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605-655 Level|   Parallelism|   Verb Tense/Form|               
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EducationAisle
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 21 Oct 2021, 02:40
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rocky620
Dear Experts, AndrewN, EducationAisle, VeritasKarishma

What is wrong in the below interpretation of Option A:

1. The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally taped her confidential conversations with her client and then [of having] used the information obtained to find evidence supporting their murder charges.

Suspicion is about - Of having illegally taped and [Of having] used.

So, the verb used is parallel to the verb taped, and both have the subject THE POLICE. And the entire part after suspected would be the Object of the word suspected.
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Perhaps A can be interpreted in this manner.

But A can also be interpreted as:

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected....and used..

So, at the very least, there is an ambiguity in terms of how A can be interpreted. D removes that ambiguity and hence, is a better answer.

p.s. A minor correction: if we are interpreting A as "(of having) used", then used is a past participle (and not verb).
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 21 Oct 2021, 22:25
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rocky620
Dear Experts, AndrewN, EducationAisle, VeritasKarishma

What is wrong in the below interpretation of Option A:

1. The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally taped her confidential conversations with her client and then [of having] used the information obtained to find evidence supporting their murder charges.

Suspicion is about - Of having illegally taped and [Of having] used.

So, the verb used is parallel to the verb taped, and both have the subject THE POLICE. And the entire part after suspected would be the Object of the word suspected.
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There are various ways in which we can write this:

She suspected the police of doing A and of doing B.
She suspected the police of doing A and doing B.
She suspected the police of doing A and B.


The interpretation you have given is not ideal.
...she suspected the police of having illegally taped ... and then (of having illegally) used ...

We have the word "illegally" and it logically modifies taping. It doesn't logically modify "used".
It makes sense to say that the police "illegally taped the convos" and then "used the info obtained to find evidence."
If "taped" is parallel to "used", "used" is effectively preceded by "of having illegally".

Also, "having illegally taped the convos" is the completion of the action. So "and then.." should be followed by the next complete action. So "of using" makes more sense.
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 08 Nov 2021, 13:04
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I still don't understand why A doesn't work. Why can't the sentence mean:

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally [...] used the information obtained to find evidence supporting their murder charges.
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 09 Nov 2021, 04:14
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ali267
I still don't understand why A doesn't work. Why can't the sentence mean:

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally [...] used the information obtained to find evidence supporting their murder charges.
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Hello ali267,

We hope this finds you well.

Here, Option A is incorrect because "having" and "used" are joined by a conjunction (the phrase "and then") but are not parallel; please remember, any elements joined by conjunction must be parallel. Further, we must conclude that these are the elements that are joined, as they refer to the two actions that the lawyer "accused" the police of - "having illegally taped" and using the information. Another way to look at it is that they must be parallel because they are the two elements in the list of actions the lawyer accused the police of; remember, all elements in a list must be parallel.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 07 May 2022, 00:46
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mikemcgarry
PLease explain why can't taped and used be parallel? Making C the correct answer. How do we know what the author wants t be parallel?
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 23 May 2022, 14:04
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GMATNinja, can you please clarify why A is not correct?
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 26 Dec 2022, 23:41
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Can someone explain to me why "suspected the police of having illegally taped..." and "suspected the police of having illegally used..." can't be parallel?
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 27 Dec 2022, 02:41
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Sahil2208
Can someone explain to me why "suspected the police of having illegally taped..." and "suspected the police of having illegally used..." can't be parallel?
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Hey Sahil2208

Happy to help.

They are indeed parallel. But parallelism is not the issue, "MEANING" is. "Using information" is not illegal. "Taping confidential conversations" is illegal. So, we need a structure that restricts the influence of "illegally" to just "taping".

Hope this helps.

Happy Learning!

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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 27 Dec 2022, 04:59
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Sahil2208
Can someone explain to me why "suspected the police of having illegally taped..." and "suspected the police of having illegally used..." can't be parallel?
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Hello Sahil2208,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, these two phrases are actually perfectly parallel; the error in the phrase "suspected the police of having illegally used" is that it incorrectly implies that the actions of taping the conversations between the lawyer and her client and using the relevant to find evidence are both illegal; the intended meaning is just that taping the conversations between the lawyer and her client is illegal - the sentence does not mention whether using the information to find other evidence is legal or illegal.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha Updated on: 18 Sep 2023, 22:30
Originally posted by KarishmaB on 12 Jan 2023, 21:20.
Last edited by KarishmaB on 18 Sep 2023, 22:30, edited 1 time in total.
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Ayrish
The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally taped her confidential conversations with her client and then used the information obtained to find evidence supporting their murder charges.


(A) used the information obtained to find evidence supporting

(B) used such information as they obtained to find evidence supporting

(C) used the information they had obtained to find evidence that would support

(D) of using the information they had obtained to find evidence that would support

(E) of using such information as they obtained to find evidence that would be supportive of

Show Spoiler
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/05/nyregion/tainted-evidence-murder-trial-to-open.html

Mr. Greenblatt charged afterward that he suspected the police of having illegally taped the confidential conversations and then used the information to seek evidence to support their murder charges.

OA is D, however I have concerns according of the answer (q. is form 1000sc), and here they are:
1) they? according to the oxford vocabulary POLICE is singular.
2) I think that USE should be parallel to TAPED because of THAN
...she suspected of having illegaly taped and than used inf....
...she suspected of having illegaly taped and than of using inf.. this one is sound like She first suspected of having... and than she suspected of using... .
Correct me if I am mistaken. Thanx.
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One of the difficult questions though only a small part of the sentence is underlined.

The sentence tells us that the lawyer charged that she suspected the police of taping the conversations and then using the information obtained to find evidence that would support the charges.
We will focus on the ‘that clause’:

She suspected the police of doing two things: ‘having taped…’ and ‘used/using the info’

Recall the perfect gerund forms.
She suspected the police of doing ‘what’? Having taped the conversations (answers ‘what’)
‘having illegally taped her conversations …’ is acting as a noun and is hence, a perfect gerund phrase. Perfect gerund is used here because this event of taping is complete before the other event of using.

She suspected the police of doing two things and the two are combined by ‘and’ so the two things must be in parallel. Let’s break down the option (A) into its parallel components
… she suspected the police of (two things)
- having illegally taped … and then
- used the ...

Do both parallel elements work in the sentence? ‘She suspected the police of used the …’ is not correct. We need another gerund, perhaps ‘using.’

If we were to instead break it down like this:
… she suspected the police
- of having illegally taped … and then
- used the ...

This is not correct either because the two elements are not parallel. The first element is a prepositional phrase while the second element is a verb phrase. ‘Used’ would work if we were to re-write the sentence as ‘she suspected that the police taped the … and then used the …’
So, options (A), (B) and (C) are incorrect.

Options (D) and (E) both use prepositional phrases ‘of having taped…’ and ‘of using …’ with a perfect gerund and a gerund. They have much better parallelism.

We prefer verb forms over noun/adjective forms so ‘would support’ is preferable to ‘would be supportive of.’ Then option (D) is preferable to option (E).
Also, the use of ‘such information as’ in (E) is pointlessly indirect.

Answer (D)
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 18 Jan 2023, 23:42
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can anybody explain the use of "had" in the right answer choice.
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 19 Jan 2023, 00:16
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raaajx
can anybody explain the use of "had" in the right answer choice.
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I am assuming you are referring to "had obtained".

That is called Past perfect tense and is typically used to depict chronological sequence (time sequence) of two events, both of which happened in the past. In such cases, past perfect is used to depict the earlier of the two events.

Here, two events happened in the past were:

(i) Police obtained the information by illegally taping confidential conversations

(ii) Police used that information to find evidence that would support their murder charges

Since (i) happened before (ii), past perfect is used to depict (i), the earlier of the two events.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Past perfect tense, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 19 Jan 2023, 00:19
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raaajx
can anybody explain the use of "had" in the right answer choice.
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Hey raaajx

Happy to help.

Let's look at the correct answer choice:

D: The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having illegally taped her confidential conversations with her client and then of using the information they had obtained to find evidence that would support their murder charges.

Sentence Structure:

  • The lawyer for the defense
    • charged that she
      • suspected the police
        • of having illegally taped her confidential conversations with her client and then
        • of using the information they had obtained
          • to find evidence that would support their murder charges.

Order of Events:
  • The entire sentence is in the past, because the main verb "charged" is in the past.
  • The second event "suspected" occurred at the same time as "charged", because she would not have charged without suspicion. So, both "charged" and "suspected" occurred at some point in the past.
  • The verb-ing noun "having illegally taped" is in the "Perfect Form" ("having taped" and not "taping"), because this event would logically have had to happened before the suspicion arose.
  • The second verb-ing noun "using" is not in the "Perfect Form" ("using" and not "having used"), because this event would logically have occurred after the taping of the confidential conversations.
  • Finally, and therefore, the verb "had obtained" pertains to the information obtained at the time of "taping". Since "taping" occurred before "using", obviously "obtaining" also occurred before "using". This is why the tense of "having illegally taped" and "had obtained" must be the same. In other words, they must both be in the Past Perfect Tense.

I hope this explanation was lucid enough to follow. Please revert for further clarification, if required.

Happy learning!

Abhishek
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 18 Sep 2023, 05:26
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having
1. illegally taped .....
2. used the information....

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police
1. of having illegally taped ...
2. of using the information ....

Both these parallelism seem fair. While the second one is slightly clearer meaning-wise than the fist one. I am not able to conclusively eliminate the first ||ism.

AndrewN DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - May I request your help, please? Thank you
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 18 Sep 2023, 18:17
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vishalsinghvs08
The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having
1. illegally taped .....
2. used the information....

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police
1. of having illegally taped ...
2. of using the information ....

Both these parallelism seem fair. While the second one is slightly clearer meaning-wise than the fist one. I am not able to conclusively eliminate the first ||ism.

AndrewN DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - May I request your help, please? Thank you
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The issue with these is not really the parallelism of "having tape" and "used," it's that whichever form the second clause in question takes, it needs to begin with "of," because this is the second thing in a list of things she accused the police of doing. She suspected the police "of x... and of y" is what we're looking for. Without the "of" it's unclear whether this is the second thing she's accusing the police of or whether this is supposed to be a continuation of the previous thought.
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 18 Sep 2023, 22:45
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vishalsinghvs08
The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having
1. illegally taped .....
2. used the information....

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police
1. of having illegally taped ...
2. of using the information ....

Both these parallelism seem fair. While the second one is slightly clearer meaning-wise than the fist one. I am not able to conclusively eliminate the first ||ism.

AndrewN DanTheGMATMan KarishmaB - May I request your help, please? Thank you
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This is incorrect:

The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of having
1. illegally taped .....
2. used the information....

We use 'having used...' to show an action before another.
Having completed by project early, I decided to go for a movie.
Having taped her conversation, the police used ...

In this parallel structure, you are implying the use of 'of having taped' and 'of having used...' Where is the next action then?
We will not have 'of having' common to both 'taped' and 'used'. Also, in that case it seems that 'illegally' is common to both which doesn't make sense.

'Having taped' is one complete action and the next action then would be 'using'
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The lawyer for the defense charged that she suspected the police of ha 14 Oct 2023, 10:02
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Option Elimination -

(A) used the information obtained to find evidence supporting - "used" can be parallel to "suspected," but that doesn't make sense. "used" is not parallel to "taped" because "of having taped" is an earlier action before they used the information. They are not taping and using the information at the same time. So, the only option left is "used" and "suspected." But the meaning is a disaster.

(B) used such information as they obtained to find evidence supporting - same as A - "used" and "suspected" parallelism issue.

(C) used the information they had obtained to find evidence that would support - same as A - "used" and "suspected" parallelism issue.

(D) of using the information they had obtained to find evidence that would support - makes sense. Here, the prepositional phrase "of using ..." is parallel to the earlier prepositional phrase "of having...." Moreover, the use of past perfect is ok. Earlier action is obtaining information, and later action is using information. Just that, as mikemcgarry also pointed out. Using the conditional here is a bit off with the verb suspected. But other options have bigger problems. Again we have to remind ourselves, that we are trying not to find the perfect option to meet all the GMAT English norms but to find the best option amongst the five given options.

(E) of using such information as they obtained to find evidence that would be supportive of - "such information as they obtained" is redundant because it essentially means the same as "the information they obtained." Moreover, "evidence that would be supportive of" is unnecessarily wordier than "evidence that would support."
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