Get me the book that sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very

Question

Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick .

(A) sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick

(B) sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and is very thick

(C) sitting on the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick

(D) sits on the top shelf, bright red, and very thick

(E) is sitting on the top shelf, bright red, and very thick

This is  not  representative of a GMAT question. This is simply an SC "drill."

I think it's still helpful and worth attempting.

MikeScarn · Accepted Answer

baru  is exactly correct.

TheSueBear ,  sonusaini1 ,  azoz7 , I'm happy to help. First of all, the source of the question is EmpowerGMAT, which is shown in the Tags of this topic.

When we open up a list of items, each item needs to be able to make sense on its own. The verbs need to be consistent in form/tense, as well. We can break these items up and test them.

(A) Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick

Item 1: Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf . -  Cool, this makes sense. No problem. 
Item 2: Get me the book that  is bright red . -  Yep. This is fine. We're looking good, so far. 
Item 3: Get me the book that  very thick . -  Uh oh. This item doesn't have a verb, but our other two items have a verb. So this is not grammatically correct.

(B) Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and is very thick

Item 1: Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf .  Good. 
Item 2: Get me the book that  is bright red .  Good. 
Item 3: Get me the book that  is very thick .  Good! All three of these items have a verb and the verbs are all in present tense!

(C) Get me the book that  sitting on the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick

Item 1: Get me the book that  sitting on the top shelf . -  WRONG. We don't have a working verb here.

(D) Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf, bright red, and very thick .

Item 1: Get me the book that  sits on the top shelf . -  Good. 
Item 2: Get me the book that  bright red . -  Okay this one is obviously wrong. But maybe you're thinking "Mike, we have a parallel structure and we're only listing our working verb in the first item, but it will apply to all of the other items."  And to you I say, "I like where you're head is at. You understand your parallel structures, but I want to give it a shot and see if it makes sense."
Item 2  borrowing our first verb : Get me the book that  sits bright red .  Welp, no luck. "Sits bright red" makes not sense.

(E) Get me the book that  is sitting on the top shelf, bright red, and very thick

(E) is similar to (D) in that it only has the working verb "is" in the first item, so we'll try to apply it to all 3 items and see if it makes sense.

Item 1: Get me the book that  is sitting on the top shelf . -  Good. 
Item 2: Get me the book that  is bright red . -  Good. 
Item 3: Get me the book that  is very thick . -  Good.

Both (B) and (E) make sense!!!

But hang on a second... if you look carefully, (E) is not consistent in it's verb tense. 
Item 1: "is sitting" is in  Present Progressive .
Item 2 and 3 are in  Present Simple .
It is   Grammatically Incorrect to not be consistent with our verb tenses in a list of items.

Eliminate E

Does all of this make sense? Any questions? I hope I this helps.

baru · Answer

Get me the book 
 that sits on top shelf,
 that is bright red,
 that is very think

Only option B has perfect parallelism.

Posted from my mobile device

TheSueBear · Answer

Can someone tell me why a is wrong? It has parallelism in the sense ‘is’ can work for both bright red and very thick right?

Posted from my mobile device

surendrasaini1 · Answer

Dear Mike, what is the source of this question?

Posted from my mobile device

azoz7 · Answer

Thanks for the good question. I chose A. Can someone help me in understanding the rule for this question?

Thanks

azoz7 · Answer

Hi Mike,

This is very clear. Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

I'm not coming across this question in any EMPOWERgmat material. Where did you find this question?

MRAJINKYA · Answer

the top shelf, is bright red, and very thick

is wrong because there is comma before "and", denoting it is a nested list

If we can remove the comma before "and"  ans(a)   becomes correct

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

Get me the book that sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Get me the book that sits on the top shelf, is bright red, and very

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards