Parallelism

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I have a bit trouble trying to keep my sentences "parallel".</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<p>The institute's exhibition of pictures of arctic animals (displays a firm commitment) and a deep interest in the conservation of the world's endangered animal species.</p>

<p>a. Displays a firm commitment
b. displays a firm commitment to</p>

<p>Why is it b over a. I picked a. :(</p>

2

<p>Ah I had this problem a lot! Still struggling with it but the way I see it is you remove the “and a deep interest in the conservation of” from the sentence. Then you plug in the choices and see which one fits. </p>

<p>If it were choice one, the sentence would read:
The institute’s exhibition of pictures of arctic animals displays a firm commitment the world’s endangered animal species. </p>

<p>That clearly doesn’t sound right. However, choice two would be:
The institute’s exhibition of pictures of arctic animals displays a firm commitment to the world’s endangered animal species. </p>

<p>That makes sense, so it would be choice two. Hope this helps a bit! I’m still struggling with this as well but this is just a small technique I use that has been working for me so far.</p>

3

<p>I thought it was this for choice A:</p>

<p>The institute’s exhibition of pictures of arctic animals displays a firm commitment in the world’s endangered animal species.</p>

4

<p>No, you display a firm commitment TO something, not IN something.</p>

5

<p>the dreaded idiomatic mistake…</p>

<p>Gosh I hate idioms!!</p>

<p>But thank you all :)</p>

6

<p>You can’t add the “in” into the sentence, it wasn’t given in either one of the choices.</p>

7

<p>As MaineLong points out choice A is incorrect because the usage is “commitment to”.</p>

<p>5am6996’s explanation and example are incorrect. So the point of this post is make sure that other test takers aren’t confused.</p>

<p>The “in” that follows “a firm commitment” and “a deep interest” applies to both noun phrases. The point is that “in” is incorrect usage for commitment.</p>

<p>Consider: I often mix lemon juice and water in my salad dressing recipes. To write: I often mix lemon juice in and water in my … is incorrect. The preposition “in” applies to both.</p>

8

<p>Oh…sorry guys! I tried :(</p>

9

<p>Two questions: </p>

<ol>
<li><p>Why is 5am’s approach wrong? It seems to make sense here?? Or is that just coincidental?</p></li>
<li><p>So the answer is that the “to” portion in B matches the “in” portion of the rest of the sentence? Or just that “in” is wrong so you need a different word there?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Many thanks!</p>