participle healing problem

[mikalaisin]

Hi Ron,

After elimination process, i ended up with two options A and D. Even though i understand why option A is incorrect, but i didn't like the option D either.
My reasoning was:
A lacks of parallelism - sunburn is more localized and resulting
D lacks of proper comparison - Unlike the body’s inflammatory response to cuts and sprains....... the body’s more localized response to sunburn results - should be Unlike the body’s inflammatory response... the body’s sunburn response is more localized.

Can you please explain me why the comparison in D is correct?

[RonPurewal]

A lacks of parallelism - sunburn is more localized and resulting
D lacks of proper comparison - Unlike the body’s inflammatory response to cuts and sprains....... the body’s more localized response to sunburn results - should be Unlike the body’s inflammatory response... the body’s sunburn response is more localized.

no.

why make 'sunburn' parallel to 'inflammatory'? that doesn't make logical sense.

don't forget THE POINT of parallelism, which is to indicate words that are doing the same thing in context. by putting words in parallel, you're saying 'Hey reader, these are thing A and thing B' (and maybe C, D, etc.)

here:
inflammatory || localized
these are doing the same thing: they are both descriptions of the 'response'.

response || response
(obviously)

cuts and bruises || sunburn
these are the things to which the body is 'responding'.

all three of these pairs are perfectly parallel in the correct sentence.

[ShriramC110]

Hi Ron,

Why is the usage of 'with' in asnwer choice A wrong.
Comma + With (Prepositional Modifiers) has the flexibility of modifying either the previous noun or the action in the previous clause.
So here it can modify the entire clause right??

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

who said 'with' was wrong?

on the first page of this thread i gave some reasons why A is wrong. 'with' is not one of them.

[NicoleT643]

Hi Ron, just want to confirm, the usage 'with' in choice A modifies 'sprain' as a noun modifier. Therefore the usage of 'with' in choice A is correct.
Am I correct?
Thanks

[RonPurewal]

if that modifier describes "sprain", the resulting meaning is nonsense.

remember—you should not even look at the answer choices until you understand EXACTLY what the sentence is supposed to mean, and EXACTLY what each word/phrase/group of words is supposed to DO.

think about the meaning more carefully. the modifier is describing a process that occurs "UNTIL an injury HEALS". what is this describing?
(...definitely not the injury itself!)

[NicoleT643]

if that modifier describes "sprain", the resulting meaning is nonsense.

remember—you should not even look at the answer choices until you understand EXACTLY what the sentence is supposed to mean, and EXACTLY what each word/phrase/group of words is supposed to DO.

think about the meaning more carefully. the modifier is describing a process that occurs "UNTIL an injury HEALS". what is this describing?
(...definitely not the injury itself!)

Absolutely right, I completely ignored the meaning before I analyzed the modifiers, thanks for your advice (:

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.

the first step in SC is ALWAYS to figure out the EXACT INTENDED MEANING of the sentence. basically, you should already understand what EVERY word (or group of words) SHOULD be doing, BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE ANSWER CHOICES.

really... don't even think about looking at the answer choices if you haven't figured out what the sentence is supposed to say yet. you need to figure all that out up-front.

here's a criterion you should use:
you should NEVER have to GO BACK AND FIGURE OUT THE MEANING after finding a "split" in the answer choices. whenever meaning is involved, you should ALREADY KNOW what everything is supposed to mean/say.

[SambitP981]

Hi Ron,
i did not understand why (A) is wrong. is it wrong because of "response with" use ???

the most black-and-white error in (a) -- and the one you should be most on top of, given the importance of the topic -- is its lack of parallelism.
"... and resulting" isn't parallel to anything, so that choice is wrong.
The answer D and E use "Response in which" ... is this correct???

(d) is the officially correct option, so you already know the answer to this question.[/quote]


Hi Ron,

I am unable to understand this usage of "in which" in correct answer option D. I think In which cannot modify "cuts and sprains". To me ,"in which" modifies "the body's inflammatory response". Bt then again I think of the usage of "comma + In which". "Comma + in which" can be used to modify noun just before comma like "comma + which".

I am really confused here. Pls correct me if i have any flaw in my above reasoning.

Also will this be correct:

"with widespread swelling and stiffness immobilizing the injured area until it has healed, the body’s more localized response to sunburn results".

[RonPurewal]

"... , in which..." (like "... , which...") can modify (i) a noun, or (ii) a noun1 + (preposition + noun2), where the stuff in parentheses modifies noun1.
see the examples here:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... ml#p104933

this is also "noun1 + (preposition + noun2)", with noun2 = "cuts and sprains".

__

[RonPurewal]

MORE IMPORTANTLY --
you can't "dislike" one answer choice without endorsing ANOTHER answer choice.
if you don't like choice D, which OTHER choice did you like BETTER?

__

please do not try to make "alternative answer choices" by "editing" GMAC's answer choices.
inevitably, if you do this, the resulting sentences will be wrong for reasons the GMAT doesn't test. (remember, this exam tests less than 1% of the things that could actually go wrong with an english sentence!)

the discussion here will be limited to the answer choices actually supplied with the problems.

[SambitP981]

MORE IMPORTANTLY --
you can't "dislike" one answer choice without endorsing ANOTHER answer choice.
if you don't like choice D, which OTHER choice did you like BETTER?

__

please do not try to make "alternative answer choices" by "editing" GMAC's answer choices.
inevitably, if you do this, the resulting sentences will be wrong for reasons the GMAT doesn't test. (remember, this exam tests less than 1% of the things that could actually go wrong with an english sentence!)

the discussion here will be limited to the answer choices actually supplied with the problems.

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the explanation. Actually i was confused between A and D. As you have mentioned A is incorrect for its vague parallelism usage. I could identify that whn i read Option A first. But because A starts with "with"(comma+ with to be more specific) I at once correlated the sentence with "comma+with+ing" sentence(in which "with" is used in the same way as "comma + ing" sentences.) . I think i made a mistake to overlook glaring parallelism error in A.
I have read your post on the usage of "which" in gmat. ([url]usage-of-which-t746-15.html#p104933[/url]) . Bt i wasnt sure if "in which" also could be used in the same way as it is used in this question.

And also GMAT says answer is D . No question about tat.

[RonPurewal]

remember, GMAT SC is all about prioritizing FUNDAMENTAL issues -- and parallelism is the single most frequently tested issue on GMAT SC.

if you're thinking about nuanced/subtle aspects of modifiers before resolving non-parallelism -- or before resolving other fundamental, black-and-white issues (e.g., subject-verb disagreement, pronoun disagreement, etc)... that's a BIG mistake.

__

also, even if you think the construction at the start of choice A is correct... that doesn't mean the construction at the start of choice D is NOT correct!

there will almost always be many, many different CORRECT ways to write a sentence. (this is why different authors can have different writing styles, even if they're all writing proper formal english.)
"this version is correct" doesn't necessarily mean "that version is wrong".

[SambitP981]

remember, GMAT SC is all about prioritizing FUNDAMENTAL issues -- and parallelism is the single most frequently tested issue on GMAT SC.

if you're thinking about nuanced/subtle aspects of modifiers before resolving non-parallelism -- or before resolving other fundamental, black-and-white issues (e.g., subject-verb disagreement, pronoun disagreement, etc)... that's a BIG mistake.

__

also, even if you think the construction at the start of choice A is correct... that doesn't mean the construction at the start of choice D is NOT correct!

there will almost always be many, many different CORRECT ways to write a sentence. (this is why different authors can have different writing styles, even if they're all writing proper formal english.)
"this version is correct" doesn't necessarily mean "that version is wrong".

Thanks Ron, I will definitely see for parallelism first whn i solve SC questions .

[RonPurewal]

excellent.