<p>I know there's an SAT writing question thread, but I can't seem to find it right now.</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm reviewing for the March SAT, and I've come across a disagreement between my Blue Book and my TestMasters Solution book. The question is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Acquaintances of Alexei have commented that he is at once annoying because of his unpredictability BUT HIS IMAGINATION IS STILL A DELIGHT.</li>
</ol>
<p>A) Same.
B) although he is delightfully imaginative
C) and he is delightful in his imagination too
D) while being imaginative and. They are delighted
E) and delightful because of his imagination</p>
<p>While taking the practice test, I chose E, but put an arrow next to B, signifying that it was my second choice. The answer key in the Blue Book says that E is the correct answer. </p>
<p>However, my TestMasters book says B is correct. It gives an explanation like 'since annoying and imaginative are opposite traits (one positive and one negative), E can't be correct because it lumps them together with 'and'.'</p>
<p>This explanation makes some sense to me, and you can see why I'd be confused. Can anyone break down the grammatical structure of the sentence/choices and tell me why E is correct and B is not? Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>I think it’s E.
Let’s me it clear:</p>
<p>[Acquaintances] [have commented] that [he] [is] at once
[annoying] [because of] [his unpredictability]
and
[delightful] [because] [of] [his] [imagination]
.</p>
<p>Choice E contains correct parallelism usage and thus, is correct. Choice B is wrong because it doesn’t fix parallelism error.
Hope I help!</p>
<p>It’s like:</p>
<p>[A is B because of C] and [D is E because of G]</p>
<p>The sentence says he is ‘at once’ described by 2 adjectives, which indicates a contrast between the two things that he is. Choice E is correct because it supplies the contrast between the negative trait and a positive one that wouldn’t typically be associated with the other.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful replies. I’ve found two errors in my TestMasters book so far. I’m beginning to think it might be unreliable…</p>
<p>One thing is reliable–knowledge.</p>
<p>It’s actually this:</p>
<p>…
at once
[A is B because of C]
and
[D is E because of G].</p>
<p>Sounds like your TestMasters book wasn’t written by anyone who was actually a test master…</p>
<p>“At once” indicates contrast. “Although” creates a redundancy in contrast.</p>
<p>“At once” is similar to “both” and thus would be followed by “and.”</p>
<p>Choice B basically says he is both [X] although [Y], whereas choice E says he is both [X] and [Y].</p>
<p>^
Hi, wasn’t my structure correct? It’s E, right? Even if you don’t know the rule you can clearly notice that choice E makes the best improvement. But anyway, it’s a structure, isn’t it? </p>
<p>…
at once
[A is B because of C]
and
[D is E because of G].</p>
<p>It’s parallel structure.</p>
<p>
‘Annoying because of his unpredictability’, is not parallel to ‘his imagination’. However…</p>
<p>
‘Annoying because of his unpredictability’ IS parallel to ‘delightful because of his imagination’.</p>
<p>B is incorrect because of redundancy: ‘and he is delightful in his imagination too’. You would use either ‘and’ or ‘too’, but you wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) use both.</p>