Sentence Correction

In Egypt in the late Paleolithic period, the climate changed, pastures became deserts, and the inhabitants were forced to withdraw to the land bordering the Nile from their hunting grounds.

(A) inhabitants were forced to withdraw to the land bordering the Nile from their hunting grounds
(B) inhabitants had been forced to withdraw from their hunting grounds to the land that bordered the Nile
(C) inhabitants were forced to withdraw from their hunting grounds to the land bordering the Nile
(D) inhabitants having been forced to, withdrew from their hunting grounds to the land that bordered the Nile
(E) inhabitants withdrew, because they were forced to, from their hunting grounds to the land bordering the Nile

The answer is C. I think to support parallelism, it should be E. Please help. Thanks

gviren - the answer is def "C"..although when I read it I was down to A & C.

the parallelism is with the verb tense and also a before/after effect.

verb tense
"changed" "became" goes best with "were forced."

before/after effect
the beginning of the sentenceshoes how the pastures --> deserts. Answer "C" takes care of this because it shows where inhabitants were before (from hunting grounds) and after (to the land...)...Answer "A" does not do this.

Answer "E" does not have the parallelism for the verb tense and its just too wordy...the "because" is not necessary in this sentence.

Hope I helped you understand....

Thnaks Nisha. One more thing if you clarify

Is changed, became not parallel with withdrew?

changed, became is parallel with withdrew, but that's not the verb that has to be parallel in order to make the sentence sound.

"were forced" is the verb that needs to be parallel with changed, became.

Although I did horrible on the GMAT...sc is my strength...another tip to answer this question is that you should never see a comma before the word "because."

Amongst all the choices it boils down to 2 - A and C...I would go with C because A has a fractured approach (forced to withdraw.... from their hunting grounds should ideally not be seperated)

Hence C