OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONProject SC Butler: Day 190: Sentence Correction (SC2)
This question tests whether the X and Y elements in the idiom
Both X and Y are parallel.
Think of the idiom as having these "fence posts" at beginning and end: || both X and Y ||
The word "both" marks the beginning of the parallel structure.
GMAC frequently tests parallelism by placing prepositions and other words in different places in the sentence.
Those words should be placed
once outside the structure || both X and Y ||
or
twice inside that structure.
I elaborate on this "once outside, twice inside" concept below the POE.
THE PROMPTQuote:
In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is part of both an across word, which is entered horizontally, and of a down word, which is entered vertically.
THE OPTIONSQuote:
A) In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is part of both an across word, which is entered horizontally, and of a down word, which is entered vertically.
• Not parallel. The marker for the whole structure is
both. The marker for the X element is
both. The marker for the Y element is
and.X =
an across word, which is entered horizontallyY =
of a down word, which is entered vertically•
Wrong: OF is placed once outside, once inside [the structure, whose beginning and end I have marked with parallel lines]
The
incorrect structure we see here is
. . . a single letter that is part
OF || both X and
OF Y ||
We need the OF to be placed
once outside (as in B) or
twice inside the idiomatic expression.
Eliminate A
Quote:
B) In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is part of both an across word, which is entered horizontally, and a down word, which is entered vertically.
• The X and Y elements are parallel
X =
an across word, which is entered horizontallyY =
a down word, which is entered vertically• The word OF is correctly placed
once outside the correlative conjunction.
. . . a single letter that is part OF || both X and Y ||
KEEP
Quote:
C) In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is part of both an across word entered horizontally and ofa down word entered vertically.
• X and Y are not parallel
X =
an across word entered horizontallyY =
of a down word entered vertically•
wrong: OF is placed once outside and once inside
Similar to Option A, we have:
. . . a single letter that is part
OF ||
both an across word entered horizontally
and OF a down word entered vertically ||
Eliminate C
Quote:
D) In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is both part of an across word entered horizontally and of a down word entered vertically.
• X and Y are not parallel
X =
part of an across word entered horizontallyY =
of a down word entered vertically• OF is correctly placed twice inside, but PART is placed only once inside.
If a word is "inside" a structure such as this one, whatever describes X does not automatically carry over or distribute to Y
•
wrong: PART is placed once inside
--
wrong: . . . a single letter that is || both
part of X and
of Y ||
--
corrected:. . . a single letter that is || both part of X and part of Y ||
Eliminate D
Quote:
E) In a standard crossword puzzle, the black boxes are placed to make the grid diagonally symmetric and each empty box gets filled with a single letter that is both part of an across word entered horizontally as well as a down word entered vertically.
•
as well as is incorrect
-- the idiom is
Both X and Y, not
Both X as well as Y-- idioms are strict. We cannot replace
and with
as well as.
-- Be careful with
as well as. Most of the time, the phrase is used improperly.
P
and Q means that P and Q are equally important.
P
as well as Q means that Q is not as important as P.
See
this post, here for more details.
• X and Y are not parallel.
X =
part of an across word entered horizontallyY =
a down word entered vertically•
wrong:
part of is incorrectly placed once inside
--
wrong: . . . letter that is ||both part of X as well as Y||
Corrected: . . . a single letter that is both part of an across word entered horizontally and part of a down word entered vertically
Eliminate E
The answer is B• NOTESPARALLELISMAlthough quite a few posters found this question easy, if the question was hard for you,
do not worry.
I think that parallelism combined with strict idiomatic structure is hard.
If you find it difficult to decide whether a preposition distributes or to decide whether X and Y are parallel, I would learn this "once outside, twice inside" approach.
Let's use another correlative conjunction,
Either X or Y.How would we place the preposition
in? Answer: Once outside or twice inside.
Correct, once outside: I believe that he studied
in || either England or France.||
Correct, twice inside: I believe that he studied ||either
in England or
in France.||
Wrong, once inside, once outside: I believe that he studied
in ||either England or
in France.||
Verbs can also create problems.
One question I posted for Butler involves yet another idiom and a verb that creates parallelism issues.
You can find that question
here.
COMMENTS Whoops. Hours ago, I typed but forgot to post this answer.
I think I need to close some tabs.
knock4me (great username), welcome to SC Butler.
Most of these answers range from very good to excellent.
Some of you need to be a little more explicit about
why two things aren't parallel.
Ask yourselves whether someone who knew almost nothing about parallelism would be helped by your answer.
I use this standard because if you can teach a concept well in SC, you have mastered it.
Kudos go to correct answers with good explanations.
close
11 Nov 2019, 23:07
25%
(01:33)
wrong 
