2011 SAT March: Writing

<p>He didn’t provide any explanation</p>

<p>I got the reality TV prompt, I talked about how teen mom and 16 & pregnant inspire girls to get pregnant to be on the show and doesn’t show what it would really be like when you are a pregnant teenager. I also talked about how Jersey Shore glorifies destructive behavior such as drinking and how they never show them using condoms and you rarely see them hire a cab when they due to real life. I’m kinda scared that people used books and their ideas seem better than mine.</p>

<p>^^Yeah, there is definitely no error.</p>

<p>“Than do” was obviously the error. From what I remember about the sentence, it went something like this:</p>

<p>“John must eat more food than do Mary.”
It should be “John must eat more food than must Mary.”</p>

<p>^ HAha, I literally laughed till my stomach hurted after i saw this one. What a joke. No offense but are you american? It shouldnt sound right to anyone who speaks english.</p>

<p>^First of all, in the question the plantS were plural</p>

<p>Second, here’s the question (courtesy of rd)</p>

<p>To deter pests and recover from insect damage, organically grown plants must produce higher levels of antioxidants than do conventionally grown, pesticide treated plants.</p>

<p>If you’re still confused, try switching around the sentence a bit.</p>

<p>Organically grown plants must produce higher levels of antioxidants than conventionally grown, pesticide treated plants do [in order] to deter pests and recover from insect damage.</p>

<p>gahhh im so ****ed i got the plants wrong…■■ overanalyzed… still anyone remmeber the question on the meats and desserts on the last section? what did you put? i think i ptu the one which had “that the family” or something… E? idk im so worried about that one…</p>

<p>also how bout the transition between paragraph 2 and 3 for the car problem!??! gahhhhh i put personal experience or w.e?!</p>

<p>^^Yeah, that was the sentence, and thus there was no error.</p>

<p>Also, @NspiredOne, what was the transition question you’re talking about?</p>

<p>@andrewsun1994: btw, even though that sentence sounds funny, it’s still grammatically correct, so no need to question whether or not he or she is American.</p>

<p>^ I concur, that was extremely rude.</p>

<p>I guess we’ll see if the sentence really didn’t have an error on the 31st.</p>

<p>^You’re right, but out of curiosity, where do you see the error? I don’t understand your reasoning.</p>

<p>To deter pests and recover from insect damage, organically grown plants must produce higher levels of antioxidants than conventionally grown, pesticide treated plants.</p>

<p>To put it short, that’s how I thought the sentence should be corrected during the SAT. I’ll see if I can ask for my English teacher’s reasoning for “than do” being the error, as he could probably state his and my logic n more eloquent terms.</p>

<p>Your sentence doesn’t change anything grammatically: it eliminates the explicit “do,” but, by doing that, it makes it implicit, thereby essentially keeping the sentence the same.</p>

<p>I see, well I’ll post his reasoning when I get a reply :)</p>

<p>i put the choice where immediately after the comma it referred to the person’s name. i don’t think it would have made sense that books were native of nigeria…
but sorry if i’m wrong! good luck!</p>

<p>The sentence sounds so much better without the ‘do’ though, maybe it eliminates wordiness or something</p>

<p>The error is still “than do.” One can imply that a verb be repeated in a sentence by using the correct “helper verb,” as in this sentence: I like apples more than John does. Here, I used the helper verb “does” and left out the “like.” The sentence could also read: I like apples more than John does like. (Though, admittedly, this second sentence sounds wordy since we almost always use the first construction).</p>

<p>In this sentence, the repetition of the verb “produce” is left out in favor of using only the helper verb “do.” The error, though is that “do” is the wrong wrong helper verb:</p>

<p>To deter pests and recover from insect damage, organically grown plants must produce higher levels of antioxidants than do conventionally grown, pesticide treated plants.</p>

<p>Had the sentence read:
To deter pests and recover from insect damage, organically grown plants have to produce higher levels of antioxidants than do conventionally grown, pesticide treated plants.</p>

<p>There would be no error. But the way the sentence was presented, the “do” should be replaced with a “must.” An easy way to examine proper helper verb usage is to look at questions, in which we always use helper verbs. You would never say, “Do you must eat an apple?”; however, you would say “Must you eat an apple?” or “Do you have to eat an apple?”</p>

<p>Nope, because the “do” isn’t replacing the “must”. It is saying that the organically grown plants must produce higher levels than the conventionally grown ones produce. There is no “must” needed for the second part of the sentence.</p>

<p>someone call silverturtle</p>

<p>The “must produce” is a compound verb–regardless of the fact that “must” is auxiliary. Therefore, it acts as one verb, and–according to Oxford Dictionary–“do” as an auxiliary verb can be “used to refer to a verb already mentioned.” Thus, no error.</p>