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Hi All,

Tropical bats play important roles in the rain forest ecosystem, aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly help produce tequila by pollinating agave plants.

(a) as it is from above
(b) pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly helping to produce
(c) pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and they indirectly help to produce
(d) they pollinate banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly help producing
(e) they pollinate banana, breadfruit, and mango trees: indirectly helping the producing of

The confusion regarding the use of semicolon in this sentence is very valid. So far, we have seen construction in which semicolons are always followed by independent clauses. However, here we have phrases that are connected through semicolon. In fact, in this sentence semicolons have been used as comma to separate various entities in a parallel. This does not mean that semicolon will not perform the earlier function anymore.

In this sentence, we have too many commas because every entity in the parallel list has three examples. If there were commas all across the sentence, it would be little cumbersome to identify the entities in the parallel list. then Hence, use of semicolon becomes imperative here to distinguish between the examples of a particular entity and the next entity in the parallel list.

Needless to say that option B is the correct answer because this is the only choice with all parallel entities in the list - aiding…; pollinating…; and helping….

Now use of colon in choice E is not correct because after the first entity there is a semicolon and this must be maintained throughout.

Hope this helps.
Shraddha

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