Sentence correction Flashcards
hopefully
hopefully is almost always wrong
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a late nineteenth-century feminist, called for urban apartment houses including child-care facilities and clustered suburban houses including communal eating and social facilities.
A) including child-care facilities and clustered suburban houses including communal eating and social facilities
B) that included child-care facilities, and for clustered suburban houses to include communal eating and social facilities
C) with child-care facilities included and for clustered suburban houses to include communal eating and social facilities
D) that included child-care facilities and for clustered suburban houses with communal eating and social facilities
E) to include child-care facilities and for clustered suburban houses with communal eating and social facilities included
First, we can eliminate all the answer choices that use with communal eating and social facilities included or any other structure that follows this pattern:
preposition + noun + participle
This pattern is almost always wrong on the GMAT, and is certainly wrong in this question. This eliminates C) and E).
A) is ambiguous–is clustered suburban houses parallel with child-carfacilities or with urban apartment houses? We need to repeat for to be sure that clustered suburban houses is parallel with urban apartment houses.
Now we’re left with B) and D).
Now, the only difference between B and D is the infinitive to include, which GMAT considers unidiomatic.
That leaves us with D).
BC rules coming next
rules:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a late nineteenth-century feminist, called for urban apartment houses including child-care facilities and clustered suburban houses including communal eating and social facilities.
A) including child-care facilities and clustered suburban houses including communal eating and social facilities
B) that included child-care facilities, and for clustered suburban houses to include communal eating and social facilities
C) with child-care facilities included and for clustered suburban houses to include communal eating and social facilities
D) that included child-care facilities and for clustered suburban houses with communal eating and social facilities
E) to include child-care facilities and for clustered suburban houses with communal eating and social facilities included
3) Passive voice as far as possible
e.g. His approach is different from the approach used by any other tenor is passive and hence incorrect on GMAT
The correct sentence is
His approach is different from the approach of any other tenor
4) Any Sentence construction with ‘preposition + noun + participle’
e.g. With child-care facilities included (with – preposition, child-care – noun, included – participle)
Infinitives like ‘to include’, ‘to implement’ etc. are wrong on GMAT. Instead use, ‘implementing’, ‘including’ (Which are known as Gerunds) etc.
A Gerund is a noun formed from a verb i.e. Overcoming the GMAT is a great achievement. infinitives are usually formed to retain the integrity of the idiom which is used or to keep a sentence in parallel
1) To exchange…….
2) Different from ……..
1) To exchange X for Y (exchange X with Y or any other form is incorrect)
2) Different from one another (Different one from the other is wrong)
3) X is unknown, nor it is known – is a correct idiom (Neither is not required) It is not that nor would always be preceded by a neither
4) ratify
5) Allergy ….. (Allergy of, allergy for are incorrect)
6) To try to fix is the right idiom (to try and fix is incorrect)
7) Just as… So too
3) X is unknown, nor it is known – is a correct idiom (Neither is not required) It is not that nor would always be preceded by a neither
4) To ratify (At ratifying is incorrect) An attempt to ratify is the correct use
5) Allergy to (Allergy of, allergy for are incorrect)
6) To try to fix is the right idiom (to try and fix is incorrect)
7) Just as… So too
8) X is different… Y
9) Same as X..
e.g Gravity will apply the same to an airplane flying in air as to a ship floating on water.
10) From X …..
8) X is different from Y (different than Y is incorrect)
9) Same as X..as to Y
e.g Gravity will apply the same to an airplane flying in air as to a ship floating on water.
10) From X to Y (Grow from 2 million to 3 billion) (From X up to Y is wrong)
Studies of the human “sleep-wake cycle” have practical relevance for matters ranging from duty assignments in nuclear submarines and air-traffic control towers to the staff of shifts in 24-hour factories.
(A) to the staff of
(B) to those who staff
(C) to the staffing of
(D) and staffing
(E) and the staff of
10) From X to Y (Grow from 2 million to 3 billion) (From X up to Y is wrong)
Studies of the human “sleep-wake cycle” have practical relevance for matters ranging from duty assignments in nuclear submarines and air-traffic control towers to the staff of shifts in 24-hour factories.
(A) to the staff of
(B) to those who staff
(C) to the staffing of
(D) and staffing
(E) and the staff of
From X where X is a noun here.
So, Y should be a noun.
To those who staff in B is incorrect.
C has a noun and is correct.
11) Estimated ….
12) Believe X
11) Estimated to be (Estimated at is incorrect)
12) Believe X to be Y
13) Acclaimed ……
14) Distinguish between
15) In an attempt……
13) Acclaimed as is the correct idiom (Acclaimed to be is wrong)
14) Distinguish between X and Y (Distinguish X from Y is incorrect)
15) In an attempt to (gain control)
16) Worried about (When talking about someone’s condition)
17) Attempt to ‘do something’ (Attempt at doing is incorrect).
18) Both ……
19) Adverb twice cannot be an object of proposition ‘by’.
‘Increase by twice’ is incorrect; ‘doubled’ is correct
16) Worried about (When talking about someone’s condition)
17) Attempt to ‘do something’ (Attempt at doing is incorrect).
18) Both X and Y (Both X as well as Y is incorrect)
Both at X and at Y is correct.
Both on X or on Y is correct.
Both should always have parallel forms associated to it. Similarly, ‘Neither… nor’ should have parallel forms associated to it.
19) Adverb twice cannot be an object of proposition ‘by’.
‘Increase by twice’ is incorrect; ‘doubled’ is correct
20) So X as …..
21) As much as (Republicans are involved as much as Democrats).
20) So X as to be Y (So unreal as to be true)
21) As much as (Republicans are involved as much as Democrats).
22) X prohibits Y from
23) x forbids y to do z
x prohibits y from doing z.
22) X prohibits Y from
23) x forbids y to do z
x prohibits y from doing z.
The new contract forbids a strike by the transportation union
A) forbids a strike by the transportation union
B) forbids the transportation union from striking
C) forbids that there be a strike by the transportation union
D) will forbid the transportation union from striking
E) will forbid that the transportation union strikes
22) X prohibits Y from
23) x forbids y to do z
x prohibits y from doing z.
A is the correct answer
24) Credit X with ………..
25) Credit X Rupees…..
26) Given credit for being ones…..
27) Believed ……
24) Credit X with discovering Y (Credit with doing something)
25) Credit X Rupees to Y’s account (When money is involved)
26) Given credit for being ones…who
27) Believed to have
28) Regarded…..
29) Regarded….
30) Concerned …..
28) Regarded as having
29) Regarded as ones who have
30) Concerned for – worried; concerned with – related/afflaited
31) No sooner
32) X expected to Y
33) Mistake
34) Not …..
31) No sooner…than
32) X expected to Y
33) Mistake X for Y
34) Not X; but rather Y
35) Persuaded
36) So X
35) Persuaded X to do Y
36) So X that Y (So poor that they steal)
37) Require that X
38) As a result
39) At least as
40) Modeled …..?
37) Require that X be Y (Not require that X is Y)
38) As a result of
39) At least as strong as…(At least as great as)
40) Modeled after
41) So X that Y (So illiterate are people that they cant even write)
42) Intent ?
43) Native …..?
44) Compensate ……
41) So X that Y (So illiterate are people that they cant even write)
42) Intent on
43) Native of (Native to is also used in some cases, as in the example given below)
44) Compensate for
45) Adapted
46) Plead guilty for
45) Adapted for
46) Plead guilty for … failing
47) Descendent ?
48) X is to… what
49) Potential ..?
47) Descendent of (Descendent for is incorrect)
48) X is to… what…Y is to
49) Potential for causing
In large doses, analgesics that work in the brain as antagonists to certain chemicals have caused psychological disturbances in patients, which may limit their potential to relieve severe pain.
(A) which may limit their potential to relieve
(B) which may limit their potential for relieving
(C) which may limit such analgesics’ potential to relieve
(D) an effect that may limit their potential to relieve
(E) an effect that may limit the potential of such analgesics for relieving
In large doses, analgesics that work in the brain as antagonists to certain chemicals have caused psychological disturbances in patients, which may limit their potential to relieve severe pain.
(A) which may limit their potential to relieve
(B) which may limit their potential for relieving
(C) which may limit such analgesics’ potential to relieve
(D) an effect that may limit their potential to relieve
(E) an effect that may limit the potential of such analgesics for relieving
50) Aid …..
50) Aid in (Aid for is incorrect)
People were asking Goddess Dia’s aid in healing ills or thanking her for such help.
51) Consider X
52) Regard …….
Most nations regard their airspace as extending upward as high as an aircraft can fly; no specific altitude, however, has been officially recognized as a boundary.
(A) as extending
(B) as the extent
(C) to be an extent
(D) to be an extension
(E) to extend
51) Consider X…to be Y (a little controversial)
52) Regard as is the correct idiom
REGARD AS
Most nations regard their airspace as extending upward as high as an aircraft can fly; no specific altitude, however, has been officially recognized as a boundary.
(A) as extending
(B) as the extent
(C) to be an extent
(D) to be an extension
(E) to extend
A is correct, because it uses ‘regard as’
53) When ‘rates’ means ‘prices charged’ it should be followed …..
54) Distinguish between X and Y (2 very different items, distinguished, say red and green colors)
55) Distinguish X from Y
53) When ‘rates’ means ‘prices charged’ it should be followed with ‘for’
Rates for liability insurance
54) Distinguish between X and Y (2 very different items, distinguished, say red and green colors)
Some color blind people cannot distinguish between red and green
55) Distinguish X from Y (Two pretty similar items, say original paintings from fake ones)