Some writing questions.

<li><p>The management is not responsible for (people’s property who are) in the theater.
B. property of people when
C. The property of people who are</p></li>
<li><p>Because Roberto wants (to help perserve) marine life, he intends (on declaring) marine biology (as) his major when he (begins college) next fall. (No Error)</p></li>
<li><p>(If not) in (good) physical condition, a bicycle excursion through the countryside (can be) (painfully exhausting). (no error)</p></li>
<li><p>(setting herself) up (as) a perserver of the Classical tradition, Clara Schumann was an (outspoken) (critic toward) Romantic composer Franz Liszt. (No error)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Please explain these, I kinda know how to get the answer,but am not sure. please tell me your rationales. thankyou~`</p>

<p>p .s . the parentheses are the underlined portion in actual tests.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>C ('when' cannot follow people... it must be people 'who'...)</p></li>
<li><p>B (on declaring) ---> should be (to declare) --- infinitive/gerand error. If you say 'to xxx' instead of 'xxxing' once you must say 'to xxx' throughout the whole sentence (and vice versa).</p></li>
<li><p>A (If not)... ---> For this, obviously the sentence is meant to say 'if the BIKE is not'... for these kind of questions ask yourself 'WHAT cannot/can?'</p></li>
<li><p>I'm not sure, but I think it's D (critic toward)... it should be (critic of).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Helpful?</p>

<p>yea definitely man! thanks, i dont know if it's critic toward/of/against pr w/e,but for 4,D is the right answer.
it is helpful =D thanks man
i dont really understand gerunds/infinitives, elaborate please?
yea i know its ing and to,but ~~</p>

<p>First of all, don't say 'man' again. :p</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure it's critic OF, just like someone can be a supporter OF something not suppertor TOWARD/AGAINST something.</p>

<p>Okay, gerunds = Fancy way to refer to 'ing' words.
Infinitives = Original form of verb... like 'TO play' is the infinitive form of the verb 'playing'. Basically any verb with a 'to' before it is an infinitive.</p>

<p>So, if you start a sentence with infinitive form and say 'After I finished my homework, I wanted **to play<a href="infinitive">/B</a> basketball, **to eat<a href="infinitive">/B</a> hamburgers, and **watching<a href="gerund">/B</a> a movie' you cannot end by saying 'watching'. It's WRONG (heck, even sounds wrong, doesn't it? :))
Hence, you must change that last verb to an infinitive form as well... 'I wanted to play... to eat... and to watch.</p>

<p>Similarly, when you start a sentence with gerund form and say 'After I finished my homework, I wanted to spend my day **playing<a href="gerund">/B</a> basketball, **eating<a href="gerund">/B</a> a hamburger, and **to watch<a href="infinitive">/B</a> a movie.' you cannot end by saying 'to watch'...</p>

<p>Makes sense?</p>

<p>yeah, the verb tense has to be consistent throughout, parallel~~ but in what cases do i differentiate the right infinitive/gerund, and determine the right one to use??</p>

<p>The right one?
What do you mean the right one?</p>

<p>Both are correct and neither is preferred over the other.
You just have to be consistent in the sentence.</p>

<p>(Besides you won't be using infinitives/gerands on the SAT yourself (besides on the essay, of course)... you'll only have to correct sentences/identify the error).</p>

<p>don't verbs end with -ing MOST of the time wrong? or gerunds and infinitives aren't verbs??
those confuse me alot because they use verbs.</p>

<p>No, they're not. And you must get rid of this misconception at once!
Gerunds and infinitives are FORMS of verbs.</p>

<p>Is English your first language?</p>

<p>Well, gerunds may be "forms" of verbs, but they are nouns. The second sentence is wrong because it is idiomatically incorrect -- you intend "to" do something, you don't intend "on" doing something. It's not a case of parallelism or anything like that because the sentence is composed of a dependent introductory phrase followed by an independent clause. Parallelism is typically invoked in lists. For example, it is proper to say, "While running, I like to drink water, to look at my surroundings, and to take pictures." However, you cannot say, "I like to drink water, to look at my surroundings, to take pictures, and running." Also, the first sentence is wrong because "when" modifies "management" rather than "people."</p>

<p>nope~~ can u give me some examples ? i can only distinguish gerunds if they SOUND right, im pretty weak at this.</p>

<p>i can't help with gerunds or whatever, sorry, but i honestly don't know what that even is.</p>

<p>but 1 is C.
when in the theater just doesn't sound right. when they are in the theater would be better, but it still doesn't sound right.
2 should say to declare. not sure why? sounds right. (haha, sorry, i doubt i'm much help)
3 i think if not is wrong. because it should probably say if YOU are not in good physical condition. right now, the beginning of the sentence (before the comma) is describing 'the bicycle excursion' and a bicycle excursion couldn't really be not in good condition. they mean to be talking about you.
4 should say critic of. they use these ALL the time.</p>

<p>^, im pretty sure it should be "if a bicycle is not in good condition, ...."
not "you" =p</p>

<p>whos digging up all my threads LOL</p>