forming/ to form

[ashish.jere]

There are several ways to build solid walls using just mud or clay, but the most extensively used method has been the forming of bricks our of mud or clay, and, after some preliminary air drying or sun drying, they are laid in the wall in mud mortar.

A. the forming of bricks out of mud or clay, and, after some preliminary air drying or
sun drying, they are laid

B. forming the mud or clay into bricks, and, after some preliminary air drying or sun drying, to lay them

C. having bricks formed from mud or clay, and, after some preliminary air drying or sun drying, they were laid.

D. to form the mud or clay into bricks, and, after some preliminary air drying or sun drying, to lay them

E. that bricks were formed from mud or clay, which, after some preliminary air drying or sun drying, were laid

[cfaking]

Great Q on Parallelism

D it is

E has problem with WHICH, initially i picked up E

Ron,Stacy -pls explain it in detail

[selva.e]

why B is wrong?

i think in D use of infinitive is awkward.
The Present Perfect Continuous Tense should be followed by -ing.

[RonPurewal]

this sentence has a clear need for parallel structure. you're describing two consecutive steps in a process, so it should be clear that you have to use parallel structure in those descriptions.

when you READ sentence correction problems, you should LOOK FOR CONTEXT THAT REQUIRES PARALLELISM.
parallelism is a large-scale, context-dependent thing, so it's imperative that you detect any necessity for it while you're reading the problem.

note that you should not RELY on "signal words" (and, or, not only ... but also, etc.) in order to detect parallelism. rather, you should be able to detect the necessity of parallel structure solely from context, with the signal words as a nice way to confirm that necessity.

--

(a), (b), and (c) are nonparallel and thus may be eliminated immediately.
(a) "the forming" vs. "they are laid"
(b) "forming" vs. "to lay them"
(c) "having bricks formed" vs. "they were laid"

(d) and (e) are acceptably parallel.

--

once you've done this, all that remains is to eliminate (e).

2 ways:
* "which" is misused, as pointed out by the previous poster. (in (e) "which" would refer to (mud or) clay; it's supposed to refer to bricks)
* the past tense is illogical.

that leaves (d).

[ashish.jere]

thanks for this tip.

''when you READ sentence correction problems, you should LOOK FOR CONTEXT THAT REQUIRES PARALLELISM.
parallelism is a large-scale, context-dependent thing, so it's imperative that you detect any necessity for it while you're reading the problem.''

this sentence has a clear need for parallel structure. you're describing two consecutive steps in a process, so it should be clear that you have to use parallel structure in those descriptions.

when you READ sentence correction problems, you should LOOK FOR CONTEXT THAT REQUIRES PARALLELISM.
parallelism is a large-scale, context-dependent thing, so it's imperative that you detect any necessity for it while you're reading the problem.

note that you should not RELY on "signal words" (and, or, not only ... but also, etc.) in order to detect parallelism. rather, you should be able to detect the necessity of parallel structure solely from context, with the signal words as a nice way to confirm that necessity.

--

(a), (b), and (c) are nonparallel and thus may be eliminated immediately.
(a) "the forming" vs. "they are laid"
(b) "forming" vs. "to lay them"
(c) "having bricks formed" vs. "they were laid"

(d) and (e) are acceptably parallel.

--

once you've done this, all that remains is to eliminate (e).

2 ways:
* "which" is misused, as pointed out by the previous poster. (in (e) "which" would refer to (mud or) clay; it's supposed to refer to bricks)
* the past tense is illogical.

that leaves (d).

[RonPurewal]

thanks for this tip.

''when you READ sentence correction problems, you should LOOK FOR CONTEXT THAT REQUIRES PARALLELISM.
parallelism is a large-scale, context-dependent thing, so it's imperative that you detect any necessity for it while you're reading the problem.''

yeah. in fact, i take it one step further: i actually formalize "look for parallelism" as part of the FIRST step of ANY sentence correction problem.

because finding parallelism is so important - and also so common - i've come up with the following PROTOCOL for solving sentence correction problems:

SC PROTOCOL

step 1: READ the sentence, and look for two things:
- look for the general meaning of the sentence
- look for PARALLELISM
look in 2 ways:
* signal words
* CONTEXT

step 2: look for SPLITS among the answer choices
- make sure that you don't mistake "fake splits" (i.e., word rearrangements that aren't substitutes for each other) for real splits.

step 3: criticize things that are wrong with individual answer choices (even if they are not part of splits)

[devenh]

I had this question narrowed down between D and E, but the reason I chose E was because in answer choice D the word "them" seemed like it was referring to "bricks" but bricks is after a prepositional phrase, so how can "them" refer to the plural "bricks"?

The phrase "the mud or clay into bricks... to lay them" seemed incorrect so I eliminated D and selected E.

[RonPurewal]

I had this question narrowed down between D and E, but the reason I chose E was because in answer choice D the word "them" seemed like it was referring to "bricks" but bricks is after a prepositional phrase, so how can "them" refer to the plural "bricks"?

The phrase "the mud or clay into bricks... to lay them" seemed incorrect so I eliminated D and selected E.

remember that pronoun ambiguity is not something on which you can usually eliminate.

for a fuller treatment of that topic, read this link:
post40400.html#p40400

do you understand the reasons i cited above why (e) is wrong?

[devenh]

Thanks for the reply Ron!

I actually eliminated D too early without fully realizing I was eliminating based on a pronoun rather than fully examining E. You are correct, the WHICH in E is actually referring to "mud or clay" and it is NOT the mud or clay which is in need of "preliminary air drying or sun drying" it is actually THE BRICKS which the sentence is talking about.

[RonPurewal]

Thanks for the reply Ron!

I actually eliminated D too early without fully realizing I was eliminating based on a pronoun rather than fully examining E. You are correct, the WHICH in E is actually referring to "mud or clay" and it is NOT the mud or clay which is in need of "preliminary air drying or sun drying" it is actually THE BRICKS which the sentence is talking about.

glad it helped.

[rx_11]

Hi, Ron,

I wonder why there is a comma before "and" in D? I used to think that we do not need a comma before "and" if there is no another subject after "and".

Eg1. Jim cleaned the bedroom and wiped the floor-CORRECT
Eg2. Jim cleaned the bedroom, and wiped the floor-INCORRECT

Can you explain that?

[ChrisB]

Hi rx_11,

Your examples don't match what's going on in the sentence and highlight to me why you're confused. To see that let's compare your sample sentences to a pared down version of the original sentence:

Eg1. Jim cleaned the bedroom and wiped the floor-CORRECT
Eg2. Jim cleaned the bedroom, and wiped the floor-INCORRECT

...The most extensively used method has been to form, and to lay

In the problem the comma can appear before the and so long as a full independent clause is formed. In this case, "to form" and "to lay" are objects of "has been" and thus will be part of an independent clause no matter what because one clause ends after "to form" and the ", and" shows us another possible object of "has been."

You can read more about the use of ", and" vs. just "and" in this post: comma-and-vs-and-t11444.html

Either way, I want to point out that the ", and" vs. "and" wasn't a split in play here. Remember, there's no use in "tilting at windmills" in these problems. The GMAT isn't going to put answer choices on the test that are obviously wrong so there isn't a reason to try to look into a problem to find a "more correct" of writing the answer choice. I'm not accusing you of doing so here but just want to remind you as well as everyone else reading this post of that fact :)

Thanks,
Chris

[rx_11]

Hi rx_11,

Your examples don't match what's going on in the sentence and highlight to me why you're confused. To see that let's compare your sample sentences to a pared down version of the original sentence:

Eg1. Jim cleaned the bedroom and wiped the floor-CORRECT
Eg2. Jim cleaned the bedroom, and wiped the floor-INCORRECT

...The most extensively used method has been to form, and to lay

In the problem the comma can appear before the and so long as a full independent clause is formed. In this case, "to form" and "to lay" are objects of "has been" and thus will be part of an independent clause no matter what because one clause ends after "to form" and the ", and" shows us another possible object of "has been."

You can read more about the use of ", and" vs. just "and" in this post: comma-and-vs-and-t11444.html

Either way, I want to point out that the ", and" vs. "and" wasn't a split in play here. Remember, there's no use in "tilting at windmills" in these problems. The GMAT isn't going to put answer choices on the test that are obviously wrong so there isn't a reason to try to look into a problem to find a "more correct" of writing the answer choice. I'm not accusing you of doing so here but just want to remind you as well as everyone else reading this post of that fact :)

Thanks,
Chris

Thanks very much ChrisB,

Understand it now:)

[RonPurewal]

glad it helped

[vijayjakhotia]

Hi rx_11,

Your examples don't match what's going on in the sentence and highlight to me why you're confused. To see that let's compare your sample sentences to a pared down version of the original sentence:

Eg1. Jim cleaned the bedroom and wiped the floor-CORRECT
Eg2. Jim cleaned the bedroom, and wiped the floor-INCORRECT

...The most extensively used method has been to form, and to lay

In the problem the comma can appear before the and so long as a full independent clause is formed. In this case, "to form" and "to lay" are objects of "has been" and thus will be part of an independent clause no matter what because one clause ends after "to form" and the ", and" shows us another possible object of "has been."

You can read more about the use of ", and" vs. just "and" in this post: comma-and-vs-and-t11444.html

Either way, I want to point out that the ", and" vs. "and" wasn't a split in play here. Remember, there's no use in "tilting at windmills" in these problems. The GMAT isn't going to put answer choices on the test that are obviously wrong so there isn't a reason to try to look into a problem to find a "more correct" of writing the answer choice. I'm not accusing you of doing so here but just want to remind you as well as everyone else reading this post of that fact :)

Thanks,
Chris

Chris/Ron
I was thinking that X,and Y is valid only when X & Y are independent clauses. I am really confused when u say that each are acting as independent clause because the to infinitives are the objects of the has been and hence forming independent clauses.
So in summary, we can have subject + Verb+ Object of the verb, and another object of the verb -> Is this valid always?