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parallelism
parveen chaudhary
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PARALLELISM-please help

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Q) Robert,who is actually quit honest and not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.

a) not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
b) not inclined to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
c) who is not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
d) who is not inclined to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
e) is not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion
Re: parallelism
Ron Purewal
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Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 2366

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parveen chaudhary wrote:
PARALLELISM-please help

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Q) Robert,who is actually quit honest and not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.

a) not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
b) not inclined to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
c) who is not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
d) who is not inclined to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion.
e) is not having the inclination to rob anyone,nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion


could you please state the source of this question? it's highly unlikely that this problem comes from the official gmatprep software.

i have moved the thread to the 'general verbal questions' thread.

please state the source of the question within the next week; thank you.
source of the question
parveen chaudhary
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Sorry sir for getting late.
The source of the question was my own mental construction-as I was confused:
1)From where to start parallellism
2)How to avoid redundancy while making a sentence parallel.
3)Which option is the best one and why?
Jonathon Winawer
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Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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I like B but since it is not a real question it is kind of a moot point. For parallelism, you can try thinking about it like math:

Robert,who is actually (quite honest and not inclined to rob anyone)... = Robert,who is actually quite honest and who is not inclined to rob anyone...

That is, you can distribute the verb "is" to both adjectives, "honest" and "inclined". There are no hard and fast rules for when you need to repeat, but a good rule of thumb is that if the two parts of the parallel structure are very far apart, then you should repeat more so that it is easier to see how they connect.

If you have a two part idiom, like "either... or" or "both... and", then you do need parallel structures after each of the two parts. So...

"Robert,who is actually BOTH quite honest AND not inclined to rob anyone..." is OK.

"Robert, BOTH who is actually quite honest AND who is not inclined to rob anyone..." is also OK (regarding parallelism, though a little awkward in construction).
dps
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In all these answer choices, sentence structure is:
Robert, who is blah blah, nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion

"who is .." is non-essential modifier, so you can remove it from sentence and it should still make sense
So if we do that

Robert nevertheless thinks about crime and fashion
doesn't make sense..

Is my point correct? Can this happen on real GMAT question?
Jonathan Schneider
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Joined: 26 Oct 2008
Posts: 325

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Actually, I think the word "nevertheless" is fine. In a way, it connects the idea of the modifier to the idea of the main clause. As a result, I'm not sure you can say the modifier is non-essential, even though it is set off by commas. The commas might just be to benefit clarity. But as Jonathan W mentioned above, since it's not a real question, probaly not worth pulling your hair out over it.
parallelism
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