Practice GMAT Sentence Correction Question

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Under the provisions of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States, the Federal government cannot detain an American citizen indefinitely without cause and is required either to bring charges against the individual being held, in which case he is entitled to a lawyer, or that the government must release him.
Correct Answer: B

This sentence turns on an idiom: either to x or [to] y where both x and y must be parallel.
The sentence should be: the Federal government...required either to bring...or [to] release
Unfortunately, the current sentence incorrectly reads: the Federal government...required either to bring...or that the government must release. This is not parallel and is wrong.

The correct sentence structure is: the Federal government is required either to bring charges against the individual being held, in which case he is entitled to a lawyer, or release him. Do not be thrown off by in which case he is entitled to a lawyer, which was inserted simply to make spotting the idiom and parallelism more difficult. The phrase in which case he is entitled to a lawyer is merely an elucidation of the preceding idea and is not another item that itself must be parallel.

  1. the sentence is not idiomatically correct (i.e., the phrase the Federal government...is required either to bring...or that the government must release is not idiomatically correct)
  2. the sentence correctly uses the idiom either to x or [to] y
  3. although the sentence follows the correct idiom either to bring...or to proceed, the phrase to proceed in releasing is not concise and can be replaced by [to] release
  4. the sentence is not idiomatically correct (i.e., the phrase the Federal government...is required either to bring...or the government must release is not idiomatically correct)
  5. the sentence is not idiomatically correct (i.e., the phrase the Federal government...is required either to bring...or they must release is not idiomatically correct); they, which is a plural pronoun, does not agree with the subject the Federal government, which is singular

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