jabhatta2 wrote:
Thank you so much
ReedArnoldMPREP RonTargetTestPrepThe challenge is to understand when do the rules of
parallelism apply and/or when does
boolean logic apply
Let me explain
In a simple sentence like this
Quote:
Original - I drink Sweet tea or coffee
I believe this sentence would be wrong because there are 3 interpretations
(Interpretation 1) I drink (Sweet tea) or (coffee)
(Interpretation 2) I drink Sweet (tea or coffee)
(Interpretation 3) I drink Sweet tea or (Sweet) coffee
But if i understand, this sentence for some strange reason is okay.
Quote:
Original - I drink Sweet No Tea or Coffee
Why - because for some reason,
boolean logic takes over and we are supposed to assume, there is only one interepretation of this sentence.
I think its because of the presence of the "No" that somehow we are supposed to assume -
boolean logic is in play whereas in the first sentence above --
boolean logic is NOT in play
OR
Perhaps, both my sentences are okay
Not sure
I'll be totally honest, I don't fully understand what we're even discussing anymore, and it doesn't seem like a particularly fruitful GMAT discussion. We're into hypotheticals whose connection to the real test are vague, exceedingly rare, and possibly non-existent.
"I drink Sweet tea or coffee" is a perfectly correct sentence and would mean "I drink: (sweet tea) and (coffee)." But this is because 'sweet tea' is a very well known drink.
So take something like "I like pretty castles and flowers." You're dancing around 'whether an adjective can be the main crux of a root phrase' and 'is 'no' an adjective and what does it describe when part of parallelism?'
To the first I'd say, "probably? but carefully and rarely and it's certainly not what I see often on the test." To the second I'd say 'no, negations like 'no,' 'never,' or 'none' (and words like 'every,' 'all,' or 'each') are inherently Boolean.
So "I like pretty castles and flowers," are the 'flowers' pretty? Or just the castle? I don't know--and I have a hard time thinking of an official question that tests something like this.
But "I prefer no castles or flowers" is clear, because 'no' is not an adjective like 'pretty.'
If I really, really wanted to say "I want (no x) or (y)," I think it would help to put the negative *second*, maybe? "On my cereal, I like to put in milk or no liquid." But this is not something I've seen very often.
_________________
REED ARNOLDManhattan Prep GMAT InstructorVideo: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to DoHow to Improve a GMAT ScoreThe Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')The PERFECT data sufficiency question:On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
1). George is married.
2). Darryl is not married.
Answer: