shanks2020 wrote:
AndrewN wrote:
shanks2020 wrote:
Thanks
AndrewN for your quick response.
Do you think such a structure can be correct in GMAT SC?
No problem,
shanks2020. I enjoy examining sentences. To answer your question, I doubt that this exact sentence would appear as a GMAT™ SC question, since there is a little more flexibility with subject-verb agreement than I would expect to see, not to mention mixed punctuation in a list (either commas or semicolons would be used to separate each item). However, I think the sentence could easily be altered to create a full-fledged SC question, one that tested parallelism or comparisons, among other elements.
- Andrew
AndrewNGot it. Even i was thinking, per the rules of GMAT SC, such a sentence would be deemed incorrect.
However, since you mentioned punctuations, there is a query though i have no example now.
How to decipher what is correct, if a sentence has both hyphen(-) and a comma. What roles can they play in a sentence, if they appear together or can they grammatically appear together?
I think you may mean the em dash, —, what appears to be a longer-than-usual hyphen. It is typically used in parallel in place of double commas (i.e. interchangeably, but
not mixed and matched), but it can also be used in place of a colon, making it one of the most versatile punctuation marks. All of the following sentences are grammatically fine:
1) The card—protected by a rigid case that was hermetically sealed—proved to be a forgery.
2) The card, protected by a rigid case that was hermetically sealed, proved to be a forgery.
3) The card is the holy grail of the hobby, priced as high as a two-bedroom house—around $200,000. (Note that a comma or colon could work here as well, in place of the em dash.)
I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.
- Andrew
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