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605-655 Level|   Parallelism|                     
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egmat
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 25 Nov 2020, 16:06
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sid0791
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Hi GMATNinja,

As you said there are 25000 idioms, so dropping the idea of idiom difference in this question, can you please explain the meaning difference between A and E

A- Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.

In A- "to allow" could be parallel to "to confine", also them would be correctly referring to "members of the jury"
It is parallel, perfectly conveys the meaning (leaving the idiom issue aside).

In E- I am also not able to get what exactly is parallel. What is parallel to "be confined".
Also in E, "be confined" should refer to past participle, but why it should refer to past participle? According to the sentence, only the jury decision is in the past.

Please help me with the above queries. The meaning approach could be the best if you could explain the difference between these two sentences and how E contains parallelism.

Thanks & Regards
Siddharth
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Hello sid0791,

Although your question is not for me, here are my two cents. :-)

Choice A & Choice E do not present different meanings. The original sentence clearly conveys the intended meaning, but the grammatical construct of this sentence is incorrect. Please note that a proposition is ALWAYS followed by a noun. In the phrase "instead of", "of" is a preposition. So, it MUST be followed by a noun entity. But it is not. It is followed by a "to verb" phrase. Hence, grammatically Choice A is incorrect.

Choice E is correct. Following is the structure of Choice E so that you can see the parallel elements in the list clearly:

Judge Bonham denied a motion to

    allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than
    be confined to a hotel.


The word "to" is understood before "be confined..." as it is mentioned before the first element "allow...".


Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 25 Nov 2020, 16:16
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TheUltimateWinner
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E says:
'Judge Bonham denied a motion for a PURPOSE'. Is it really? I did not find the actual feelings of the correct version!
The meaning what comes to my mind is:
Judge Bonham denied a motion THAT allows members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to a hotel.
Am I missing anything to comprehend the meaning of correct choice E, experts?
Show more


Hello TheUltimateWinner,

I am not sure whether you still have this doubt. Here is my response nonetheless. :-)

It is true that a "to verb" phrase is generally used to present the intent or the purpose of an action. However, this NOT the only usage of this phrase. This phrase is also used as a direct object of the verb and also as a noun modifier. The following are examples of both these usages:

People prefer to listen to their favorite music while doing something monotonous. --> As the direct object of the verb to clarify the complete action.

I got a nice book to read over the long weekend. --> As the noun modifier for the noun "book".


In this official sentence, the "to verb" phrase "to allow..." has been used as a noun modifier for the noun "a motion". The "to verb" phrase presents additional information about this motion as to what it allows.



Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 26 Nov 2020, 09:32
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Please explain why B and D are not parallel
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 26 Nov 2020, 11:24
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indbos
Please explain why B and D are not parallel
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Hello indbos,

Let me help you out with this one. :-)


In Choice B, the word "confined" is a verb-ed modifier. It cannot be parallel to the verb "would have allowed". There are other very blatant errors in Choice B.

The list in Choice D is no parallel because the noun "confinement" cannot be parallel to the verb "would allow".


Hope this helps. :-)
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Shraddha
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 29 Dec 2020, 20:16
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Let's first go through a bit of conceptual theory regarding the use of verb+ing words.

1. Just because an 'ing' is attached to a verb, it doesn't become a gerund. In fact, there are three forms of ing that one will come across in formal writing. The first is the present participle, (with or without a comma before). Such an "ing" word is always a modifier and never a gerund.

Here in this example, the use of allowing without a comma before modifies the motion and with a comma before 'ing' word modifies Judge Botham and his denial. In both cases, however, the present participle is a modifier.

2. To become a gerund the 'ing' word must act as a noun and will mostly be either the subject or object of a clause. If it is a subject, it will most probably start a clause or at least be a part of a noun phrase that will in sum be the subject. What is more important is that such a word or phrase will be immediately followed by a verb to corroborate that what you have before is indeed a subject. In some cases, there will be possessive adjectives before 'the' ing word or an article acting as an adjective. Since possessives and adjectives modify nouns, we can be sure that the following 'ing' word must be a gerund.
Example
Being addicted to drinks has ruined many a person. 'Being addicted' is a gerund and a noun phrase followed by its verb 'has ruined'.
Exercising is a good discipline if done regularly -- Here exercising is a gerund with its verb 'is'
An 'ing' gerund is a legal application in GMAT.
3. The third use of verb+ing is to use it as a part of a passive voice verb, considered legal in GMAT.
Example

He looked peeved when the inquiry committee was questioning him.

With this bit of theory in mind, one can find that the use of present participles is out of place in the context and hence wrong.

Now on to the official choices
Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.

(A) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to
(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to
(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in
(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in
(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to

First of all, let's ruthlessly reject choices A, B, and C for using the unidiomatic 'instead of'.

Between D and E, the infinitive 'to allow' pointedly indicates that the motion, yet to be approved then, had a definite purpose inherent in it, while in D 'that would allow' is more indicative than intentional. Therefore, E is the best.
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Why is the use of "instead of" unidiomatic in this case ?
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 29 Dec 2020, 21:08
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vijaykhot
Why is the use of "instead of" unidiomatic in this case ?
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Hi vijaykhot,

I'm not sure whether we can say that it is impossible to use instead of here. However, I do think it's safe to say that rather than is better than instead of in this question, because we wouldn't normally use instead of like this.
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 20 Mar 2021, 09:53
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.


(A) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to not sure about this one, but I think "instead of to" is incorrectly used. You have two preposition sticked together.

(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to use of "would" is wrong. the action is already done. using "would" suggest a prediction that it might happen.

(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in use of "which" is incorrect here

(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in use of "would" is wrong. the action is already done. using "would" suggest a prediction that it might happen.

(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to a clear and concise meaning.
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 02 Jun 2021, 08:37
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VeritasKarishma Doesn't the use of infinitive in (E) result in ambiguity in the intended meaning?
(i) motion allowed members to go home
(ii) Judge rejected the motion so that jury could go home.

Please help me understand where am I going wrong!
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 04 Jun 2021, 06:35
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adityaganjoo
VeritasKarishma Doesn't the use of infinitive in (E) result in ambiguity in the intended meaning?
(i) motion allowed members to go home
(ii) Judge rejected the motion so that jury could go home.

Please help me understand where am I going wrong!
Show more


I can share my thoughts how I handle this question.

Quote:
Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.


(A) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to
(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to
(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in
(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in
(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to
Show more

Instead of
ok parallel elements on both side of market: logical + grammatical
A. makes perfect grammatical but logical it is nonsensical

Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.
JB denied a motion to allow X to go home vs to confine ?
Hold on: allow vs confine
OR
go home vs confine

Here we go: so I need to make it parallel with to go home not with to allow.
A option makes ambiguity.
meaning1: correct meaning
meaning2: denied a motion to allow instead of to confine them to hotel

2nd reason:rather than vs instead of
Rather than shows preference. This expression is generally used in 'parallel' structures. e.g. - with two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, infinitives or -ing forms.
Instead of is not usually followed by an infinitive.
Instead of is only a preposition and can introduce only a phrase i.e no verb.


For B, C and D:Reject because of wrong parallel elements and wrong meaningwise
(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to
(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in
(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in

(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than
you can read E as:
to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day
rather than
to allow members of the jury to be confined to a hotel

meaning wise-make sense
grammatically- no wrong

hence E wins over other options

I hope it helps . Let's see what Experts have to say:)
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 04 Jun 2021, 18:29
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adityaganjoo
VeritasKarishma Doesn't the use of infinitive in (E) result in ambiguity in the intended meaning?
(i) motion allowed members to go home
(ii) Judge rejected the motion so that jury could go home.

Please help me understand where am I going wrong!


I can share my thoughts how I handle this question.

Quote:
Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.


(A) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to
(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to
(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in
(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in
(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to

Instead of
ok parallel elements on both side of market: logical + grammatical
A. makes perfect grammatical but logical it is nonsensical

Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.
JB denied a motion to allow X to go home vs to confine ?
Hold on: allow vs confine
OR
go home vs confine

Here we go: so I need to make it parallel with to go home not with to allow.
A option makes ambiguity.
meaning1: correct meaning
meaning2: denied a motion to allow instead of to confine them to hotel

2nd reason:rather than vs instead of
Rather than shows preference. This expression is generally used in 'parallel' structures. e.g. - with two nouns, adjectives, adverbs, infinitives or -ing forms.
Instead of is not usually followed by an infinitive.
Instead of is only a preposition and can introduce only a phrase i.e no verb.


For B, C and D:Reject because of wrong parallel elements and wrong meaningwise
(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to
(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in
(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in

(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than
you can read E as:
to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day
rather than
to allow members of the jury to be confined to a hotel

meaning wise-make sense
grammatically- no wrong

hence E wins over other options

I hope it helps . Let's see what Experts have to say:)
Show more

mSKR Thanks for the answer.

A few doubts in the explanation:
(i) why is 'rather than' preferred over 'instead of' in this case? I understand that 'instead of' shows substitution, while 'rather than' shows preference. Here what suits better, as the judge actually did the substitution
(ii) in (E), "to allow" is parallel to "be confined" right? I am not able grasp that! Would be great if you could explain it a bit more.
(iii) why do we necessarily have to use infinitive form after 'instead of'?

Please do let me know where am I going wrong.
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 04 Jun 2021, 20:11
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adityaganjoo

A few doubts in the explanation:
(i) why is 'rather than' preferred over 'instead of' in this case? I understand that 'instead of' shows substitution, while 'rather than' shows preference. Here what suits better, as the judge actually did the substitution
(ii) in (E), "to allow" is parallel to "be confined" right? I am not able grasp that! Would be great if you could explain it a bit more.
(iii) why do we necessarily have to use infinitive form after 'instead of'?

Please do let me know where am I going wrong.
Show more


i. Its easy to say 'instead of' shows substitution, while 'rather than' shows preference but equally hard to implement
He drinks coffee instead of tea ( it seems in general he takes coffee)
He drinks coffee rather than tea ( it seems he is in restaurant. While his friends order tea, he order coffee)

The above scenarios are easy to visualize as we are clear whether it is replacement or substitution.

CAn I reverse above scenarios?
Now for general , can i say:
He drinks coffee rather than tea( I think so , it still makes sense . Now he drinks coffee rather than tea )
Similarly If he is in restaurant, he substitute coffee with drink: He drinks coffee instead of tea.

Keypoint is : Both words( replacement /preference ) make sense. In Gmat questions, we can argue on either side unless the context is clear.
So what shall we do?

The remember below point to make a final choice:
1. grammatical: rather than is conjuction, so it can be used with adverb, nouns, adjective , words etc.
but instead of is prepotiion so it can only be used with nouns
It means we can rule out some choice on basis of grammar

Even we are left with 2 choices or more, GMAT prefers rather than as compared to instead of . It maybe possible that options with instead of may have some issue and that option maybe open to reject.
This decision depends on question to question
For this particular question, A , B and C can be rejected directly because instead of is not with noun.


ii. In E , be confined is not in parallel with to allow but it is parallel with to go
both the words that are needed to be in parallel should be of opposite meaning.
allow rather than forbid
allow rather than deny
go rather than stop
go rather than confine


iii As mentioned in i. , we need a noun after instead of ; . infinitive is not verb that is used as noun so infinitive not suitable with instead of .

I hope it clarifies your doubt.
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 09 Jan 2022, 06:18
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For native speakers and those with native-level proficiency, the answer to this question may be obvious.
For others, this question will be very hard - and not worth your time.

The tags say this is a 700-level question that dates back to the paper tests and that last appeared in OG 2016.
Something similar, so dependent on idioms, is unlikely to appear in the GMAT. But even if it did, it would be at a high difficulty level and your score will not be affected much if you got it wrong.
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 26 Apr 2022, 10:37
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Isn't "that" necessary at the beginning of the underlined part. Option choice (E) seems to imply that the Judge denied the motion SO THAT "members of the jury can go home ...",
but "members of the jury can go home ..." is part of the motion which "the Judge denied".

Have gone wrong somewhere in my reasoning?
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 26 Apr 2022, 11:38
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oldmonk1
Isn't "that" necessary at the beginning of the underlined part. Option choice (E) seems to imply that the Judge denied the motion SO THAT "members of the jury can go home ...",
but "members of the jury can go home ..." is part of the motion which "the Judge denied".

Have gone wrong somewhere in my reasoning?
Show more
Hello, oldmonk1. The subjunctive verb tense can take either a that form or a bare infinitive form. Both of the following sentences would be correct, for example:

1) The law requires that people wear shoes in public buildings.

2) The law requires people to wear shoes in public buildings.

In the question at hand, answer choice (E) adopts the second structure. At its heart, the comparison (indeed, the entire sentence) is little more than the following:

Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow [something] rather than [to] be confined [somewhere].

Of course, a motion can be thought of as a so-called bossy word such as request, thereby triggering the use of the subjunctive. As vv65 noted above, a question that is so heavily dependent on idiomatic usage is unlikely to show up on the modern exam. I would just take note of what you have learned here and move on.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 26 Apr 2022, 17:54
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oldmonk1
Isn't "that" necessary at the beginning of the underlined part. Option choice (E) seems to imply that the Judge denied the motion SO THAT "members of the jury can go home ...",
but "members of the jury can go home ..." is part of the motion which "the Judge denied".

Have gone wrong somewhere in my reasoning?
Show more

The judge denied the motion to allow ...

You are right that this part could mean mean that the judge denied the motion IN ORDER TO ALLOW something.
It could also mean that the judge denied the motion THAT WOULD HAVE ALLOWED something.

This ambiguity does not matter very much.
Answer E is the only answer that uses proper idiomatic language and maintains proper parallelism.
And E gives us a meaning that makes sense.

This is answer E:
The judge denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to a hotel.

Let us simplify so that the meaning and parallelism are clear.

What did the judge do?
... denied a motion to allow something.

To allow WHAT?
...allow members of the jury to do something.

To allow members of the jury to do WHAT?
go home rather than be confined

"Go home" and "Be confined" are parallel.

Hope this helps!

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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 02 Oct 2022, 07:58
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Hi AndrewN
In the following question:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/legislation- ... ml#p599471

TommyWallach wrote that [the "to" is wrong for the subjunctive construction. It's not allowed to say "He requires you to do something."]

But as per your example I don't think that "subjunctive + infinitive" is Wrong. Same can be validated by Cambridge dictionary as well.
Any thoughts?

AndrewN
oldmonk1
Isn't "that" necessary at the beginning of the underlined part. Option choice (E) seems to imply that the Judge denied the motion SO THAT "members of the jury can go home ...",
but "members of the jury can go home ..." is part of the motion which "the Judge denied".

Have gone wrong somewhere in my reasoning?
Hello, oldmonk1. The subjunctive verb tense can take either a that form or a bare infinitive form. Both of the following sentences would be correct, for example:

1) The law requires that people wear shoes in public buildings.

2) The law requires people to wear shoes in public buildings.

In the question at hand, answer choice (E) adopts the second structure. At its heart, the comparison (indeed, the entire sentence) is little more than the following:

Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow [something] rather than [to] be confined [somewhere].

Of course, a motion can be thought of as a so-called bossy word such as request, thereby triggering the use of the subjunctive. As vv65 noted above, a question that is so heavily dependent on idiomatic usage is unlikely to show up on the modern exam. I would just take note of what you have learned here and move on.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Anshul1223333
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 11 Oct 2022, 05:55
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How to see parallelism in choices B] and E]
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a Updated on: 12 Jan 2024, 03:36
Originally posted by Elite097 on 11 Aug 2023, 07:14.
Last edited by Elite097 on 12 Jan 2024, 03:36, edited 2 times in total.
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MartyTargetTestPrep KarishmaB GMATNinja @jonshukruat EducationAisle generis RonTargetTestPrep EducationAisle KarishmaB
why cant //ism be between allow vs confine??
What exactly is the intended meaning - pls tell by attaching root phrases to both parts. What made you choose the selected meaning and reject other possible meanings?
Why do we have an infinitive here? Does it show purpose? If not how else to interpret it
Why is the use of subjunctive form incorrect here?
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 04 Sep 2023, 23:04
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nero44
Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to a hotel.


(A) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of to confine them to

(B) that would have allowed members of the jury to go home at the end of each day instead of confined to

(C) under which members of the jury are allowed to go home at the end of each day instead of confining them in

(D) that would allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than confinement in

(E) to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day rather than be confined to


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OG Verbal Review 2, SC#93

Parallelism; Logical predication

The logic of this sentence has two possible options for the members of the jury: they can go home or be confined to a hotel. The first option is expressed using the infinitive to go home; the second option should use the parallel form (to understood) be confined. Since the members of the jury are not doing the confining themselves, the passive form must be used. The construction x instead of y, when x and y are infinitives, is clumsy; the idiomatic construction x rather than y is better here. Both constructions require x and y to be parallel.

(A) The passive form to be confined is required. To allow members of the jury . . . to confne them illogically indicates that the jurors are doing the confining.
(B) The infinitive form to be confned is required, rather than the past participle. The sentence is awkward and wordy.
(C) Members of the jury is the illogical object in confning them. Confining is not parallel to to go home.
(D) The noun confinement is not parallel to to go home.
(E) Correct. Be confined to uses the infinitive form just as to go home does; the to before be confined is understood and does not need to be repeated. The x rather than y construction is appropriately used in this sentence.

The correct answer is E.
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Hi AjiteshArun ,

I am unable to comprehend the meaning of the sentence.

I have inferred that if the judge denied the motion , he must be against the motion.

Based on this inference , my assumption is that the judge must be against something that is why he is denying the motion.
But I am little confused between the below two:
1. Whether the judge was against allowing the jury members to go home
or
2. Whether he was against confining the jury members in a hotel

Thanks for your help!
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GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
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Judge Bonham denied a motion to allow members of the jury to go home a 05 Sep 2023, 04:13
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perseverance2021
Hi AjiteshArun ,

I am unable to comprehend the meaning of the sentence.

I have inferred that if the judge denied the motion , he must be against the motion.

Based on this inference , my assumption is that the judge must be against something that is why he is denying the motion.
But I am little confused between the below two:
1. Whether the judge was against allowing the jury members to go home
or
2. Whether he was against confining the jury members in a hotel

Thanks for your help!
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Hi perseverance2021,

Your initial assumption was correct. :)

1. The jury members are or will be confined to a hotel.

2. A motion was introduced to allow members of the jury to go home at the end of each day.

3. Judge Bonham denied that motion.

Quote:
Judge Bonham denied [a motion to allow members of the jury to {go home at the end of each day} rather than {be confined to a hotel}].
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