Sentence Correction

GmatKiss wrote: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 teauila 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

GmatKiss wrote: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 teauila 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

vk_vinayak wrote:

GmatKiss wrote: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 teauila 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

The question contains a colon after mango trees, while the answer choice A has semicolon. Please correct that.

As far as I know, the sentence on either sides of the semicolon should be able to stand alone as a complete sentence. Hence I ruled out A, B, and C. Also, there is a conjunction at the beginning of second half in each of A, B, C and D. semicolon and conjunctions serve the same purpose; only one of them should be used.

None of the answers look convincing to me. What is the source and explanation?

the source is legit, i was thrown off by the same thing you mentioned
source is og13 sc question #26

vk_vinayak wrote:

the source is legit, i was thrown off by the same thing you mentioned
source is og13 sc question #26

Ok, so, can you please post the official explanation?

Thanks,

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.