Parallelism: use of "to" in the first verb of the

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Could anyone explain why the use of "to" before the first verb of the list ("leave") is not needed in OA C?

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to drive them to market when the time is ripe.

(A) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to
(B) all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and
(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by GmatKiss » Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:36 pm
massi2884 wrote:Could anyone explain why the use of "to" before the first verb of the list ("leave") is not needed in OA C?

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to drive them to market when the time is ripe.

(A) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to
(B) all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and
(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them

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by scholardream » Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:22 pm
Thanks GMATKiss, very clear explanation for parallel structure

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