Parallelism vs 2 independent clause

Question

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

I came down to B and D
B for obvious reason of paralleism but then I chose D because
the underlined part of the sentence began after ';' (semicolon) which tells me it has to be an independent clause and it has subject they.
What is the best approach when we encounter such dilemma?

DavidG@VeritasPrep · Answer

Though semi-colons on the GMAT are often used to separate independent clauses, they can also be used to separate elements in a list that contain commas within them. For example: During my vacation, I visited Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts. This is the usage we see in answer choice B, as the first two items in the list contain commas. Tropical bats play important roles in the rainforest ecosystem, aiding in dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit and mango trees; and indirectly helping to produce tequila by pollinating agave plants.

(And notice that in D, "indirectly help producing," follows a semi-colon, but is not an independent clause.)

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moron · Answer

DavidG@VeritasPrep wrote:Though semi-colons on the GMAT are often used to separate independent clauses, they can also be used to separate elements in a list that contain commas within them. For example: During my vacation, I visited Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts. This is the usage we see in answer choice B, as the first two items in the list contain commas. Tropical bats play important roles in the rainforest ecosystem, aiding in dispersal of cashew, date, and fig seeds; pollinating banana, breadfruit and mango trees; and indirectly helping to produce tequila by pollinating agave plants.

(And notice that in D, "indirectly help producing," follows a semi-colon, but is not an independent clause.)

Great explanation!!! Thanks..

thang · Answer

i think we do not need to know the uses of semicolon. gmat will not test us this point. just use meaning analysis to go to correct answer.

Max.P@EMPOWERgmat.com · Answer

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!

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Parallelism vs 2 independent clause

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