammar acquired and how put to use

(C) it was acquired and put to use

(D) the acquisition of it is put to use

(E) the knowing of it is acquired and how it is put to use

How can OA be correct?
It violates the basic question structure. IMO -
how it is acquired - wrong
How is it acquired - correct

Wwdrok1 · Answer

I did not get the OA either because I was focusing too much on the structure yet the meaning should take precedence over structure. I was looking for what constitutes (verb), how (verb), and how (verb) and that only gives me B, which is awkward at the best.

But to answer your question, I think specific to this question, since "how is it" is not an option, we can pick the best "alternative" - "how it is". Also, I think "how it is" is correctly used because there is no question mark. For example:
I want to know  how hard this is  vs  How hard is this?

jitgoel · Answer

For me, it directly reflects to Theory of Grammer.
and all should be simple present tense.
which Option 'A' is clearly saying.

+1 kudos please

catfreak · Answer

But parallelism is very important and here all the 3 after colon should be questions

what constitute...
how is...
how is...

Experts opinions

IMO -B

goodyear2013 · Answer

Any theory of grammar should answer three basic questions: what constitutes knowledge of grammar, how  it is acquired, and how it is put to use .
it is acquired, and how it is put to use
is knowledge of grammar acquired and how put to use
it was acquired and put to use
the acquisition of it is put to use
the knowing of it is acquired and how it is put to use

Hi, I want to know the reason why other choices are wrong, please.

daagh · Answer

It is basically a question of proper list parallelism and sentence construction. What follow the colon should all be in the same format.

A. it is acquired, and how it is put to use---  what constitutes, how it is acquired and how it is put --- each of the arms is a clause and all are perfectly parallel.
 
B. is knowledge of grammar acquired and how put to use—  How put to use is not a clause, but a phrase. The parallelism is broken

C. it was acquired and put to use --  use of past tense is wrong for a universal question such as this

D. the acquisition of it is put to use –  Conveniently flouts the manner of acquisition, thus breaking //ism

E. the knowing of it is acquired and how it is put to use ---  knowing of is unidiomatic

comingup · Answer

You can use daagh's methodology/reasoning but I think that there is a much simpler way to look at the question. Take note of the bolded portion of the question below. The underlined portion of the list that you are correcting has to contain  two  out of the  three  basic questions. Looking at the answer choices in this way first is the easiest way to do this problem in my opinion.

Any theory of grammar should answer  three basic questions : what constitutes knowledge of grammar, how  it is acquired, and how it is put to use

it is acquired, and how it is put to use  the correct answer/in test conditions I'd mark that this answer choice is possible and quickly check the others to make sure it is the best choice 
is knowledge of grammar acquired and how put to use  2/3 basic questions! but does not make grammatical sense - wrong 
it was acquired and put to use  2/3! but it links the last two questions together and breaks parallelism - wrong 
the acquisition of it is put to use  links the last two together in the same fashion as above - wrong! 
the knowing of it is acquired and how it is put to use  2/3 but it is not grammatically correct - wrong

Abdul29 · Answer

Any theory of grammar should answer three basic questions: what constitutes knowledge of grammar, how  it is acquired, and how it is put to use.

A) it is acquired, and how it is put to use  Correct 
B) is knowledge of grammar acquired and how put to use  Wordy 
C) it was acquired and put to use  Why past tense? breaks parallelism 
D) the acquisition of it is put to use  Unparallel 
E) the knowing of it is acquired and how it is put to use  Wordy

smashbiker84 · Answer

Very poor , sloppy n disdainful question..GMAT will never give such questions..better to throw this out . request moderators to blacklist such poor sources. ,'IT' is very ambiguous as it could refer to theory , knowledge or grammar.

dipanjan_1988 · Answer

POE:

A) Lets hold on to it for a while
B) Not parallel. Plus extra usage of knowledge is not necessary
C) Not parallel
D) Changes the meaning
E) wordy

So A

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

This isn't a perfect sentence, but A is definitely the right answer. (BTW, the source is Kaplan GMAT 800.) It's absolutely fine to have a pronoun with more than one possible antecedent as long as the meaning is clear. In this case, "knowledge of grammar" is the only thing that it makes sense to acquire.

The order "how it is acquired" is actually correct, because it's not an actual question but something we want to know. (We say "I want to know how you are doing," not "I want to know how are you doing.") The interrogative pronouns (what/how) that start each item are parallel.

chesstitans · Answer

this question is from Kaplan advanced 800.
A is much better than E b/c of the possessive pronoun "its". Ones cannot say knowledge belongs to grammar. On the other hand, A is fine if it is left alone.

aaba · Answer

B,C,D are out b/c of ambiguous pronoun "it"
E is wrong b/c of "its"
A is left.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The three basic questions asked of any theory of grammar need to have parallel structures in the sentence. The original option is not perfect but it is parallel: each question begins with an interrogative pronoun (what or how) and contains a verb in the present tense. The fact that the first verb is active and the other two are passive makes the parallel less than ideal but not technically wrong. Choices (C) and (D) are not parallel; each breaks away from the structure of the first question, what constitutes knowledge. (B) is parallel at first, albeit wordy, but breaks the pattern with the odd and how put to use. (E) is incorrect because it adds its without clarifying what the pronoun refers to. Even if we can assume that its refers to grammar, the use of the pronoun in this instance makes little sense. (A) remains.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Any theory of grammar should answer three basic questions: what consti

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