Sentence Correction

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Hi,I'm sitting for a P.G. entrance exam. In the english section, there's a sentence correction part. I was solving it, but it took real long to get an answer. Here's the question and my answer to it...126.As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardizeAnswer: E          Am I right? I don't really know the rules for this correction type. I just gave an answer which was sounding right to me. In this particular sentence what are the rules which say that the correct answer is some particular one?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I'm sitting for a P.G. entrance exam. In the english section, there's a sentence correction part. I was solving it, but it took real long to get an answer. Here's the question and my answer to it...

126.As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

Choice B - As envisioned by researchers, commercial farming of lobsters will enable fisheries to sell the shellfish year-round, taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize its sizes and colors, and to predict sales volume in advance.

(A) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardize
(B) taking advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
(C) taking advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(D) take advantage of off-season demand, standardizing
(E) take advantage of off-season demand, to standardize
Answer: E Am I right? I don't really know the rules for this correction type. I just gave an answer which was sounding right to me. In this particular sentence what are the rules which say that the correct answer is some particular one?

In good writing, you need to use the same structures when you repeat things. Here, the first and last verbs in the list are infinitives with 'to' (to sell . . . and to predict). For good style, that means that any other infinitives in the middle of the list need to start with 'to' as well.

There is no choice that offers the infinitive form 'to take advantage', so that means that that partof the sentence does not use an infinitive, but stays as 'taking advantage'. It's an adverbial phrase that modifies 'to sell'. I don't much like the sentence written that way, but it's OK.

So, you need a choice that starts with 'taking advantage' and includes 'to standardize'. That leads me to B.

I don't know what a PG entrance exam is, but I don't consider this to be an easy test question.

Best wishes, Clive

Neeraj Jain · Answer

I cannot agree more with Clive.

Simi · Answer

CliveIn good writing, you need to use the same structures when you repeat things. Here, the first and last verbs in the list are infinitives with 'to' (to sell . . . and to predict). For good style, that means that any other infinitives in the middle of the list need to start with 'to' as well.

This was precisely what I'd thought when I chose the option E as it had the part "to standardize". Thanks for the accurate explaination.

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