Sentence Correction

Nearly unrivaled in their biological diversity, coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines, and they contain biochemical sources for new life-saving medicines.

A. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines,
B. coral reefs provide a host of benefits: they supply people with protein, they protect the shorelines,
C. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that include supplying protein for people, as well as shoreline protection,
D. a coral reef provides a host of benefits; they supply protein for people, the protecting of shorelines,
E. a coral reef provides a host of benefits, including protein for people, protecting shorelines,

OA:B

In Choice C, why is the parallelism wrong? How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

Mo2men wrote:Nearly unrivaled in their biological diversity, coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines, and they contain biochemical sources for new life-saving medicines.

A. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that includes the supply of protein for people, protecting shorelines,
B. coral reefs provide a host of benefits: they supply people with protein, they protect the shorelines,
C. coral reefs provide a host of benefits that include supplying protein for people, as well as shoreline protection,
D. a coral reef provides a host of benefits; they supply protein for people, the protecting of shorelines,
E. a coral reef provides a host of benefits, including protein for people, protecting shorelines,

OA:B

In Choice C, why is the parallelism wrong? How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

and must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS.
A CLAUSE contains a subject and a verb.
The SC above is constructed as follows:
X, Y and they contain.
The non-underlined blue portion that follows and is a CLAUSE.
To maintain parallelism, X and Y must also be clauses.
Only B provides the required parallelism:
they supply, they protect and they contain.

The correct answer is B.

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

as well as is NOT a substitute for and.
X as well as Y implies that Y is LESS IMPORTANT than X.
Here, the three benefits -- they supply, they protect, they contain -- are equally important.
Thus, the usage of as well as would be inappropriate.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

as well as is NOT a substitute for and.
X as well as Y implies that Y is LESS IMPORTANT than X.
Here, the three benefits -- they supply, they protect, they contain -- are equally important.
Thus, the usage of as well as would be inappropriate.

Thanks Mitch.

Can you please shed light on the right usage of 'as well as' in general, not in the above sentence. I'd like to know how an OA with 'as well as' could be true and when is wrong.

Thanks

Mo2men wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote:

How 'as well as' could be used in right construction?

as well as is NOT a substitute for and.
X as well as Y implies that Y is LESS IMPORTANT than X.
Here, the three benefits -- they supply, they protect, they contain -- are equally important.
Thus, the usage of as well as would be inappropriate.

Thanks Mitch.

Can you please shed light on the right usage of 'as well as' in general, not in the above sentence. I'd like to know how an OA with 'as well as' could be true and when is wrong.

Thanks

Another SC that includes a misuse of as well as:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-2016-sc-97-t289689.html

An OA with a correct usage of as well as:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/diesel-engin ... 88260.html