The two main approaches to socio-political analysis of Alice in Wonder

Is "praising the author's dexterity" not the prepositional object of "consist of"?
Can a verb possess two prepositional objects in tandem without any conjunction?

Parallelism occurs in "either praising.... or examining", which is only in Option A or E. "Portray..." is not part of the parallelism set up here.

Hello, Option d starts with to+clause [ infinitive ] and its used to describer or elaborate intent of action performed/ Whereas as per meaning its describing author's dexcerity , whoch noun so use of ing

Hi AndrewN,

I have a small doubt here.

In the option choices A and E, what makes the option choice E wrong compared to A?

Why is ...consist of... author's dexterity in portraying such caricatures preferred over ....consist of... author's dexterity to portray such caricatures?

Also, is this on the lines of what GMAT tests?

Hello, PyjamaScientist. Yes, I think this type of question could show up on the GMAT™. Right away, we are forced to confront an idiom, at least if we go on a case-by-case basis within the underlined portion.

Split #1: Idiom — dexterity in portraying versus dexterity to portray

Analysis: This is a call on which idiom belongs, and to a native speaker, the infinitive clearly loses out. Somebody displays dexterity in doing something, not to do something. Both (D) and (E) can fall by the wayside if you know this idiom.

Split #2: Idiom — or versus and

Analysis: Since the non-underlined portion says consist of either, we expect to see an either X or Y construct, not a decidedly unidiomatic either X and Y. Choices (B) and (C) can be eliminated. This is not the sort of issue that ought to be plaguing anyone who wishes to score well on the GMAT™.

If you catch the first two splits, then you are already in a position to get behind (A), the original sentence, as the only answer that makes sense. (I did commit to it at this point—the question took me 28 seconds.) However, there are other points of discussion, so I will keep going.

Split #3: Parallelism

(A) in portraying... or examining
(B) in portraying... and to examine
(C) in portraying... and examining
(D) to portray... or to examine
(E) to portray... or examining

Analysis: Once you start studying for the exam, you come to appreciate how much the test prefers parallel constructs. Here, choices (B) and (E) present mismatched pairs of words with some sort of -ing/infinitive combination, and that is a no-no.

There is really no justifiable answer but (A) here. It ticks all the right boxes, and, most importantly, nothing else does.

I hope the above analysis proves useful to you. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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