Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor and surrounded by hills

Official Explanation

This long sentence correction problem contains several issues relating to parallelism and sentence construction.

The key is to figure out from the different decision points what is supposed to be in the series. This is best accomplished with a very careful use of the “slash-and-burn” technique to simplify the choices.

Once you do that, you will see that only (C) gets the series correct: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, and blessed with A, B, C, and D, the city….”

(A) is wrong as it says: “Situated on X and surrounded by Y, blessed with A,B,C, and D, the city”

This series has been “bungled” as there is an “and” first but then no “and” before the last element in the series.

(B) also gets it wrong: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, blessed with Z, and A, B, as well as D” That leaves three “ed” participles linked with the noun “A”. This is not a parallel structure.

In (D) the “as well as surrounded by hills” in the middle of the series is not parallel and incorrect.

For (E) it starts off fine: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, as well as blessed with Z” but then there are multiple “and” elements tacked on to the end that are clearly incorrect.

Only (C) contains the necessary structure linking three parallel elements and is thus correct.

mr. mike - I ran across this article on the web and wanted to get your thoughts regarding the article's conclusion. Let me see if I can post the entire passage; its not long. It has to do with your statement about the faux pas of ending a sentence with a preposition. I think we all have been taught that for the longest time but in my everyday conservation, I find it difficult and awkward with not ending a sentence with a preposition if it make sense in the context of the sentence. Here's the article, link is below.

_________________________________________________________________________
Can You Start a Sentence with a Preposition? | By Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl | July 12, 2013

When I posted the article Can You End a Sentence with a Preposition, I was surprised by how many people asked if you can start a sentence with a preposition. Here's the answer.

Many people were taught that they shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition. Today, however, most language experts don't abide by this "rule"—it's often called a myth. (Read more at Ending a Sentence with a Preposition.)

However, after I posted the article about ending sentences with prepositions, I was surprised by how many people asked if it is OK to start a sentence with a preposition. I've never heard a rule forbidding that practice.

Prepositional Phrases at the Beginning of a Sentence

Prepositional phrases at the beginning of sentences are common and grammatically correct. Consider these examples:

On the other hand, Bobby likes strawberries.
After soccer, we go out for pizza.
By noon, all the runners should be finished.
Over spring break, Shondra broke up with Lance.

Commas After Prepositional Phrases at the Beginning of a Sentence

When you start a sentence with a prepositional phrase, it's usually a good idea to put a comma after it (as in the examples above). In general, the longer the prepositional phrase, the more you need the comma. For example, the Purdue Online Writing Lab says a comma is required after introductory prepositional phrases that are longer than four words.

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/can-you-start-sentence-preposition

Dear avohden,
My friend, this is complicated. Some things in grammar are black/white right vs. wrong. The sentence "I are happy" is wrong, and everyone who speaks English and who has an opinion on grammar will say that it is wrong. There's no ambiguity, no discussion. It's just wrong. Period.

Other issues are more a matter of taste, and other people will disagree. These include
(a) ending a sentence with a preposition. (e.g. I found a box to put the shoes in.)
(b) split infinitives (e.g. To boldly go where no man has gone before.)
(c) using "however" as a synonym for "although, nevertheless" (e.g. I wanted to see the movie, however, closed before I was able to go.)
Folks who are grammatically conservative would say all three are not permissible. Folks who are grammatically permissive would say all three are fine. Grammar Girl is extremely intelligent, and she tends toward the more permissive side of the grammatical spectrum. I believe she allows all three --- she certainly has articles explicitly saying that the first two are fine, and I find it hard to imagine that she would have an objection to the third. The GMAT tends to be considerable more conservative. You will never see (a) or (b) as part of a correct answer on the GMAT. Personally, I am even more conservative than the GMAT --- the GMAT apparently has no problem with (c), but I don't find (a) or (b) or (c) acceptable. TS Eliot & I are way over on the arch-conservative side of these debates, and Grammar Girl is way over on the permissive side --- and in many ways, we are all correct. One can't be "wrong" in matters of taste.

Understand that grammar is not just a matter of simple right and wrong. There are also levels of formality and matters of taste. Grammar Girl is quite bright, but she doesn't know the GMAT and probably doesn't give a hoot about its standards. I know the standards of the GMAT relatively well. I can tell you that split infinitives & sentence ending in prepositions may be fine in your own writing and in writing out in the world, but they will never be part of a GMAT SC correct answer, and therefore, if a private company includes either of these in a GMAT practice question, that's a faux pas. The job of private companies writing GMAT prep questions is to model the real GMAT as accurately as possible.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Mike, any tips on how to find the parallel elements? Or it will come by just plain practice?
When I first solved this question, I thought the list was situated, surrounded, blessed, and a variety, a great restaurant, and a vital...
Basically, I thought there is a list of modifiers, three with past participle and other (I don't know what to call it) a list of things)

I got the question wrong but I didn't look the right answer, instead I solved it again. This time I thought that surrounded is modifying Adriatic Harbour, and mistook it as incorrect. Ended up choosing A this time.

Basically both the times I couldn't interpret the right list.

Dear b2bt,
I'm happy to respond.
This question from Veritas has a particular challenging structure, because one parallel structure is nested inside another----that is particularly challenging. Nested parallel structures are one of the hardest part about GMAT SC. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/nested-gr ... orrection/
How do you practice spotting and understanding parallelism? Well, first of all, read solutions carefully, so that you fully understand the parallelism once it is pointed out and explained. That's one important piece. Another important piece: READ. Read extensively, not just GMAT prep material but real-like news & business material. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-im ... bal-score/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-list/
The advanced piece is spotting nested parallelism structures----you will see these in sophisticated real-world writing, and if you get used to them in that context, then understanding them on the SC will be easier.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Hi mike @veritasprep,

I have a doubt related to option E. The OE says that the initial structure, " Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor, surrounded by hills, as well as blessed...." , is correct. I thought that since additive phrase act as a adjective it is just a fluf in the sentence, and hence we should put another AND between SITUATED and SURROUNDED. Am I wrong in this??

Dear pulkitaggi1,

I'm happy to respond.

If we have three elements, we know that this is correct.
P, Q, and R.
Everybody agrees on this: it is 100% correct.

The question raised by the OE concerns the following:
P, Q, as well as R
Hmmm. I would say this is in a gray zone. It's certainly something one hears in casual spoken English. It's not outright wrong. At the same time, I don't think this would pass muster on the GMAT SC: it doesn't sound high-brow and formal. It sounds a bit too casual. I don't believe the GMAT would ever have this structure in a correct answer, but I also don't think the GMAT would test the difference between these two.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Veritas Official Explanation


This long sentence correction problem contains several issues relating to parallelism and sentence construction. The key is to figure out from the different decision points what is supposed to be in the series. This is best accomplished with a very careful use of the “slash-and-burn” technique to simplify the choices.
Once you do that, you will see that only (C) gets the series correct: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, and blessed with A, B, C, and D, the city….”
(A) is wrong as it says: “Situated on X and surrounded by Y, blessed with A,B,C, and D, the city” This series has been “bungled” as there is an “and” first but then no “and” before the last element in the series.
(B) also gets it wrong: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, blessed with Z, and A, B, as well as D” That leaves three “ed” participles linked with the noun “A”. This is not a parallel structure.
In (D) the “as well as surrounded by hills” in the middle of the series is not parallel and incorrect.
For (E) it starts off fine: “Situated on X, surrounded by Y, as well as blessed with Z” but then there are multiple “and” elements tacked on to the end that are clearly incorrect.
Only (C) contains the necessary structure linking three parallel elements and is thus correct.

Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor and surrounded by hills, blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, a variety of museums, great restaurants, and a vital, multicultural population, the city has just about everything a visitor could ask for.
There are two lists in this sentence.
Situated, surrounded and blessed ( sunshine, museums, restaurants and population)

(A) Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor and surrounded by hills, blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, a variety of museums, great restaurants, and a vital, multicultural population

And surrounded is incorrect.
(B) Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor, surrounded by hills, blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, and a variety of museums, great restaurants, as well as a vital, multicultural population

There is no and before blessed
(C) Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor, surrounded by hills, and blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, a variety of museums, great restaurants, and a vital, multicultural population

This is the correct answer choice.
(D) Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor, as well as surrounded by hills, blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, a variety of museums, great restaurants, and a vital, multicultural population
As well as is incorrect in the sentence,

(E) Situated on a splendid Adriatic harbor, surrounded by hills, as well as blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, and a variety of museums, great restaurants, and a vital, multicultural population
As well as is incorrect in the sentence,

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