(A) To compare the lightning-fast genius of playwright Tom Stoppard with the pedestrian efforts of some of his contemporaries is to compare the exquisite bouquet of a fine wine with that of ordinary grape juice.
(B) To compare the lightning-fast genius of playwright Tom Stoppard with the pedestrian efforts of some of his contemporaries is comparing the exquisite bouquet of a fine wine with that of ordinary grape juice.
(C) Comparing the lightning-fast genius of playwright Tom Stoppard with the pedestrian efforts of some of his contemporaries is to compare the exquisite bouquet of a fine wine with ordinary grape juice.
(D) Comparing the lightning-fast genius of playwright Tom Stoppard with the pedestrian efforts of some of his contemporaries is like comparing the exquisite bouquet of a fine wine with ordinary grape juice.
(E) To compare the lightning-fast genius of playwright Tom Stoppard with the pedestrian efforts of some of his contemporaries is to compare a fine wine’s bouquet with ordinary grape juice’s bouquet.
Solution:
Parallelism + Idioms
The correct idiom is “to compare X is to compare Y”
In B, “To compare…is comparing…” is unidiomatic.
In C, “Comparing…is to compare…” is unidiomatic. Furthermore, “bouquet of fine wine” is being compared to “ordinary grape juice” and not to its bouquet.
In D, “bouquet of fine wine” is being compared to “ordinary grape juice” and not to its bouquet.
In E, instead of “wine’s bouquet” and “juice’s bouquet”, it should be “bouquet of wine” and “bouquet (that) of…juice” as is in the first part of the sentence.
In A, the sentence maintains parallelism and is idiomatic and hence, the best choice.
Sentence Correction - 1000 Questions with Solution:
