{"id":5058,"date":"2013-02-21T08:26:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\/blog\/?p=5058"},"modified":"2019-09-05T16:14:38","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:14:38","slug":"whats-parallel-to-what-parallelism-and-meaning-in-gmatprep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/blog\/whats-parallel-to-what-parallelism-and-meaning-in-gmatprep\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Parallel to What? Parallelism and Meaning in GMATPrep"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I read the original sentence in the below SC problem, I thought to myself: wait, what? What are you actually trying to say?\"gmat I knew immediately that this would be a good one to discuss with all of you. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Let’s try it out (1 minute 15 seconds) and then we’ll dive in. This question is from the free problem set included in the new GMATPrep 2.0 version of the software.<\/p>\n

* \u009d Displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights,\u009d can heat the atmosphere over the arctic enough to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induce<\/span> electric currents that can cause blackouts in some areas and corrosion in north-south pipelines.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(A) to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induce<\/p>\n

(B) that the trajectories of ballistic missiles are affected, induce<\/p>\n

(C) that it affects the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induces<\/p>\n

(D) that the trajectories of ballistic missiles are affected and induces<\/p>\n

(E) to affect the trajectories of ballistic missiles and induce\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was my thought process as I read that first sentence:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Text<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Displays of the aurora borealis, or northern lights,\u009d can heat<\/td>\nCore sentence: displays can heat<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the atmosphere over the arctic enough to affect<\/span><\/td>\nunderline just started; why here?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
the trajectories of ballistic missiles, induce<\/span><\/td>\nAh, parallelism! It’s a list. To affect<\/em>, (to) induce<\/em> so I’m looking for an and\u009d followed by a third infinitive verb.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
electric currents that can cause blackouts in some areas and<\/td>\nGreat, here’s the and\u009d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
corrosion in north-south pipelines<\/td>\nHuh? Okay, corrosion<\/em> clearly doesn’t fit with the first two \u201c it’s not an infinitive verb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nNow I’m confused about the basic meaning. The northern lights affect missile trajectories, induce currents and cause<\/span> corrosion? Is that what they’re trying to say but they didn’t put the verb in? Something seems weird. The first two are verbs \u201c and we do need a verb to follow heat the atmosphere enough to<\/em> do something else but the third one is a noun and I can’t change it. It’s not underlined.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right about now, I noticed something that changed my entire view of the sentence. Initially, after seeing what looked like the first two items on a list, my instinct was to look for a list of three things: X, Y, and Z<\/em>. By the end, though, I’m questioning my instinct because it seems like I have to have verb forms and yet that third item, a noun, can’t be changed (since it isn’t underlined). What to do?<\/p>\n

And this is when I notice a tiny little detail that opened up the problem for me. The structure for a list of three things is X, Y, and Z<\/em>. We have to have a comma after the Y<\/em> and before the and<\/em>. But there’s no comma before the and<\/em> in the original sentence! In other words that and corrosion<\/em> piece is not intended to be the third item in a list of three things!<\/p>\n

Wow. Okay, if that and<\/em> is not meant to be the third item in the list, then what does it go with? The word and<\/em> always indicates parallelism, so what is corrosion<\/em> parallel to?<\/p>\n

Oh, I think I get it now. Check this out:<\/p>\n

electric currents that can cause blackouts<\/strong> in some areas and<\/strong> corrosion<\/strong> in north-south pipelines.\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The structure is actually cause X and Y<\/em>\u009d where X = blackouts<\/em> and Y = corrosion<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Where does that leave us with the earlier part of the sentence? I’m not sure. Maybe the first two things need an and<\/em> in order to make them parallel (affect and induce<\/em>). Or maybe the second item is supposed to be a modifier for the first, something like this: affect the trajectories of missiles, inducing<\/span> electric currents that can cause X and Y. I have no idea how they’ll try to fix this \u201c time to check the other answers (and eliminate answer A)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n

answer text<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

does it fix the problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

(B)<\/td>\nthat <\/em>(X) the trajectories<\/em>, (Y) induce<\/em><\/td>\nNo. Trajectories<\/em> is a noun, but induce<\/em> is a verb; they’re not parallel. Eliminate B.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(C)<\/td>\nthat it<\/em> (X) affects<\/em>, (Y) induces<\/em> and?<\/td>\nNo. Affects<\/em> and induces<\/em> are parallel but they have no and<\/em> in between. We still can’t use and corrosion<\/em> as the third item on the list, though, both because there’s no comma before the word and<\/em> and because corrosion<\/em> is a noun while affects<\/em> and induces<\/em> are verbs. Eliminate C.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(D)<\/td>\nthat the trajectories<\/em> (X) are affected and<\/em> (Y) induces<\/em><\/td>\nNo. They inserted the word and<\/em> between the two verbs, which is a good move, but are affected<\/em> is plural (and matches the plural subject trajectories<\/em>), while induces<\/em> is singular (and so doesn’t match the plural subject). Eliminate D.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(E)<\/td>\nto<\/em> (X) affect and<\/em> (Y) induce<\/em><\/td>\nBingo! They’ve inserted the word and<\/em> between the two verbs and also made sure that the two are parallel (they’re both in the infinitive form).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The correct answer is E.<\/p>\n

The core structure of the correct sentence (E) is:<\/p>\n

Displays (of the aurora borealis) can heat the atmosphere enough to affect X and induce Y.\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That Y\u009d portion can be broken out in this way:<\/p>\n

electric currents that can cause M and N\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that the problem also tests a particular idiom: can heat X enough to Y<\/em>. Answers B, C, and D all incorrectly replace the word to<\/em> with the word that<\/em>: can heat X enough that Y<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Be very careful when learning this idiom; in other circumstances, the word enough<\/em> can<\/span> be followed by the word that<\/em>. This sentence is correct, for example: Studying is important enough that we should make it a priority. In our given sentence, though, we were trying to say that the atmosphere could be heated enough to cause another action to happen. The action should be in verb form: enough to .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways for Parallelism and Meaning<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) Sometimes, the original sentence will seem to imply a certain structure or a certain way of reading it only to fall apart as you continue to read the sentence. This might also mess up your understanding of the meaning of the sentence.<\/p>\n

(2) If this happens, try to figure out why you had a certain expectation in the first place. I thought the sentence was going to have the X, Y, and Z<\/em> structure, because the first two components (X, Y) were there. Once I looked for the third element (, and Z<\/em>) and realized that the sentence couldn’t work that way, I was on my way to solving the problem.<\/p>\n

(3) Little clues can sometimes make a big difference. In the real world, you will see lists written in two different ways: X, Y and Z<\/em> or X, Y, and Z<\/em>. What’s the difference? The presence or absence of the second comma. The GMAT always uses the second comma (the latter example), so if you think you might have a list of three things but something seems funny, look for that comma. If it’s not there, then that sentence or answer choice is not trying to give a list of three things.<\/p>\n

* GMATPrep questions courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I read the original sentence in the below SC problem, I thought to myself: wait, what? What are you actually trying to say? I knew immediately that this would be a good one to discuss with all of you. \ud83d\ude42 Let’s try it out (1 minute 15 seconds) and then we’ll dive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[585],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-parallelism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17643,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058\/revisions\/17643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5058"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}