Sentence Correction

Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.

A. which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning
B. which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn
C. which removes only selected trees, along with surface fires that burn
D. removing only selected trees, or surface fires, burning
E. removing only selected trees, as well as surface fires that burn

OA: B. However in B, that and which are not parallel so i chose D. Please explain

Abhijit K wrote: OA: B. However in B, that and which are not parallel so i chose D. Please explain

Hi Abhijit, you raise an interesting point that perhaps can cause confusion among a lot of people. Since you mention parallelism, let's analyze this sentence from a parallelism perspective.

What components of this sentence need to be parallel? Well, if we deconstruct the sentence, the parallelism trigger is either....or. So, the sentence reads:

..such work has not addressed either X or Y.

X: logging
Y: surface fires

X and Y are already parallel, because both X and Y (logging and surface fires) are noun phrases. What follows logging and surface fires (which removes only selected trees and that burn down individual trees...) are just modifiers of these respective noun phrases.

If this is not clear, let's look at the following correct sentence:

Abhijit loves places that are scenic and people who are jovial.

Here again, places and people are parallel (both nouns). After these words, that are scenic and who are jovial are just modifiers and we have used that and who here because nothing else would be correct. For example: people that are jovial or places who are scenic would be obviously wrong.

...deleted..duplicate post!

Abhijit K wrote:Past assessments of the Brazilian rain forest have used satellite images to tally deforested areas, where farmers and ranchers have clear-cut and burned all the trees, but such work has not addressed either logging, which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning down individual trees but do not denude the forest.

A. which is the removal of only selected trees, as well as surface fires, burning
B. which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn
C. which removes only selected trees, along with surface fires that burn
D. removing only selected trees, or surface fires, burning
E. removing only selected trees, as well as surface fires that burn

Correct idiom: either X or Y.
A and E: either logging...AS WELL AS surface fires
C: either logging...ALONG WITH surface fires
Eliminate A, C and E.

A conjunction such as but must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS:
NOUN but NOUN
VERB but VERB
MODIFIER but MODIFIER.

D: surface fires, burning down invidivual trees but do not denude
Here, but incorrectly serves to connect burning (modifier) to do not denude (verb).
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is B.

However in B, that and which are not parallel

B: either logging, which removes only selected trees, or surface fires that burn down individual trees
Here, the portions in red both serve as MODIFIERS.
The first modifier refers to logging, while the second modifier refers to surface fires.
Since they have different referents, the two modifiers do not have to be structured the same way.