<p>1.) Because biology labs focus on hands-on learning and promote skills needed for solving common problems is why they have been generally required by medical and health-related programs. </p>
<p>Answer: the "is why" is considered redundant in the Princeton Review book.
My Question: I thought anything combined with "and" is supposed to be parallel in form. In this sentence, both "focus" and "promote" are verbs, yet after those two parallel words the rest of the sentence is not parallel. "Focus on hands-on learning" (verb-prepositional phrase with a noun). "promote skills needed for solving common problems" (verb-noun-verb-prepositional phrase)</p>
<p>2.) At the annual dessert festival, carefully crafted pastries are presented in elegant displays, drawing people from near and far to take part in this yearly event. </p>
<p>Answer: No Error
My Question: Isn't the "yearly" redundant, since "annual" is already stated?</p>
<p>3.) A person who used hand tools to accomplish only such tasks as hanging pictures and fixing window shades need not purchase the most cutting-edge power tools developed for professionals.</p>
<p>Answer: No error
My Question: The subject is "a person" and the rest of the main sentence reads: "A person...need not purchase..." How is this correct? Isn't this a noun-verb agreement error, or am I missing something?</p>
<ol>
<li>The error in the sentence with is why is not so much the redundancy, but its lack of a main clause.</li>
</ol>
<p>Because precedes a subordinating clause which means that there must be a main clause in the sentence.</p>
<p>
In the original sentence, there is no main clause or a verb.
It should read,
Because biology labs focus on hands-on learning and promote skills needed for solving common problems, they have been generally required by medical and health-related programs.</p>
<p>I agree that yearly is redundant. When I did this practice test earlier this week, I also got this problem wrong.
However, in the ISE (Identifying Sentence Errors) section of the SAT, redundancy is not “grammatically” wrong. If this question were on the Improving Sentences section, this choice would not have been the “best” choice.</p>
<p>Remember the modal auxiliary verbs I mentioned in the other thread? Need is one of them along with dare.
Need can be used as either: 1. Modal auxiliary, or the main verb.</p>
<p>Modal auxiliary: He need not worry about the exam.
Main verb: He needs to do his chores. OR He does not need to worry.</p>
<p>Rather than trying to understand the modal verbs, it’s easier if you can hear them.
Ex. How dare he! or How dares he! He dare not do it or He dares not do it</p>
<p>For the first question-explanation, I understood the lack of a main sentence, but I did not understand why the two compound verb clauses were considered parallel.</p>
