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The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi

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Carcass
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The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   28 Oct 2017, 02:25
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The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consider it an unnec­essary addendum to a perfectly clear sentence structure; obviously, they're wrong, because the serial comma is critical to conveying the correct meaning.

Blank (i)
(A) a crotchet
(B) an awl
(C) an apogee
(D) a nadir
(E) an opus
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A
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YalieColonial1994
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Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   15 Jul 2018, 12:56
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The blank should mean something that is a "peculiar trick or device." A crotchet is a peculiar trick or device; stepovers are one of Ronaldo's main crotchets.
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ricky05
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Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   28 Sep 2021, 18:08
there are 2 independent clauses separated by semicolons. SO they should support each other. Now there is a blank in the first part of the sentence. So we will look into the 2nd part. 2nd part specifically says that Commas are a critical part of grammar. so the same tone should be there in 1st part of the sentence. UNNECESSARY is already added in the first part so we could guess blank to be filled with NOT CRITICAL.
now check the options. only first option is closest to what we have guessed ( not critical)
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Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   15 Nov 2022, 22:44
Hi Carcass,
Can you please explain why answer is A?
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Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   16 Nov 2022, 00:33
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What a bad sentence. Well, the sentence is quite clear in its meaning even though is wayyyyyyyyyyyy far from a real GRE sentence.

Usually a GRE sentence tests something: a contrast, a shift, some twist and turn, and so forth.......

the sentence in this case is pretty straight: the grammarians or scholars of a language think that the serial comma is UNuseful, not necessary. They are clearly wrong because it is essential to understand the meaning of the sentence.

However, it tests you knowledge of vocabs. If I know the words I nail it, otherwise I fail. This is NOT the way the GRE works

Now: grammarians or scholars of a language think that the serial comma is UNuseful, not necessary. They are clearly wrong because it is essential to understand the meaning of the sentence.

Therefore they have a fixation with that idea. The fixation or oddity is a particular trait of grammarians.

The only vocab among those is A
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sanya3005
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Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink] New post   19 Nov 2022, 04:13
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crotchet - fancy, fad, a perverse or unfounded belief or notion.
Awl - a small pointed tool used for piercing holes, especially in leather.
Opus - an artistic work, especially one on a large scale
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gmatclubot
Re: The serial comma is _______of many grammarians, who consi [#permalink]
19 Nov 2022, 04:13
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