SAT Writing Question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Here is an SAT writing question I encountered a few days ago:</p>

<p>The woman <em>whom</em> (A) the board picked <em>to design</em> (B) the new building is a <em>renowned</em>(C) architect and <em>has received</em> (D) many awards. No Error (E).</p>

<p>I chose D because I thought there was a parallel structure issue. <em>has received</em> should be something like <em>receiver</em> or <em>winner</em>.</p>

<p>The answer was (E) though.</p>

<p>Anybody know what I'm missing?</p>

2

<p>I don’t really know how to explain it, other that the fact that you can observe the use of (‘is’ a renowned), this sets the precedent in which you can use words in the past participle, (i.e. renown(ed), and ‘has’ received)…</p>

<p>That probably didn’t make any sense. Anyways… have fun studying, writing portion is a killer… for me, anyways.</p>

3

<p>Present perfect (“has received”) tense at D is correct because the writer is listing accomplishments. E, no error.

</p>

<p>See Topic 3 at [ENGLISH</a> PAGE - Present Perfect](<a href=“http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html]ENGLISH”>Present Perfect Tense | ENGLISH PAGE)</p>

4

<p>So is there a way to tell when I should implement parallel structure and when I should not?</p>

5

<p>You should use parallel structure when it comes naturally and when it doesn’t introduce awkwardness, non-standard phrasing or wordiness.</p>

<p>This sentence “The woman … is a renowned architect and has received many awards” employs a single subject and a compound predicate.</p>

<p>The construction “The woman … is a renowned architect and a recipient of many awards” imposes parallel structure but introduces some awkwardness, wordiness and additional passiveness.</p>

6

<p>Like my$0.02 said, lack of parallel structure should just jump out and scream wrong answer. Take this sentence for example:</p>

<p>Richard was not popular at work, for his coworkers regarded him as irritable, ill-mannered, and he always showed up late. </p>

<p>In that sentence, the lack of parallel structure is blatant. These are the kinds of questions that most often appear, questions where it’s very easy to see the lack of flow.</p>

7

<p>Can someone explain why “whom” is used right here please ? ( sorry for using your thread btw)</p>

8

<p>@garciac
“whom” is part of the relative clause “whom the board picked”. Because the relative pronoun is the object in this clause, “whom” must be used. If it was the woman who picked the board for example, the sentence would be: “The woman who picked the board…” As you can see in that sentence, the relative pronoun is now the subject of the relative clause so “who” must be used. The difference between “who” and “whom” is how it’s used in the relative clause - the former is a subject and the latter is an object.</p>

9

<p>yes, what ^ said. </p>

<p>Who is used as a subject, whom is used as an object.</p>

<p>Generally speaking, “whom” is used when something is being done to someone (in this case, “whom” is being picked by a board)</p>