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GMAT Prep: My Answer to Student’s Question on “Superficial Vs. Actual Parallelism”
So someone sent me this question to answer. He/she was getting confused with some of the concepts that he/she was reading from the Manhattan book for SC.
First, let me say that there is no such thing as “superficial” or “actual” parallelism! It’s amazing what fancy terms people throw around when the underlying concept is actually really simple!
Here’s what this person said:
GMAT Student: I have been refering to the Manhattan book for SC. It gives an eg. of superficial parallelism where there is a main clause and subordinate clause. It is illustrated in the eg. below:‘Ken travelled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture.’
At first it might not sound right but according to Manhattan ppl the main clause is that ‘Ken travelled around the world’ and that ‘visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture’ is part of the subordinate clause, and it only provides additional information about the travel….According to this, ”Ken travelled around the world, visited historic sites, ate native foods, and learnt about new cultures’… would be incorrect because equal importance is given to all the clauses…
I totally understood this concept but now when i do sentences sometimes I cannot differentiate between sentences that require different parallelism in the main clause and subordinate clause and one’s that do not…
So please give me clarity on this concept, and also help me with the following sentence:
The galloping boulder bumped against the hillside, kicking up cloud of dust, and slightly changed direction.
A. kicking up cloud of dust
B. a cloud of dust is kicked up
C. a cloud of dust is kicking up
D. kicks up a cloud of dust
E. kicked up a cloud of dustNormally I would select E as the answer, but after knowing the rule of superficial vs actual parallelism I chose A, because according to me kicking up a cloud of dust is just a result of the boulder bumping against the hillside….
So now I’m waiting for help to know the right ans..and the logic behind it too…
Now, here’s my response. Hopefully you can answer this quickly as well.
GMATPill: I actually arrived at the answer E within 10 seconds without even considering the other answer choices.
How? Let me explain–it’s actually pretty simple.
You are confusing parallelism with “-ING” verbs in the context of “phrase, main sentence” structures.Quote:
The galloping boulder bumped against the hillside, kicking up cloud of dust, and slightly changed direction.A. kicking up cloud of dust
B. a cloud of dust is kicked up
C. a cloud of dust is kicking up
D. kicks up a cloud of dust
E. kicked up a cloud of dustStep 1) Examine the sentence structure: I noticed there were a bunch of commas and then the key word “and”–indicating this is a list of stuff……a, b, and c.
Step 2) Know that with lists (a, b, and c) all three items MUST be consistent. If one is in past tense, then they all must be in past tense. If one is an -ING verb, then they all must be -ING verbs.
Step 3) Notice the non-underlined portion has PAST-tense verbs: “bumped” and “slightly changed”
Step 4) Know that the form of “kick” must be “kicked”—which only answer E has. So I’m pretty confident E is the answer. I mark it and move on.
All that happened within 10 seconds.
Now let’s look at the first sentence you brought up:
‘Ken travelled around the world, visiting historic sites, eating native foods, and learning about new culture.’Step 1) Notice the verb is “travelled”
Step 2) Notice there’s a bunch of other verbs “visiting” “eating” “learning”—but wait a minute! These are -ING verbs!What do we know about -ING verbs especially when they are located next to commas? They modify the SUBJECT of the main sentence—which is Ken.
Step 3) Flip the sentence so it’s easier to read:
“Visiting historic sites, Ken travelled around the world.”
“Eating native foods, Ken travelled around the world.”
“Learning about new culture, Ken travelled around the world.”Step 4) Recognize that the -ING verbs are just descriptive phrases that describe Ken as he “travelled around the world.”
This sentence structure is TOTALLY different from the other example where you have a list of A, B, and C!
Hope that helps!Leave a reply
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