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ACT English 4.4 Sentence Structure 250 Views


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ACT English: Sentence Structure Drill 4, Problem 4. How should this sentence best be completed according to parallel construction?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by slide presentations. We'll totally help

00:07

you through this problem, as soon as we've finished boring you with our recent trip to Mexico.

00:12

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

00:15

The student expected to present her report in the class, show her slide presentation,

00:19

and would answer questions from interested students.

00:29

The first two items begin with verbs in the present tense --"present" and "show"-- so

00:33

the unyielding laws of parallel construction dictate that the third item should begin with

00:37

a verb in the present tense as well.

00:39

The original sentence breaks the law by putting the third item in the future past tense by using "would."

00:44

The idea of future past tense makes our brains hurt a little bit, but it's actually simple

00:48

if we take a second to break it down.

00:50

It's when a verb is used to refer to the future from the perspective of some point in the past.

00:55

An example might be, "One day the tiny child would be a giant Sumo wrestler."

01:00

Whatever the case, this tense doesn't jibe with the simple present tense verbs of the

01:03

rest of the list, so we can take choice (A) out of the running.

01:06

Choice (D) tries to stick us with what seems to be a gerund, which is a word

01:10

derived from a verb that actually functions as a noun.

01:14

"Answering questions from interested students" is actually a gerund phase, and the whole

01:18

thing can act as a noun.

01:19

For example, we could say, "Answering questions from interested students was awful for Abigail."

01:25

See how the phrase functions as a noun might as the subject of the sentence?

01:28

In any case, this list doesn't have any room for gerunds or gerund phrases. We're looking

01:33

for answer choice with simple present tense verbs, and (D) doesn't fit the bill.

01:37

(C) does include the present tense verb "answer," which is exactly what we need. It still doesn't

01:41

make the cut, though, because it adds "also" into the mix.

01:45

"Also" is unnecessary here, and its presence might call down the wrath of the parallel

01:48

construction police.

01:50

It's best that we opt for choice (B), which is the exact same thing as (C), minus the

01:54

also.

01:55

Does anybody else ever wish that the laws of parallel construction would loosen up a bit?

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