Weird writing question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>On one of the online course practice tests appears the following question:</p>

<p>32 Of the following, which is the best revision for the underlined part of sentence 5 (reproduced below)?</p>

<p>The introduction of the chili pepper had a tremendous impact on the balance of power among the European countries that were already involved in the black pepper (trade, and, what was even larger in scope, on Asian and European cultures.)</p>

<p>A) trade, not to mention on
(B) trade, but also
(C) trade, an impact also on
(D) trade; it also was affecting
(E) trade, and they also affected </p>

<p>The correct answer is A. Can someone explain this grammar rule to me? It sounds super awkward. I usually figure out the questions that I answer incorrectly, but this one has been bugging me. </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>I see why it’s A but C is also an acceptable answer. Are you sure you typed the answer choices correctly? Look again.</p>

3

<p>fresh101, </p>

<p>I copied and pasted this from the test as is. I chose C but apparently they think A is better.</p>

4

<p>Choice (B): “but also” requires “not only,” as in “Not only huge, but also tasty.”</p>

<p>Choice (C): If this were right, the meat of the sentence would be: “The introduction had an impact on the balance, an impact also on…,” which isn’t right (though it’s hard to verbalize why). The sentence could be: “The introduction had an impact on the balance; it also had an impact on…”</p>

<p>Choice (D): The tense is wrong. The rest of the sentence is in the simple past, but (D) is in the past progressive tense.</p>

<p>Choice (E): “they” should be singular to agree with “introduction.”</p>

<p>There’s not really a grammar rule that lets us know that (A) is right. By process of elimination, though, one can figure it out.</p>

5

<p>To add on to an already adequate explanation:</p>

<p>This is one of those rare questions that contain idioms. Don’t try to figure out the place of “not to mention” – its place doesn’t make much sense because it is an idiom. When you say “not to mention” after a comma, it does not have to modify the object. “Mention” is a verb done by a narrator (the person saying the sentence), so it is simply an extension of what is previously said. </p>

<p>So, the only thing that has to take precedence is that the two clauses are related, in meaning, to each other: “[To mention] [this]…, not to mention [that]”</p>

<p>dictionary examples:
“Gaining weight didn’t help her health, not to mention the high blood pressure that ran in her family.”
“They don’t have any of the players from that championship team anymore, not to mention manager Casey Stengel.”</p>

<p>Bolded are the associated nouns in each sentence, the first of which is the reference point.</p>

<p>“Gaining weight, one factor, didn’t help her health, nor did another factor, the high blood pressure in her family.”</p>

<p>“They don’t have any of these players, nor did they have another player, Casey Stengel.”</p>

<p>CORRECT:

</p>

<p>Since “on” is repeated, we know immediately that that is the reference point.</p>

<p>The introduction of the chili pepper had a tremendous impact on the balance of power in particular countries
The introduction of the chili pepper had a tremendous impact on other particular cultures</p>

<p>Now if you say “an impact also on” instead of “not to mention,” you are not utilizing the idiom whose purpose cannot be said within grammatical (correct) terms.</p>

<p>INCORRECT:

</p>

<p>X had an impact on Y, an impact also on Z.</p>

<p>First of all, the impact of X on Y is not the same as the impact of X on Z. Therefore, you cannot say “an impact also on Z”</p>

<p>Second of all, when you separate two nouns with a comma, those two nouns are presumably of the same importance. In other words, as opposed to “not to mention,” an unidiomatic phrase is restricted.</p>

<p>I gave it to Mary, a person that never gives -> Mary never gives</p>

<p>X had an impact on Y, an impact also on Z.
This says that Y had an impact on Z, which is not true</p>

6

<p>Thanks for diving into that, crazybandit.</p>