SC -- Vit E excess

[quixoticmoi]

The Manhattan SC books says that the subject of the sentence can never be inside a prepositional phrase.

So here in this case,
" Intake of Vit E" ...How can Vitamin E be the subject??
how can 'it' refer back to vitamin E ????

[jnelson0612]

The Manhattan SC books says that the subject of the sentence can never be inside a prepositional phrase.

So here in this case,
" Intake of Vit E" ...How can Vitamin E be the subject??
how can 'it' refer back to vitamin E ????

It's actually the "intake" that is the subject, and Ron addresses the "it" referring to Vitamin E on the previous page. Good questions!

[ali1]

"suggest" and "may" is actually a natural pairing and appropriately hedges the research findings. The real reason B is wrong is because there is a parallelism problem. In A "intake" is parallel with "that", but in B "taking" is not parallel with "that"..

I am still confused as to the parallelism issues with B. Does the 2nd that in the sentence act as a "new copy"?

B) Recent studies suggest that taking vitamin E in excess of that found naturally in a balanced diet actually increases the risk of developing certain illnesses

Is the parallelism issue because that (underlined above) is used as a "new copy" of the antecedent? If that is the case then I can see why B has parallelism issue.

Can "that" in A be re-written like this? (see underlined portion below)

A) Recent studies suggest that an intake of vitamin E in excess of an intake found naturally in a balanced diet may actually increase the risk of developing certain illnesses

[tim]

I’m not sure what you mean by a "new copy", but you definitely need to be able to replace "that" with its antecedent, and that is what creates the parallelism problem in B, because "taking" is not a valid antecedent..

In your proposed rewrite of A, I’d prefer to see the second underlined portion say "the intake of vitamin E" rather than simply "an intake", but yes the idea is that in any correctly written sentence you must be able to replace pronouns with their antecedents..

[ali1]

Thank you Tim, your response answered my question.

Also to clarify "new copy", I was referring to the demonstrative pronouns on page 91 in the 8th MGMT guide - SC.

"You may also use that or those to indicate a "New Copy" or copies of the antecedent."

[ivy]

The real reason B is wrong is because there is a parallelism problem. In A "intake" is parallel with "that", but in B "taking" is not parallel with "that"..

I’m not sure what you mean by a "new copy", but you definitely need to be able to replace "that" with its antecedent, and that is what creates the parallelism problem in B, because "taking" is not a valid antecedent..

In your proposed rewrite of A, I’d prefer to see the second underlined portion say "the intake of vitamin E" rather than simply "an intake", but yes the idea is that in any correctly written sentence you must be able to replace pronouns with their antecedents..

Hello,

Isn't 'that' in option A referring to 'vitamin E' only?

I'm still confused with parallelism issue in option B. Why isn't 'taking' a valid antecedent? 'taking' can be used as noun, right? And is 'taking of vitamin E' an antecedent to pronoun 'that'? Isn't 'vitamin E' the antecedent?

Thank you very much for the guidance! :)

[tim]

Okay, we really need to get away from the issue of what the antecedent of "that" is here. Regardless of how you interpret it, the correct version is more or less going to make sense. Don't worry too much about things that aren't really an issue..

As for the parallelism, the problem is that you're trying to compare one "taking" to another. You can't say one taking is in excess of another taking..

[thulsy]

"suggest" and "may" is actually a natural pairing and appropriately hedges the research findings. The real reason B is wrong is because there is a parallelism problem. In A "intake" is parallel with "that", but in B "taking" is not parallel with "that"..

Dear instructors,
I feel that "may" and "actually" are contradictory, as "actually" means "as an actual or existing fact; really." whereas "may" indicates uncertainty.
I understand Tim's explanation that "suggest" and "may" is actually a natural pairing and appropriately hedges the research findings, but then how does the word "actually" work in Choice (A)? Please kindly tell me what I am missing here. Thanks.

[tim]

"may actually" means it may be an actual fact, we just don't know whether it is, perhaps because we don't have enough information or something..

[harsh.dharkar]

Hello,
Can you please validate another explanation for the incorrect answer 'B'
" I suggest that... be followed by an infinitive since it is a subjunctive tense" Thus "I suggest that taking ..does not look correct?

Thanks,
Harsh

[tim]

i'm afraid i don't understand what you're asking us to do here. you also appear to be quoting something that doesn't appear in the answer choices, and your quote marks are not properly closed, so it is very difficult to ascertain what you're asking. can you try again?

[harsh.dharkar]

i'm afraid i don't understand what you're asking us to do here. you also appear to be quoting something that doesn't appear in the answer choices, and your quote marks are not properly closed, so it is very difficult to ascertain what you're asking. can you try again?

B) Recent studies suggest that taking vitamin E in excess of that found naturally in a balanced diet actually increases the risk of developing certain illnesses

Shouldn't any "suggest that" form of sentence construction be followed by a subjunctive form of the verb. Therefore in choice B "suggest that taking Vitamin E" can be regarded as incorrect since the verb 'taking' is not in the subjunctive form?

Hope this is clear :)

Thank you,

[tim]

ah, i see. no, "suggest" is by no means the kind of "bossy" verb we describe in the SC guide that always requires the subjunctive. you may want to review some examples of verbs of each type so you'll have a better sense of what constitutes a "bossy" verb..

because "suggest" doesn't always have to use the subjunctive, it can be used in this way as well..

[harsh.dharkar]

ah, i see. no, "suggest" is by no means the kind of "bossy" verb we describe in the SC guide that always requires the subjunctive. you may want to review some examples of verbs of each type so you'll have a better sense of what constitutes a "bossy" verb..

because "suggest" doesn't always have to use the subjunctive, it can be used in this way as well..

Got it, thank you for the clarification..!

[tim]

my pleasure!