#4 In addition to her work on the miocene homicide fosiil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African paintings.

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of

(D) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

(E) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

I chose C because "with her discovery.." and "with her painstaking documentation of" seem parallel. What's wrong with my reasoning?

#13 Sixty-five million years ago, according to some scientists, an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into North America, which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks the end of the geologic era known as the Cretaceous Period.

(A) which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks

(B) which caused the plant and animal extinctions marking

(C) and causing plant and animal extinctions that mark

(D) an event that caused plant and animal extinctions, and it marks

(E) an event that caused the plant and animal extinctions that mark

I originally chose D. but looking back at the answer choice, I think "it" is not clear what is being referred to, correct?
However, in choice E, by having "that" marks the end of the geologic era known as the Cretaceous Period, is it clear that the clause is modifying the event instead of the animial extinctions?


#15 Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made


#32 the success of the program to eradicate smallpox has stimulated experts to pursue what they had not previously considered possible - better control, if not eradication, of the other infections such as measles and yaws.

(A) same as above

(B) what they had not previously considered a possibility - better control, if not eradication, of such infections like

(C) something they had not previously considered possible - better control, if not eradication, of such infections as

(D) something not considered a previous possibility - better control and perhaps eradication, of other infections such as

(E) the possibility of what they had not previously considered - better control and possibly eradication of infections like


#39. Although the turtle has been toothless for mo re than 150 million years. in some contemporary turtle species the moderately sharp and jagged edges of their horny jaws function for teeth.

A. their horny jaws function for teeth

B. its horny jaws function for teeth

C. its horny jaws function as do teeth

D the horny jaws function as teeth do

E the horny jaws function as teeth

I chose D because the horney jaws function as teeth do, making the two verbs to be parallel

---But still would Like to know why D is wrong.

Hi, please stick to one question per thread - open up a new thread for each question. I'll answer your first one here; please split the rest into their own threads. Thanks!



I've seen this one discussed before and students have reported seeing OA as both A and D on their GMATPrep software. So seems like something is not quite right with this one. Given the choices, I prefer D.

[EDITED TO ADD: Saurabh eventually discovered that the GMATPrep software has two different versions of this same question and, in one, the OA is A and in the other the OA is D. The version posted above is D.]

C is parallel but does not use the right idiom. We can say she was a contributor to archaelogy via or due to her discovery of (etc) but not that she was a contributer with (etc). A, B, and E both break parallelism.

In this case, the right answer might actually look wrong to many people (which often happens on tricky questions). The opening phrase is talking about her work and saying "in addition to" her work on the fossil record - so we need to say what it is that is referring to this work. Her work on the fossil record was one of her contributions, just as her discovery of hominid activity was one of her contributions. But that's pretty subtle - if you're reading too quickly, you'll think that the opening modifier is referring to Mary Leakey and so we need to have her follow the comma. (But that's not really what's going on - what's actually going on is that we have a list of 3 contributions, but one comes at the beginning of the sentence and the other two come towards the end.)

A simpler sentence with the same set-up:
In addition to food, the mother's contributions to her child include shelter and love.

And as a straight list:
The mother's contributions to her child include food, shelter, and love.
Mary Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity, and her painstaking documentation of East African paintings.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

chester,

Could you please post the OAs.Some of the answers posted are diff. then the OAs.

the OA for
Although the turtle has been toothless for more than 150 million years, in some contemporary turtle species the moderately sharp and jagged edges of their horny jaws function for teeth.

A their horny jaws function for teeth
B its horny jaws function for teeth
C its horny jaws function as do teeth
D the horny jaws function as teeth do
E the horny jaws function as teeth

is E

#15 Because she knew many of the leaders of colonial America and the American Revolution personally, Mercy Otis Warren was continually at or near the center of political events from 1765 to 1789, a vantage point combining with her talent for writing to make her one of the most valuable historians of the era

(A) same as above

(B) a vantage point, when combined with her talent for writing, that made

(C) a vantage point that combined with her talent for writing, and it made

(D) and this vantage point, which combined with her talent for writing to make

(E) and this vantage point, combined with her talent for writing, made

OA is E

#4 In addition to her work on the miocene homicide fosiil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African paintings.

(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaelogy with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of

(D) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of

(E) Leakey's contributions to archaelogy include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

There is no antecedent for "her"?

For example: "Jose's room is so messy that his mother calls HIM a pig" whom is him? because the subject is Jose's room not "jose" himself, so there is no antecedent for HIM.

Moderators, please shed some light.
Thanks from Singapore.
KH

hi people -

as stated above, please split this thread into separate threads for each of the questions. please do not post additional comments on this thread.

thanks.

her is not used as objective of she. its is here possessive case of she. so no need of antecedent for her.
ya him require an antecedent because it is objective.

Stacey,
You eliminated A & B based on paralleism, so do you mean:
In A it's wrong becos a noun phrase is parallel to participle (is "painstakingly documenting..." an adverb/verb participle ?)
(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting

I was thinking if "by" is added before then it makes the 2 Elements parallel by changing them to prepositional phrases. Is it wrong?
(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting

Thanks!

that version would still be inferior to the current correct answer (d).

in the correct answer, you have three absolutely parallel items:
her work ...
her discovery ...
her painstaking documentation ...

all three of these are nouns. all three are preceded by the possessive "her". there is absolutely no question that they exhibit better parallelism than the version you've suggested (although yours does improve somewhat on the given answer choice).

your version has another problem, which you hadn't probably considered: the two items should ALSO be parallel to the item at the BEGINNING of the sentence (i.e., "her work...", following "in addition to"). the context dictates that all three of these items are parallel - they have equal priority and are mentioned in exactly the same context - so you have to make ALL of them parallel.
this means that you have trouble if the latter two (the ones in the underline) start with "by", since the first one (outside the underline) doesn't.

--

in any case, you're making this a lot harder for yourself than it needs to be. remember, your job is not to CREATE the most parallel structure, from scratch; rather, your job is simply to CHOOSE which OPTION is the most parallel.

it should be clear that her work + her discovery + her documentation is more parallel than her work + by her discovery + by her painstakingly documenting.
very clear.
as long as you can make that judgment, your work here is done. DO NOT TRY TO CREATE YOUR OWN "IDEAL" VERSIONS OF SENTENCES; JUST STICK TO EVALUATING WHAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU.
i'm a writer and editor myself, so i am tempted to do this all the time. but it's only the choices laid out in front of you that matter.

this is good news, though: it's much easier to select which of 2-5 choices is better/best than to design an optimal choice from scratch.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

I concur with what Ron said.

I for one saw the problem from the other version of Gmat Prep in which parallelism was maintained only in A.

Thank you all, and going forward please do open a new thread for each problem.

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Amazing explanation Ron - thanks.

Stacy, would you please give an example where 'her' is used as objective pronoun.
Thanks

I saw her..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor