Long Long sentence - Need Help from Gurus

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sharad

#243943 Sun, 09 Jul 06 12:47 PM

Hi All,

Need help with a following sentence for my GMAT preparation... This sentence appeared in sentence-correction section and
according to Kaplan test material, this sentence is correct..

Can any one tell me how parallelism is achieved in this sentence ?? And is the usage of 'their' proper
in this sentence ?

thanks a million - Sharad.

sharad

Joined on Thu, Sep 23 2004

Junior Member (94)

Marius Hancu

#243949 Sun, 09 Jul 06 01:22 PM

Parallelism?

One can identify 3 components of tenants' appartments:
interiors
floors
walls
each of which is described in sequence, with more details for each in
the listing.

"Their" usage is typical. Nothing fancy here.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Philip

#243964 Sun, 09 Jul 06 03:10 PM

Marius Hancu wrote:
Parallelism?

One can identify 3 components of tenants' appartments:
interiors
floors
walls
each of which is described in sequence, with more details for each in
the listing.

"Their" usage is typical. Nothing fancy here.

That is why I would use a colon after 'apartments', just as you did. Then, 'whose' and 'their' can be replaced by 'the', in case someone doing the testing feels that those words should not be used with things other than humans.

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (6,181)

At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

Colons

MrPedantic

#244046 Mon, 10 Jul 06 12:27 AM

I think I would probably replace "whose interiors" with "the interiors of which"; as it stands, it does sound a little as if the tenants' interiors are inhumanely overcrowded (which they may well be).

The "their" is fine, and refers back to "apartments".

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,053)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Clive

#244092 Mon, 10 Jul 06 04:37 AM

Hi,

Can any one tell me how parallelism is achieved in this sentence ??

Parallelism is a repetition of a grammatical structure. By this definition, parallelism is reflected in

. . . to investigate .. . . and (to) photograph . . .

You might also say it is reflected in

. . . their floors . . . their walls . . .

However, I don't see a simple repetition of nouns (eg . . . age . . neglect . . . ) or of adjectives (eg . . . windowless . . . dilapidated. . . ) to be very meaningful parallellism, but rather just simple lists.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (21,191)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Nouns

sharad

#244516 Tue, 11 Jul 06 07:47 AM

Thanks and sorry for the late reply.. a quick question....

Are - "whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded" , "their floors often serving as beds" and "their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect".- parallel ?

I am thinking that they aren't parallel.. If so, aren't they supposed to be parallel ?

The reason I am thinking they aren't parallel is because - tenses are different and "whose" doesn't parallel "their"... I somehow think that second and third portions should be - whose floors often served(served - to indicate past as in "were" of first part) as beds and "whose walls were often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect..

Please comment. - Thank you ..

Sharad..

sharad

Tenses