Caribou are wary animals

[eyunni]

Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so stalking them over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it with nothing but a handheld lance, as Dorset people did, required exceptional hunting skill.

(A) so stalking them over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it

(B) so to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

(C) so in order to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one

(D) and so in order to stalk it over the treeless landscape, getting close enough to kill it

(E) and so stalking them over the treeless landscape and getting close enough in order to kill it
















OA is B. I have a very specific question. Does choice B not make the sentence a run-on? Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing, so to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one.....

I believe that the two clauses should be separated by a semi-colon. Caribou are wary animals with excellent hearing; so to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one with nothing but.................

Reference from William Strunk - Elements of Style.

Note that if the second clause is preceded by an adverb, such as accordingly, besides, so, then, therefore, or thus, and not by a conjunction, the semicolon is still required.

I had never been in the place before; so I had difficulty in finding my way about.

In general, however, it is best, in writing, to avoid using so in this manner; there is danger that the writer who uses it at all may use it too often. A simple correction, usually serviceable, is to omit the word so, and begin the first clause with as:

[guest]

Can someone explain why C is wrong. What is difference between "In order to" and "to" and if there is some rule which one should be used in this sentence

[eyunni]

Compared with (B), (C) is wordier. 'in order to' and 'to' are not really different.

[Raghava]

phrase "in order to" seems to imply that the objective of the hunters was to get close to the animal rather than to hunt the animal. Thats my reason for not going with c

[eyunni]

Instructors, any comments?

[jwinawer]

Re Strunk and White: It is a good book, but there is no single agreed upon set of rules for English grammar and you should not rely on S&W for the GMAT. The "so" preceded by a comma instead of a semicolon seems fine. If there were no "so" then you would definitely need a semicolon for the reasons you state.

"In order to" is wrong here, and not just because it is wordy. Try shortening the sentence or making up a new (and simpler)one to get to the core:

(1) In order to eat requires food.
(2) To eat requires food.

(2) makes sense. (1) does not. The infinitive (To eat, or To stalk) can serve as the subject. The expression "In order to ..." cannot serve as a subject; it requires an entire clause (e.g., "In order to eat, one must have food.")

-Jon

[priyankamittal]

Hello,

Please let me know if my line of reasoning stated below is correct.

The sentence starts is Caribou " are", hence all references to "it" at the end, should be considered incorrect.-> Strike off A,D and E. The correct pronoun reference would be "they"

B/w B and C, "in order to is incorrect" , hence correct answer B.

Please let me know if above iis ok.

thanks

[RonPurewal]

Hello,

Please let me know if my line of reasoning stated below is correct.

The sentence starts is Caribou " are", hence all references to "it" at the end, should be considered incorrect.-> Strike off A,D and E. The correct pronoun reference would be "they"

B/w B and C, "in order to is incorrect" , hence correct answer B.

Please let me know if above iis ok.

thanks

perfect.

[alexei600]

Message to instr.
Hello,
For answer choice C. Is there a parallelism issue between the markers SO (prep.phrase) AND( infinitive)
Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Message to instr.
Hello,
For answer choice C. Is there a parallelism issue between the markers SO (prep.phrase) AND( infinitive)
Thanks.

no, that's not a parallelism signal -- the parallelism signal in this case is just "and".
in fact, if "so ... and ..." were a parallel structure, then the official answer to this problem would be wrong!

--

if you are asking this question, then you may not have a clear enough conceptual idea of what parallel signals actually are: they are words that PAIR or GROUP similar things, ideas, or concepts.
this idea should be powerful enough to distinguish between genuine parallel signals and words that are not parallel signals. for instance, in the construction "both ... and ...", it's clear that both words play a role in carrying the words that follow them, so both words are parallel signals.
in this case, "so ..." plays no role in pairing or grouping anything, so it's not a parallel signal.

[alexei600]

Ron,
What are the most important parallel markers to look out for?

[RonPurewal]

Ron,
What are the most important parallel markers to look out for?

well, i certainly can't just give you a list -- you may want to try your luck with google on that one. the two most common such markers would definitely be "and" and "or", but there are probably hundreds of them.

if you are trying to approach this task with memorization, though, you are almost certainly using the wrong approach -- there are way too many different parallel markers, and way too many ways in which they can appear, for memorization to be feasible (although you should certainly know the most common ones, such as "and", "or", "not ... but ...", etc.)

you should definitely make sure that you understand the CONCEPTUAL nature of parallel signals, as i posted above: they are words that PAIR or GROUP similar things, ideas, or concepts.
if you understand this concept, then you should be able to pick out parallel markers even if you've never seen them before.

[xyin]

Hi, Ron!!!
I got a question about the difference between the "one" and "ones."
Can "one" be plural? If not, why "one" is correct in the key B.

Thanks in advance!

[jnelson0612]

Hi, Ron!!!
I got a question about the difference between the "one" and "ones."
Can "one" be plural? If not, why "one" is correct in the key B.

Thanks in advance!

"One" is singular and not plural, and it's not used as a plural in this sentence. It is standing in for "a caribou", or a singular member of the caribou group.

[cnhelen]

..., so to stalk them over the treeless landscape and get close enough to kill one, as D did, required exceptional hunting skill.


"to stalk them over the treeless landscape and (to) get close enough to kill one" is the subject of the sentence after "so" and the second "to" is omited. Am i correct?