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ACT English 4.3 Sentence Structure 275 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 4, Problem 3. How could this sentence be written to best exemplify parallel construction? 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by parallel construction. The more productive

00:08

brother of parallel destruction.

00:10

How should you change the underlined portion below, if at all?

00:14

The coach told the players that they should get a lot of sleep, that they should not eat

00:18

too much, and to do some warm-up exercises before the game.

00:27

OK listen, not all parallel constructions require the same introductory phrase, but

00:32

there's definitely some wonkiness here, right?

00:35

Each item on the list starts with "that they should" except for the last one, which randomly

00:39

starts with "to do some."

00:42

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this list is inconsistent and definitely

00:46

not parallel.

00:47

Let's just cross off choice (A), and get on with the elimination process.

00:49

(D) is incorrect because it uses "they will" instead of "they should."

00:55

Instead of saying what the students ought to do, the coach is suddenly telling them

00:58

they're going to do it whether they like it or not.

01:00

Sure, there are a bunch of coaches out there who would do just that.

01:03

But it seems random to shift our introductory phrase for no good reason. Sorry, Coach.

01:07

Choice (C) is wrong because it uses "they can" instead of "they should."

01:11

Now it's like the coach is suddenly going, "Meh, you can do this if you want...I don't

01:15

know..."

01:15

(B) is the correct answer because it has the "they should" we've been looking for.

01:21

Now the coach's lecture is consistent, parallel, and fully comprehensible.

01:24

Which is good, because confusing speeches can lead to some bad situations on the field.

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