Parallelism

Link of the Day

Elevators have been in use since the 3rd century B.C. However, it wasn't until the mid 1800's that elevators came into common use. Before then they had been used mainly in industrial settings for moving materials. In 1853 though, Elisha Otis invented a safety brake system that would stop an elevator from falling if the support cables broke. His braking system is still used today. You can read more about the history of elevators here.

6/10 Identifying Sentence Errors

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E. 

AThe introduction of elevators in hotels meant that Bpreviously undesirable rooms on the top floors, Caway from the bustle and noise of the street, became sought after and more expensive than Dthe lower floors. ENo error

Always read the sentence first to get a general feel for how it sounds. If something seems strange or wrong, start with the part of the sentence that caught your attention. Check that segment against what you know of standard English grammar. If nothing stands out to you, check all four underlined sections. When you find one that breaks the rules, mark it.

Does anything sound odd? If not, don't worry, just check each answer choice individually. You may notice that the sentence seems fairly long and complicated. That's a good sign that the test makers are trying to hide something and trick you. Remember that often the underlined portion will look alright on it own if you don't take the whole sentence into account.

(A) doesn't really have anything wrong with it. It is worth noting that the subject of our sentence is "The introduction of elevators" though. You can now check for subject verb agreement (in this case there is no subject verb agreement error).

(B) is also error free. "Previously" is an adverb modifying "undesirable" (which is an adjective modifying "rooms"). Both words are being used properly.

(C) may seem strange at first. Note that "away from the bustle of the noise of the street" is in-between two commas because it is a non-restrictive element. Even though it may look a little out of the ordinary, there is no error here either.

(D) seems to be fine as well however, you should notice that it is part of a comparison (because it is preceded by the word "than"). If you look back in the sentence to see what "the lower floors" are being compared to, you will see that the sentence is comparing "undesirable rooms on the top floors . . . " to ". . . the lower floors." Since that comparison doesn't make sense, (D) is the error.

The correct answer choice is (D).

On sat.collegeboard.com 34% of the responses were correct.

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