Markers in Parallelism : Verbal Archive [Locked]

egmat · 2012-09-17T12:20:25-07:00

MARKERS FOR PARALLEL LIST Hi folks, Parallelism is one of the most heavily tested concepts in GMAT. Non-natives struggle with this concept because most of them study this concept for the first time when they start preparing for the GMAT. To help you understand this concept better, we have decided to cover a few topics in parallelism through a few articles. In this article, we cover “Markers in the Parallel List”. This article is one of the per-requisites for our parallelism session in Verbal Live Prep. How to best benefit from the article? First of all, read this article thoroughly and internalize it. Then apply these skills to the exercise questions at the end of the article. E-GMAT customers may review this article in conjunction with the 6 parallelism concepts we have in the course. We will also post a few official problems after we get a few more responses. Sincerely apply the skills to make sure that you select the correct answer for the right reasons. Only then can you be certain of success on the GMAT. Also, don't forget to download the PDF at the end of the post. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Register_SC.png WHY TO LEARN ABOUT MARKERS Most of the times, it becomes difficult to solve an SC problem pertaining to parallelism because we cannot identify the correct list in the sentence. Hence, it is important to learn about the markers in the parallel list as they help us in more than one way. Knowledge of markers has the following benefits: 1. It helps in identifying the correct intended list in the sentence. 2. It helps in ascertaining the correct marker for the list. 3. It helps in making all the entities in the list grammatically as well as logically parallel. This article is aimed at helping you gain better understanding of the markers so that you are better prepared to handle parallelism problems. LAWS OF PARALLELISM Before delving into the markers and learning how to identify a list with the help of these markers, let us take a quick look at the general laws of parallelism: https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Celebrating-Milestones1.png 1. A parallel list always contains a marker. 2. The list contains the appropriate marker to convey the intended meaning through the list. 3. The entities in the list are grammatically as well as logically parallel. So let us now study a bit more about these laws. TYPES OF MARKERS As we said, every parallel list contains a marker. Hence, it is important to learn about them to identify the correct list. Identifying the correct list is half battle won in solving the parallelism problem. Once the correct list is identified, identifying the errors in the entities and making them parallel, both grammatically and logically become really easy. We can find two kinds of markers in parallel lists – single-word makers and dual-word markers. SINGLE-WORD MARKERS As the name suggests, ‘single-word markers’ are the markers that consist of only one word. For example – and, or, but, etc. These markers join two or more entities and appear before the last entity in the list. Let’s take a few example sentences to see the usage of these markers: SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-1-e1347900883590.png The sentence gives us general information about Joe. It says that he never goes anywhere without his wallet, his watch, and his umbrella. Notice the presence of “and”. It is one of the most common single-word markers that indicate the presence of a list in the sentence. Hence, the entities joined by “and” make the list in the sentence. The 3 entities joined by “and” are • Wallet • Watch • Umbrella https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg SIMPLE EXAMPLE 2: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-2-e1347901052499.png The sentence says that Sue needs something to mark a particular advertisement in the newspaper. She can do the job of highlighting the ad by using a pen, a pencil, or a marker. Notice that “or” is the marker in the sentence that indicates the presence of a list in this sentence. This marker joins 3 similar entities • a pen • a pencil • a marker COMPLEX EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-3-e1347901151280.png The sentence says that this year’s drought has led to scarcity of food that has forced the bears to come to town in search of food. They have walked into farmer’s market, broken into cars, and even gotten into people’s kitchen. This sentence uses one-word marker “and” that joins the three actions done by the bears to look for food. The sentence has a list of three actions done by the bears. • Have wandered through farmer’s markets • Have broken into cars after sniffing out fast-food leftovers • Have ransacked people’s kitchens OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OGV2#1 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE E) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-4-e1347901302449.png This sentence presents comparison between ants and termites. Just like ants, termites also have a detailed social structure with well-defined jobs. While some reproduce, the others serve the colony. They do this job by looking after the young ones, collecting food, building the nest, or battling intruders. This OG sentence has two parallel lists. The first list is marked in blue while the second list is marked in purple . Both the lists contain single-word markers – “and” and “or” respectively. The first list is the main list that defines the main jobs of termites in their society . The second list is the sub-list that defines the actions done under serving the colony . While “and” join two main jobs of termites , “or” joins together the actions done to serve the colony . DUAL-WORD MARKERS As the name goes, these markers consist of two words. These dual words always appear together in a list. For example: either… or…, both… and…, from… to…, etc. The list containing ‘dual-word markers’ has only two entities in the list. Let’s take a few examples here: SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-5-e1347901604393.png The sentence says that because Sam has too many things to look after, he can do any of the 2 things - either prepare a speech or participate in the inaugural song. This sentence uses double-word marker “either… or…”. This is so because the sentence talks about options. Sam can do only one of the two things. Since the option is only between two activities, use of “either… or…” is appropriate. If Sam had to choose one activity among three, then the sentence would use the single-word marker “or”. Note that we cannot use dual-word markers for more than two entities in the list. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 2: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-62-e1347901868169.png https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg The sentence says that Mary got two presents for her birthday, an iPad and an iPhone, both Apple products. These entities are joined by the dual-word marker “both… and…”. Both these markers are followed by one entity each. If Mary had gotten more than two presents, then the use of this dual-word marker would not have been appropriate. Then the entities would have been joined together with single-word marker “and”. COMPLEX EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-7-e1347901991188.png This sentence talks about the new strain of swine flu. The external genes of this particular strain that is called H3N2v jumped from humans to pigs in the 1990s and circulated in pigs separately from the seasonal human flu H3N2. H3N2v has reportedly killed one human so far. So this sentence has two lists. The first list is marked in blue. This lists talks about how the external genes of H3N2v spread. The second list, marked in purple uses the dual-word marker “from… to…” to convey how did it spread. The external genes jumped from one entity to another. OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OGV2#4 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE C) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Picture2-e1381159980486.png This sentence says that piles of personal papers of Edison prove that his inventions came not in a flash of inspiration. All his work slowly evolved from previous works. This sentence presents two characteristics of Edison’s inventions. They did not come to life in a flash of inspiration. They slowly evolved from his previous works. These characteristics are presented by dual-word marker “not… but…”. Both the markers are followed by one entity each. A QUICK LOOK AT THE MARKERS: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Markers-Table-1-e1347909554470.png Note that this is not the exhaustive list of the markers. This list also does not contain the markers of comparison. Parallelism in comparison will be dealt in separate article. ERRORS PERTAINING TO PARALLELISM MARKERS https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg So we learnt that presence of marker in a sentence indicates the presence of a list. GMAC introduces parallelism errors in a sentence in various ways. One of the ways to introduce error is by using inappropriate marker in the list. Using inappropriate marker may include using a marker that changes the intended meaning of the sentence, using a dual-word marker to list more than two entities in a list, using wrong pairs in the dual-word marker, etc. 1. USING INCORRECT MARKER TO CONVEY INTENDED MEANING THROUGH LIST A list must contain an appropriate marker to correctly convey the intended meaning of the sentence. Incorrect markers may change the intended meaning of a sentence. Let’s take examples to see how this error is introduced, what effect this error has, and how it can be corrected. SIMPLE EXAMPLE 1: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-9-0-e1347908215819.png The sentence looks familiar? Well yes, we have already analyzed this sentence under the heading “Single-Word Markers”. This sentence uses the marker “or” to present options. Sue needs any one of the listed entities to mark the ad in the newspaper. Now let’s replace “or” here with “and”. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-9-e1347902681495.png Using “and” changes the meaning of the sentence. Now, this sentence does not talk of options. This sentence does not say that Sue needs any one of the listed articles. It now says that Sue needs all the three listed items to mark the ad. Probably, she needs to highlight that ad in a certain manner and that is why she needs all three items. This sentence definitely conveys a different meaning than that conveyed by the original one. Hence if the intended meaning per original sentence has to be communicated, then the second sentence is incorrect because “and” is not the correct marker to convey the intended logical meaning conveyed by “or”. And vice-versa, i.e. if the original meaning is as communicated by second sentence with “and”, then the first sentence changes that intended meaning. Thus, make a note of how meaning communicated by the sentence can change if the marker connecting the list changes. OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG 12#17 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE D) https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-10-e1347908385845.png This sentence says that the commission has asked the advertisers not to use the word “natural” for those foods that contain color or flavor additives, chemical preservatives or anything made artificially. Hence the sentence presents option. If the food contain any of one these listed items, then the advertisers cannot call it “natural”. Now let’s analyze the sentence with incorrect answer choice E : https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-11-e1347908478472.png This sentence is grammatically correct but changes the intended meaning of the sentence. Doing away with “or” has taken away the options. The sentence now means that the food cannot be called natural if it contains all the listed items. But if it does not contain any one of the listed items, then it can be called “natural” because to not have the “natural” tag, it has to have all the listed items. This is certainly not the intended meaning of the sentence. Presence of any one of the listed item will disqualify the food product from the designation of “natural”. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg 2. USING DUAL-WORD MARKER TO LIST MORE THAN TWO ENTITIES A list containing dual-word marker can only have two entities in the list. If the list contains more than two items, then it should contain single-word marker and not the dual-word marker. Let’s take an official example that presents this error: OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG V2#5 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-12-e1347908626581.png The sentence says that hundreds of species of fish discharge electric currents to do three things: a. to find and attack prey, b. to defend themselves, c. for communicating and navigating. Note that we are only looking at the marker-related error in this sentence. There are three items listed for which many species of fish discharge electric current. But this list contains dual-word marker “either… or…”. Dual-word markers can only be used to list two entities. Hence use of this marker is incorrect here. Hence we can eliminate all those answer choices that uses dual-word marker. Now let’s take a look at the correct answer choice E : https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-13-e1347908798551.png This choice replaces the dual-word marker “either… or…” with only “or” to correctly list three items. Use of single word marker “or” is correct to list three items in the list. The sentence clearly communicates that the many species of fish generate electric currents for one of the listed functions. 3. USING INCORRECT PAIR IN DUAL-WORD MARKER Every dual-word marker has a well-defined usage so it should be used in idiomatically correct fashion, i.e. it must be used with the words that make the correct pair (check the list for dual-word markers above). If the pair is broken by replacing any of the words in the dual-word maker with any other word, then the sentence stands incorrect. This error may also be classified as idiom error. Let’s take an example: OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OG V2#12 https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-14-e1347909014142.png This sentence talks about artist William H. Johnson. His artistic debt to Scandinavia can be very well seen in paintings that range from sensitive portraits of citizens in his wife’s Danish home, Kerteminde, to awe-inspiring views of fjords and mountain peaks in the western and northern regions of Norway. The correct dual-word marker is “from… to…” and not “from… and…”. Hence this sentence is incorrect because of the pairing of wrong words. Choice B is the correct answer choice for this OG sentence: https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Marker-15-e1347909102419.png This choice uses the correct words to form the correct dual-word marker. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Take-Away-SC3-e1347909196206.png

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02 Mar 2013, 05:50

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egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

Correct Answer is A

B and C also has parallelism error
D and E distorts intended meaning of sentence also uses "due to" (retain and add are supposed to modify main clause - ....are now able to create super..... reproduction)

Did I get it right? One question here - Due to cannot be used here right?

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02 Mar 2013, 07:09

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egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

Hi e-GMAT,
IMO OA:A Please let me know whether I'm right.

Look forward to seeing more questions on Parallelism concept from you this year

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25 Mar 2013, 00:14

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Hi Shradhha/Rajat,

Could you please let me know if you have any article on ' Parallelism in comparison ' as on date?

Much appreciate your feedback.

P.S: Do you have any solutions for OG Verbal 2 and OG 12,13 (verbal sections) posted in the forum?

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debayan222

egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

Hi e-GMAT,
IMO OA:A Please let me know whether I'm right.

Look forward to seeing more questions on Parallelism concept from you this year

e-GMAT-Any update on this guys ?

Also for the following question- OA : C. Please confirm

egmat

2. The researchers from the North Carolina State University notified about the latest dairy contamination to the officials of the FDA earlier than the researchers from the University of California.

A. earlier than the researchers
B. earlier than were the researchers
C. earlier than did the researchers
D. earlier than the researchers had

Awaiting your feedback.

egmat

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26 Mar 2013, 23:46

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Dear Debyan,

All the solutions to OG V2 are available on Youtube. You can check them out below:

https://www.youtube.com/user/eGMATconcepts

You can find many OG 12/13 solutions in our internal forums.

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29 Mar 2013, 22:11

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debayan222

egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

Hi e-GMAT,
IMO OA:A Please let me know whether I'm right.

Look forward to seeing more questions on Parallelism concept from you this year

e-GMAT-Any update on this guys ?

Also for the following question- OA : C. Please confirm

egmat

2. The researchers from the North Carolina State University notified about the latest dairy contamination to the officials of the FDA earlier than the researchers from the University of California.

A. earlier than the researchers
B. earlier than were the researchers
C. earlier than did the researchers
D. earlier than the researchers had

Awaiting your feedback.

Hi e-GMAT,
Would you please confirm whether I got the answers right for both the questions above...

Much appreciate your response.

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30 Mar 2013, 00:13

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Hi egmat, will be great to see some posts on modifiers/"and"

Keep us posted, look forward to your valuable posts as always

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30 Mar 2013, 05:31

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Really nice article!
Thank you.

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31 Mar 2013, 00:37

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I'd like to thank egmat for sharing the above article *hatoff*.

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Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding . The three painted parallel marker show how scientists were able to create the super humans.

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of. the 1st marker is a modifier while the remaining 2 markers are noun phrases.

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add . Change in sentence meaning. The scientists are able to create.......by retaining, alter ....and add...

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add. Change of meaning..parallel list becomes scientists create, retain, alter and add.

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add . Change of meaning. Scientists ...create... and retain.....by altering..... and add.

Answer is A.

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04 Jul 2013, 02:04

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Thank you so much for this article!

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23 Aug 2013, 10:58

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Hi folks,

I sincerely apologize for completely forgetting about posting the solution for this questions. But as they say, “better late than never”.

So here comes a very late and much awaited for reply.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

Meaning Analysis:

The sentence says that there have been recent developments in the field of genetic replication and cloning. Because of these developments, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction. How do they do so? They do so by retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, by altering those genes that are responsible for currently knows major disease, and by adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics. So the scientists create super humans through three activities.

Error Analysis:

1. Usage of “because of” is correct to present the reason for the action of creating super humans.
2. All the three comma + verb-ing modifiers correctly modifies the preceding clause. They correctly denote the three actions through which scientists are able to create super humans.
3. All these three comma + verb-ing modifiers are parallel. Hence there are no errors in this sentence.

PoE:

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding: Correct for the reason stated above.

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of: Incorrect.
1. Usage of “because” is not correct here as “because” is always followed by a clause. “Because of” is followed by a noun.
2. The third entity in the list addition of” is not parallel to the two comma + verb-ing modifiers.

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add: Incorrect.
1. “alter” and “add” are not parallel comma + verb-ing modifier “retaining”.
2. The second and the third entities in the original list are now parallel to “create”. This enforced list now changes the meaning of the sentence. Per this list, scientists are now able to do three things:
a. create super humans,
b. alter the genes…, and
c. add new genes…
This is certainly not the intended meaning because the scientists are able to create super humans. The rest of the entities explain how do they do so.

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add: Incorrect.
1. “Due to” is incorrect to denote the reason of an action.
2. Same meaning change error and in Choice C. In this choice, “retain, alter, and add” are parallel to “create”, suggesting that the scientists are able to do four things now.

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add: Incorrect.
1. Same “due to” error as in Choice D.
2. In this choice, the original parallel list is completely distorted. The first list consists of two verbs – “change” and “retain”. This enforced list certainly changes the meaning. The second enforced list is “are responsible…” and “add…”.
3. The comma + verb-ing modifier “altering…” now modifies the preceding clause with two verbs, completely changing the intended meaning of the sentence.

Hope this helps. :-)

Thanks.
Shraddha

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10 Sep 2013, 03:05

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egmat

OFFICIAL EXAMPLE 1: OGV2#4 (WITH CORRECT ANSWER CHOICE C)

This sentence says that piles of personal papers of Edison prove that his inventions came not in a flash of inspiration. All his work slowly evolved from previous works.
This sentence presents two characteristics of Edison’s inventions. They did not come to life in a flash of inspiration. They slowly evolved from his previous works. These characteristics are presented by dual-word marker “not… but…”. Both the markers are followed by one entity each.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE MARKERS:

Note that this is not the exhaustive list of the markers. This list also does not contain the markers of comparison. Parallelism in comparison will be dealt in separate article.

This example is incorrect. BTW Great Article. Can you please provide an analysis on the quiz after the article, You have briefly discussed the first question and I don't think there was discussion on the second question. Thanks!

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06 Oct 2013, 15:10

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Hi eGMAT,

On the given link I am not able to find solution to any one of the questions. Does the solution on Youtube still exist? If yes could you please point me to say OG V2, Q20 solution?
Thanks,

egmat

Dear Debyan,

All the solutions to OG V2 are available on Youtube. You can check them out below:

https://www.youtube.com/user/eGMATconcepts

You can find many OG 12/13 solutions in our internal forums.

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12 Oct 2013, 05:55

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vigneshceg

egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

Scientists were able to do four things,
1) Create
2)retain
3)alter
4) add.

And these four must be parallel. Answer to me is D)

Hi vigneshceg,

I think the answer would be A itself.

In D, there is a meaning change because the sentence wants to convey the meaning that scientists are able to create superhumans by

1.retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation,
2. altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases,
3. and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

This is my take on this question, rest I think E-GMAT officials would be better able to guide you.

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11 Nov 2013, 01:48

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DEAR e-gamt

I go for- A

Because ---

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Hello Team,

I am able to eliminate all wrong choices and left with A and D as the contender option:

Eliminated A because it says

Scientists are now able to create
retaining
altering
and adding

1. list is not parallel
2. marker list is starting with 'ing' modifier, i felt it means because of retaining X, scientists are able to create. Which is again not the intended meaning of the sentence. Hence, incorrect.

Can you please tell the right answer and please explain what is wrong in my elimination process.

Regards,
Ankur

egmat

Hi Folks,

This question is fresh from the oven. Try it out.

Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding new genes that will introduce unique characteristics.

A. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and adding

B. Because the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering of the genes that is responsible for currently known major diseases, and addition of

C. Because of the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retaining the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

D. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction, retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, alter the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases and add

E. Due to the recent developments in genetic replication and cloning, scientists are now able to create super humans through genetic reproduction and retain the most efficient genes of the current generation, altering the genes that are responsible for currently known major diseases, and add

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