Hello Everyone!

This looks like an excellent example of a list question you would see on the GMAT exam! Let's start by taking a close look at the question, and highlight any major differences between each option in orange:

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) pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly help produce
(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

After a quick glance over the options, 3 major differences appear:

1. pollinating / they pollinate
2. help / helping
3 produce / producing

Instead of tacking one issue at a time, let's first take a look at the type of sentence we're dealing with - a LIST QUESTION. Whenever we see a question that deals with a list on the GMAT, it's a major hint that we're going to deal with PARALLELISM!

One of the list items is not underlined: aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds

The correct option MUST be written using parallel structure that matches the non-underlined part of the sentence. Let's see how each option holds up in terms of parallel structure:

(a) aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly help produce --> NOT PARALLEL

(b) aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly helping to produce --> PARALLEL

(c) aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and they indirectly help to produce --> NOT PARALLEL

(d) aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; they pollinate banana, breadfruit, and mango trees; and indirectly help producing --> NOT PARALLEL

(e) aiding in the dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; they pollinate banana, breadfruit, and mango trees: indirectly helping the producing of --> NOT PARALLEL

Option B is the only one that follows parallel structure by using -ing verbs to introduce each item on the list, so it is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.