zeeasl wrote:
Hi mike
Can you please explain the gerund structure in this sentence? i thought it was a parallelism issue. Thanks
Diesel engines burn as much as 30% less fuel than gasoline engines of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses that have been implicated in global warming.
A. of comparable size , as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses that have
B. of comparable size, as well as emit far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gasses having
C. of comparable size, and also they emit far fewer carbon dioxide and other gasses that have
D. that have a comparable size, and also they emit far fewer of the other gasses having
E. that have a comparable size, as well as emitting far fewer of the other gasses having
Dear
zeeaslI'm happy to respond.
This is from GMAT Prep, and as with many official questions, this one has several things going on at once. Actually, this is a slight different version that the version which which I am familiar. Here's the question I have seen:
Standard VersionDiesel engines burn as much as 30 percent less fuel than gasoline engines of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gases that have been implicated in global warming.
(A) of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gases that have
(B) of comparable size, as well as emit far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gases having
(C) of comparable size, and also they emit far fewer carbon dioxide and other gases that have
(D) that have a comparable size, and also they emit far less carbon dioxide gas and other gases that have
(E) that have a comparable size, as well as emitting far fewer carbon dioxide and other gases having Something is funny about choice
(D) &
(E) in the version you cite, because carbon dioxide is not mentioned at all.
Split #1: "
of comparable size" vs. "
that have a comparable size" --- a false split, as both are 100% correct
Split #2a: "
carbon dioxide" is not countable, so cannot take "
fewer" --- choice
(C) in your version, and choices
(C) &
(E) in the standard version make this mistake.
Split #2b: "
other gases" are countable and need "
fewer," not "
less." Choice
(D) in the standard version makes this mistake.
Split 3: no choice in the standard version has this problem, but in the version you cite, choice (D) & (E) are totally illogical: they refer to "
other gases" without specifying---other than what? By omitting the reference to "
carbon dioxide," the word "
other" becomes 100% illogical.
That leaves
(B) &
(A). Choice
(B) has the awkward participle ending...
...
far fewer of the other gases having been implicated in global warming.
This has strange and different meaning from what is intended. It's not clear this phrasing has any well-defined meaning. This is definitely wrong.
Well, that just leaves
(A), the OA of the official question. This is tricky --- "
as well as" is not official a parallelism marker. If I say:
A and B like this book. ==> plural subject, two items in parallel.
by contrast, if I say
A as well as B likes this book. ===> there, we have a singular subject, A, and B is simply part of a modifying additive phrase. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/compound-s ... e-phrases/In this GMAT Prep SC sentence, to modify the main verb "
burn," we have the modifying structure
"as well as" + [gerund]----"
as well as emitting." It's NOT parallelism, because "
as well as" is NOT a parallelism marker. Choice
(A) is 100% correct.
Does all this make sense?
Mike