Identify the option that satisfies formal comparative parallelism:
The architectural committee decided that restoring the heritage courthouse would be ________.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. more cost-effective than constructing an entirely new administrative complex
Answer: more cost-effective than constructing an entirely new administrative complex. Why not the others: 'to construct' is an infinitive clashing with the initial gerund; 'an entirely new complex construction' is a clumsy nominalization; 'compared to if they construct' is colloquial and grammatically unparallel.
- Step 1: Examine the element being compared: the subject is the gerund phrase 'restoring the heritage courthouse'.
- Step 2: In a comparative construction with 'more [adj] than', the element following 'than' must match the syntactic category of the subject (a gerund phrase: 'constructing an entirely new administrative complex').
Practise more Relative Clauses, Prepositional Complements, and Parallelism.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed MUET Malaysia (Malaysian University English Test) mock tests.
More Relative Clauses, Prepositional Complements, and Parallelism questions
- Choose the correct relative construction to complete the sentence:
Photosynthesis is the fundamental biochemical mechanism ________ solar r… - Select the relative phrase that correctly refers to the human participants:
The symposium featured twenty-four visiting climatologists, ___… - Choose the correct relative construction for the non-defining clause:
The geological team submitted five rock specimens to the mass spectro… - Select the preposition that correctly completes the standard academic collocation:
Evolutionary anthropologists attribute the rapid encepha… - Choose the correct preposition to complete the evaluative statement:
The excessive ambient noise and poor acoustic dampening in the lecture… - Identify the sentence that strictly maintains parallel grammatical structure:
The proposed urban development plan aims ________.