Although energy prices have tripled in the United States

[jingjiaol257]

actually, all of your eliminations have some element of truth but are all flawed in some way:

1) the word "having" is not always wrong, but it is in this case. make sure you know why..

2) you should not get rid of answer choices because other choices have idioms you like. get rid of them because they are wrong on their own. the problem is that if you indicate few people that means you're pointing them out..

3) D is 100% parallel; its parallelism just creates an absurd meaning..

4) don't ever pick an answer choice because it gets something right. pick it because all the others are wrong..

hi tim
Why the "having" is wrong in choice C?is it because nor is a conjunction and "having made" is not a complete clause??
Thanks!!

[jingjiaol257]

Not a grammar issue in (D).

(D) says that "Few people ... are not making fuel efficiency a priority".
Which means that most people are making fuel efficiency a priority.
That's precisely the opposite of the desired meaning.

hi ron
i have some question about choice B and C.
1>Whether the meaning of choice B is wrong?
i have read your one post.You said:
you can't write "of + NOUN + VERBing" if the action of VERBing is the focus of the preposition.也就是说of noun +doing是错的 必须是of 所有格+doing
if the focus of the construction is the ACTION, then you must use the POSSESSIVE form for the noun/pronoun preceding the "-ing" participle.
everyone laughed at me accidentally walking into the girls' bathroom --> WRONG. sorry. this sentence would actually mean that everyone laughed at me as they were walking into the girls' bathroom.
everyone laughed at my accidentally walking into the girls' bathroom --> CORRECT, because it's the action (my walking into the bathroom, not really me) that they're laughing at.

After reading these words, I wander whether the meaning of choice B have same mistake although there is no "of" in choice B.What does B means?

2>why C is wrong?
is it because of the usage of "there be"?
is the usage of "nor having" wrong?why?


thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Nothing in this problem contains the structure you're alluding to.

That structure would apply to things like...

I didn't know that 14-year-olds are allowed to drive here.
(correct sentence; I was unaware of this fact)

*I didn't know about 14-year-olds being allowed to drive here. (incorrect. this is "I didn't know about 14-year-olds" + modifier. But it's not the kids I'm unaware of; it's the fact that they're allowed to drive.)

I can't read the part that's in Chinese characters.

[RonPurewal]

There's some discussion of choice C in this thread. Perhaps most easily, you can notice the presence of "nor" without the corresponding "neither" (or other negative).

[RonPurewal]

Most importantly——During the process of solving the problem, ANY analysis of the "driving they do" part is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

The exact words "significantly reduced the amount of driving they do"——in that exact order——appear in all five choices. This is not a decision point. It is absolutely impossible to eliminate choices by analyzing this part.

Focus!

The problems are multiple-choice for a reason——to help you focus.
The multiple choices are a major gift. Without them, you'd need the skills of a professional editor to do well on SC.

[DiJ92]

Dear Ron,


in choice a, is the construction" indicate x to do y" a correct idiom? if so, does it express the same ideas as "indicate that" does?

thanks a lot

[RonPurewal]

Dear Ron,


in choice a, is the construction" indicate x to do y" a correct idiom?

in this context—in which 'x' is a person/thing performing 'y' activity—no, it is not.

--

[RonPurewal]

on the other hand, if 'x to do y' is a noun+modifier that makes sense on its own, you could see this sequence of words in a correctly written sentence.

e.g.,
These diagrams indicate several ways to assemble the item.
here 'ways to assemble the item' makes perfect sense on its own, so, really, this is just a case of 'indicate [noun]'.

[Gmat Pro]

Hi,

Sorry for bringing up this topic again. I was stuck between D and E and chose D. I understand that E is the correct answer choice because OR wins here vs AND (meaning clarity and logic of the sentence).

But, I what I don't understand is Vineet's logic on verb parallelism.

I have closed down my store and am going now to the market. --> If this sentence is correct, then verb parallelism is not of consequence here, because of what the sentence is trying to say (2 actions in succession).

Similarly, the verb usage in D should be correct --> "indicates that few people have done X and are doing Y"

that few people have significantly reduced the amount of driving they do and are not [b]making..

The verb parallelism should not be an issue here, unless the author means that both actions are happening simultaneously. But how do we know whether the author means that both actions happened at the same point in time or at different points in time?

Please help.

[RonPurewal]

you are over-thinking this.

choice E has "few people are not making xxxxx", which says exactly the opposite of what the sentence is supposed to say!

[JustinCKN]

2.in A and C, i notice that the sentences use "nor",is it correctly used here?

in general, "nor" is used to construct another negative idea that's parallel to the first one. i have absolutely no idea how to articulate a "rule" for this, so, instead, i'll just throw a bunch of examples at you.

i have not completed the exam, nor will i be able to finish it tonight.
--> 2 negative verbs

no one has ever climbed that tower, nor has anyone ever scaled this fence.
--> 2 statements about "no one". (i've never thought consciously about this before, but i guess you can say that "nor ... anyone" is equivalent, and thus parallel, to "no one".)

few people have ever climbed that tower, nor have many (people) scaled this fence.
--> 2 statements about "few". (again, this is my first time thinking about this consciously, but i guess you can say that "nor ... many" is equivalent, and hence parallel, to "few".)

Dear Ron
based on the analysis above,IF there is a negative idea before NOR , then there is no mistake regarding "NOR" in choice C?
research indicates few people to have significantly reduced the amount of driving they do, nor are they making fuel efficiency a priority when shopping for cars.
C. that there are few people who have significantly reduced the amount of driving they do, nor having made

since Before "comma nor" there is a negative idea that" Few people who have reduced the amount of driving..."

[RonPurewal]

in choice C, "having made" isn't parallel to anything, so there's no reason to think about any of this "nor" stuff.
NON-PARALLELISM is THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL ERROR ON THIS ENTIRE SECTION OF THE EXAM! if an answer choice contains non-parallelism, NOTICE THAT FIRST!