Teacher Discussion Forums

One of my students asks me this grammar question.

The greater the surface of ski that is in contact with the ground, the easier _________.
（A） to control it （B）is to control （C）to control it is （D） it is to control

The answer is A.

She asks me why the answer is not D.

Does anyone have any idea?

Many thanks.

My 'order of preference' is D, A, C. (Like Lolwhites I wouldn't accept B at all).

The only answer I definitely would not accept is B. Where does the question come from?

It's like the test writers have deliberately seperated out the expected elements ('it is to control' overlaps with 'to control it', except for the final, anaphoric 'it' there, as does 'to control it' with 'it is to control', minus the dummy subject 'it' and verb 'is'). I agree with lol that B is totally unacceptable, but I still think A is only marginally acceptable (and would not be accepted by most people); as for C, that is Yoda-speak here (but to-infinitive clauses can be subjects). All this leaves us still with D as the best choice.

C looks a bit Yoda-like when you read it on the page, but try saying it out loud, experimenting with sentence stress and it might seem more reasonable.

D is the only grammatically correct answer as far as I can tell. As lolwhtes says C is an inversion that would be OK in speech.

Sounds a bit over prescriptive SJ. I don't think anyone would worry too much about A. So it isn't "ungrammatical".

Did you consider that the answer given is incorrect? If the answer is "A" then the sentence would not be parallel and both sides of a comparative adjective must be parallel.

If the answer is "A" then the sentence would not be parallel and both sides of a comparative adjective must be parallel.

Since when? And don't you mean "symmetrical"?

The problem with A is that it leaves the whole sentence without a main clause.

lolwhite,
I've haven't heard the term symmetrical before. The only term I'm familiar with is parallel. Coordinating conjunctions and comparatives require parallel structures on each side. For example:
"blue and interesting" doesn't work because "interesting" is not a color
"neither the movie nor seeing a play" doesn't work because "seeing" is a gerund form of a noun rather than a simple noun

I'd like to hear more about your term "symmetrical".

Mmm, see what you mean SJ. Make a shorter sentence like "the bigger the ski, the easier to control it" and it becomes more uncomfortable.

However, if I am correct, and the vast majority of native speakers would not identify A as wrong, is A ungrammatical, in your opinion?