Declining enrollments are forcing smaller private colleges to choose

Bxn D & E :

To choose between : X n Y

The intent : Choose bxn 1. increasing fees , 2. Reducing the no of staffs

Rise of Tuition fees implies : Tution fees are showing an increasing trend ( say from 50 to 100 bucks )

Raising Tuition fees implies : We want to increase the fees from 50 to 100 bucks........ Because the school is all set for an expansion.

Thus the colleges are in a dilemma : They are indecisive of whether to raise the fees...... OR....... reduce the staff.

Leading to D : Raising Tuition...... OR........Reducing Staff : my take.

Hello all


I am facing some difficulty in Between-Among

As I know that Between is used for a list of two distinct things and Among in general comparison or choice.

GMAT Club Grammar book says that Between can also be used when talking about a distinct relationship of more than two individual items, groups or people, for eg,
" Johnyy had to decide between going to Europe, buying a new car, or staying in college.

My instructor at Jamboree (India) told me that as a thumb rule, between is followed by "and" .

Now based on the premise above, please take a look at the question below from my coaching prep material:



Declining enrollments are forcing smaller private colleges to choose between raising tuition and reduction of the staff.
(A) between raising tuition and reduction of the staff
(B) among raising tuition and reducing staff
(C) between raising tuition or reducing staff
(D) between raising tuition and reducing staff
(E) between the rise of tuition and the reduction of the staff

Can someone throw some light on POE here?

Yes, generally speaking "between" comes always with "and", so you should complete the construct whenever you see "between".
With this said C is gone (it uses "or"), B uses "among" which is also wrong (when you talk about two items "between" is correct).

A D and E seem correct from an idiomatic point of view:

(A) between raising tuition and reduction of the staff
(D) between raising tuition and reducing staff
(E) between the rise of tuition and the reduction of the staff

However "raising / reduction" are not parallel in A, so it can be eliminated.
Now, D and E: E is clearly wordy compared to D, but this is not by itself a good point to eliminate it.
I would eliminate E because "the rise" and "the reduction" do not give a proper idea of who the subject of those actions is. On the other hand "raising / reducing" are actions clealy made by the colleges themself.

Hope it helps

What about the possibility of using "or" with 'between' ?
If you can , then please give examples when "or" can be used with "among" or "between" .
And in A and E isn't the usage of "the staff" wrong? Is it a reason strong enough to eliminate them?

1-2) It's hard to give a rule of thumb in verbal, but "between" cannot be used with "or" (not "among/or" seems legit)
The cases in which between does not require "and" are rare and include the cases in which you do not compare two separate thing.

3)No the usage of "the staff" is legit. Why do you think it's not correct?

The sentence uses an idiom: Between X and Y. In this idiom, X and Y must parallel. Only D satisfies this parallelism. The parallel items in D are: "raising tuition" and "reducing staff".

Something about it doesn't sound right.

I believe it should be "the number of staff" rather than "the staff"

MY ans D.
parallelism error in question
raising tuition and the reduction of the staff iare not parallel.
A) is wrong because of the above reason
B) meaning error
C) wrog idiom between or
D) correct
e) though parallel but meaning error.

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

Private colleges seem to be in a bit of a bind and this sentence describes two possible solutions to their financial woes. Between marks the comparison and lets you know that the options need to have the same grammatical structure, and since raising tuition does not have the same structure as the reduction of the staff, eliminate (A). (B) shares the same error so take it out as well. The remaining options are parallel (raising and reducing or the rise and the reduction) so look for other errors. (C) has between...or and (D) has between...and. The second uses the correct word pair since between must always be followed by and so eliminate (С). (E) is trickier, but it's wrong because rise distorts the meaning of the original sentence; the raising would, however unappealing, be correct. Go with (D).