Setence correction question need explanation

[rschunti]

The Kwakiutl recognized one social unit larger than the tribe-the confederacy,which was a cluster of loosely knit,informally related neighboring tribes who interacted with themselves more often than between other tribes.

A. tribes who interacted with themselves more often than between
B. tribes who interacted among each other more often than among
C. tribes who interacted with one another more often than with
D. tribes, interacting among each other more often than between
E. tribes, interacting among one another more often than with

[dbernst]

rschunti, please cite the exact source of any questions that you post. For legal reasons, we are not permitted to respond to questions from certain sources.

Thanks!

[rschunti]

This question is from GMAT PREP2 test

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks! And don't forget to use the underline tool to underline your original sentence (I've done it for you this time).

For future, it also helps if you tell us specifically what troubled you with this problem, so we can target our answer to your concerns.

X more often than Y
X and Y should be parallel, but they aren't in the original sentence (we have "with themselves" and "between other tribes.") Elim A.

Elim D and E for the same reason (not parallel).

B and C are both parallel - one uses "among" and one uses "with."

Interacted among each other is an incorrect idiom. Interacted with each other or interacted with one another is correct.

C is correct.

[mridul12]

Hi Stacy,

In the original sentence, we have "with themselves" and "between other tribes." . Both are prepositional phrase. I am just trying to understand why they are not parallel.

Thanks.

Thanks! And don't forget to use the underline tool to underline your original sentence (I've done it for you this time).

For future, it also helps if you tell us specifically what troubled you with this problem, so we can target our answer to your concerns.

X more often than Y
X and Y should be parallel, but they aren't in the original sentence (we have "with themselves" and "between other tribes.") Elim A.

Elim D and E for the same reason (not parallel).

B and C are both parallel - one uses "among" and one uses "with."

Interacted among each other is an incorrect idiom. Interacted with each other or interacted with one another is correct.

C is correct.

[StaceyKoprince]

Here, you'd want to use the same preposition to start each phrase (in this case, the correct answer uses "with" for both). If I were using verbs, it wouldn't be enough that both words were verbs - they'd have to be in the same tense. For this kind of parallelism using prepositional phrases (interact with X more than with Y), I need to use the same starting preposition.

[Guest660]

question regarding the use of the participle here...

is it being used correctly ...

tribes,interacting..
tribes who interacted..

or does it change the meaning in a subtle way... please help..

[rfernandez]

A "-ing phrase" at the end of a sentence and preceded by a comma is an adverbial modifier -- it will modify either the main verb of the preceding clause or perhaps the entire clause itself.


In the two options you listed, there is a change in meaning, best shown with a shorter but comparable sentence.


Jim enjoyed lunch with his friends, offering to pay for the meal.
[Here, "offering..." is an adverbial modifier modifying "enjoyed". So, Jim is the one who offers to pay for the meal.]

Jim enjoyed lunch with his friends, who offered to pay for the meal.
[In this case, "who offered..." is a noun modifier modifying "friends". The meaning is different: now it's the friends who offer to pay for the meal.]