Without a large amount of rain water to keep it wet, flowering plants will not grow in the soil this season.

A. flowering plants will not grow in the soil this season.
B. the soil will not produce flowering plants this season.
C. the soil will not be producing flowering plants this season.
D. this season's flowering plants will not be growing in the soil.
E. flowering plants will not grow in this season's soil.

Roll your mouse over this space for an answer:

1. Hand ale pumps may slightly improve the flavor of ale over gas-powered kegs, but modern pub managers contend that hand ale pumps cost twice as much as gas-powered kegs.

A. hand ale pumps cost twice as much as gas-powered kegs.
B. hand ale pumps cost twice as much as gas-powered kegs do.
C. maintaining hand ale pumps costs twice as much as gas-powered kegs do.
D. maintaining hand ale pumps costs twice as much as it does for gas-powered kegs.
E. to maintain hand ale pumps costs twice as much as for gas-powered kegs.

This sentence compares the costs required to maintain two kinds of pumps. B, the best choice, is able to maintain parallelism in the comparison as well. Choice A incorrectly shifts the meaning by comparing the cost of hand ale pumps with the cost of maintaining gas-powered kegs. Choice C does the opposite: it compares the cost of maintaining hand ale pumps with the cost of gas-powered kegs themselves. Choice D further confuses the sentence by adding a nonparallel clause, it does for, in which it has no clear referent. Choice E introduces the infinitive phrase to maintain.., and wrongly attempts to complete the comparison with the nonparallel prepositional phrase for....
2. With only one percent of the world's population, the English people have dramatically altered the course of the world.
A) With
B) Although accounting for
C) Being
D) Despite having
E) As

The trick with this sentence correction question is the contrast between the size of the English population and the activities of its citizens. Choices D and B are the only ones that establish the contrast, and only B, the best choice, expresses meaning accurately with the phrase 'Although accounting for.' 'With' in choice A and 'Despite having' in choice D confusingly suggest that English people somehow possess, rather than constitute, one percent of the world's population. Choices E and C lose the contrast between the opening phrase and the main clause, and As is unidiomatic in E.

Many students have a difficult time with sentence correction. If need more help, consider using a GMAT classroom class or tutoring offered by a company such as Veritas GMAT Prep.

Examples

1. Jerry gives less to charity than any other church member.

As this sentence is constructed, it's impossible to tell whether Jerry gives less to charity than any other church member does, or if he gives less money to charity than he gives to any other church member. But since it's probably unlikely that Jerry gives money to other church members, you want to clarify that the comparison is between what Jerry gives to the church, and what any other church member gives to the church. The simplest way to fix this is to add a "does" after "church member". "Does" stands in for "gives to the church", and the statement now directly compares what Jerry gives to what other church members give. (Note: if Jerry were to give something quantifiable, like dollars then it would be, "Jerry gives fewer dollars..." instead of less.)

2. The sports writer questioned the skill of basketball players compared to tennis players.

This sentence compares "the skill of basketball players" to "tennis players" themselves – not their skill. As in the example above, a short phrase – in this case, "that of" - will suffice in making the proper comparison clear. The correct sentence should read: The sports writer questioned the skill of basketball players compared to that of tennis players.

Click here for a guide to forming, and using, comparative and superlative forms.

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