Does the conclusion escape you? Has understanding the tone of the passage gotten you down? Get help here.
RichaChampion
Students
 
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:58 pm
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by RichaChampion Fri Apr 15, 2016 4:23 am

tim Wrote:I'm actually going to disagree with Ron here. If you recapitulate the subject, you now have two independent clauses, which is pretty universally considered wrong in English grammar unless you have a comma in front of the "and" joining the two independent clauses. I am not aware of the GMAT violating this rule in an official problem (even the Josephine Baker problem you reference gets it right), but if they have I'm sure Ron will point it out and I'll be happy to withdraw my claim. :)

I'll also repeat here what I've said many times before: In all my years of teaching the GMAT, I have never once seen an official problem that actually relies on concision to reach the correct answer. This means that anytime the GMAT claims an answer choice is incorrect because it is "wordy" or "awkward", the explanation is WRONG, and your job is to find out the real reason why that answer choice is incorrect. Again, if Ron can provide an example I'll recant.


Hello Tim Sir,

You are a very powerful critical thinker.

I also agree with you on your above analysis.

There is one another thread on a different question where discussion is going on.Click Here.

Based on the above 2 discussion I am summarizing something.

#1 Clause 1, and Clause 2 -
Here both Clause 1 and Clause 2 should have their independent subjects and most importantly subjects can't be ommitted if both the clauses have the same subject.

The boy ate lunch, and he played football. - [IC, and IC] Correct One
The boy ate lunch, and played football. [IC, and verb.......] -Wrong One

Is my understanding correct.

Moving forward - Please check if my understanding is correct?
For example, consider the following sentences
1. The boy ate lunch and played football. -Correct One
2. The boy ate lunch and he played football. -Wrong One

As Ron Sir has also given a reference to another OG13 question, but since those questions cant be hosted here. I am giving an external link.

In this Option A can be disregarded based on what we have discussed Analogy sentence:
2. The boy ate lunch and he played football. -Wrong One

Right Tim Sir?
Richa,
My GMAT Journey: 470 720 740
Target Score: 760+
tim
Course Students
 
Posts: 5665
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:08 am
Location: Southwest Airlines, seat 21C
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by tim Sat Apr 23, 2016 9:09 pm

It looks like you have it for the most part. Be careful automatically eliminating the verb-only clauses after a ",and", as they are sometimes correct, especially in the case of multi-part parallelism:

The boy ate lunch, took a nap, and played football.
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Follow this link for some important tips to get the most out of your forum experience:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/a-few-tips-t31405.html
RichaChampion
Students
 
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:58 pm
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by RichaChampion Sun Apr 24, 2016 1:43 am

tim Wrote:It looks like you have it for the most part. Be careful automatically eliminating the verb-only clauses after a ",and", as they are sometimes correct, especially in the case of multi-part parallelism:

The boy ate lunch, took a nap, and played football.


But here the case is different. Here we have a laundry List -

1. ate lunch
2.took a nap
3. played football

We have to put these things in parallel.
Richa,
My GMAT Journey: 470 720 740
Target Score: 760+
cgentry
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 3:28 am
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by cgentry Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:16 pm

I believe you have the idea!

The GMAT tends to (I say tends to because no one is perfect) use commas in 3 ways:

1) separate a non-essential modifier from the main sentence
2) delineate items in a 3 or more part list
3) link two independent clauses.

The first example will not use a conjunction (and, but, or); the second and third uses will.

So in your example, you have a 3 part list. What if you removed one of the items? Would the GMAT still have used a comma?

The boy ate lunch, and played football.

Would this sentence be correct on the GMAT?
RichaChampion
Students
 
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:58 pm
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by RichaChampion Sun Jun 05, 2016 10:29 pm

cgentry Wrote:I believe you have the idea!

The GMAT tends to (I say tends to because no one is perfect) use commas in 3 ways:

1) separate a non-essential modifier from the main sentence
2) delineate items in a 3 or more part list
3) link two independent clauses.

The first example will not use a conjunction (and, but, or); the second and third uses will.

So in your example, you have a 3 part list. What if you removed one of the items? Would the GMAT still have used a comma?

The boy ate lunch, and played football.

Would this sentence be correct on the GMAT?

No!

I think these two will be correct, please correct me If i am wrong-
The boy ate lunch, and The boy played football.
The boy ate lunch and played football.
Richa,
My GMAT Journey: 470 720 740
Target Score: 760+
cgentry
ManhattanGMAT Staff
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2010 3:28 am
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by cgentry Thu Aug 11, 2016 2:18 pm

Looks good to me in terms of the grammar principle! The GMAT would likely use a pronoun here; substitute "he" for the second "the boy" and you've got a breakdown of parallel independent clause construction that the GMAT would likely use.

Good work!
RichaChampion
Students
 
Posts: 144
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:58 pm
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by RichaChampion Thu Aug 11, 2016 2:47 pm

cgentry Wrote:Looks good to me in terms of the grammar principle! The GMAT would likely use a pronoun here; substitute "he" for the second "the boy" and you've got a breakdown of parallel independent clause construction that the GMAT would likely use.

Good work!



Thank you so much this always encourages student like me who are non native speakers. :D :D :D
Richa,
My GMAT Journey: 470 720 740
Target Score: 760+
Sage Pearce-Higgins
Forum Guests
 
Posts: 1336
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2014 4:04 am
 

Re: Pronoun ambiguity starting sentences with it

by Sage Pearce-Higgins Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:15 am

Good work!