The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing

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The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing the collapse of several homes, massive power outages, tearing apart construction projects, and widespread business closures.

a) tearing apart construction projects
b) the tearing apart of construction projects
c) tore apart construction projects
d) construction projects torn apart
e) construction projects that were torn apart
OA is a

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by ErikaPrepScholar » Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:30 am
You might be struggling with this problem because the OA should be B, not A.

We have a list in this problem, which should tell us that we're looking for parallelism. Looking at the non-underlined portions of our original sentence, we should notice that all of the list items except the one that is underlined are noun phrases:

The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing:
- the collapse of several homes
- massive power outages
- tearing apart construction projects
- widespread business closures.

Tearing, on the other hand, is being used as a verb. So we can eliminate A.

Looking at B, we see our new list is:

The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing:
- the collapse of several homes
- massive power outages
-the tearing apart of construction projects
- widespread business closures.

The addition of the words "the" and "of" may seem unimportant, but they turn "tearing" into a noun, which makes the underlined portion a noun phrase. So this option is parallel. We'll keep it.

We eliminate C for the same reason as A - "tore" is a verb, so it isn't parallel.

D and E are interesting - both are noun phrases , but the order of the words is switched around so that"construction projects" is a noun and "torn" is an adjective, whereas in B, "tearing" is a noun and "of construction projects" is an adjective. Let's think about how that might affect the meaning: rather than the sentence saying that the tornado caused the act of tearing (like in B), which then impacted construction projects, D and E say the tornado caused construction projects, which we also know were torn apart. Tornados don't cause projects; they cause destruction. So D and E can be eliminated for meaning issues.

This leaves us with B as the correct answer.
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by Akrita@Jamboree » Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:26 am
BTGmoderatorRO wrote:The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing the collapse of several homes, massive power outages, tearing apart construction projects, and widespread business closures.

a) tearing apart construction projects
b) the tearing apart of construction projects
c) tore apart construction projects
d) construction projects torn apart
e) construction projects that were torn apart
OA is a

Please, i want experts to help me with the solution here. Thanks
This is an excellent question testing the concepts of logical and grammatical parallelism. Quite often, on the trickier GMAT SC questions, the GMAT will test you on the logical use of parallel structures. In such cases, always identify the things that should be logically put in the set.

In this question, we want to put the different elements of destruction caused by the tornado in parallel. In the non underlined portion, we have 'causing the collapse of several homes, massive power outages,.., and widespread business closures' put in parallel. The only way as to how these two elements can be put in parallel is if 'causing' acts as a common word to these elements. In other words, the tornado left a path of destruction.., causing the collapse of several homes, causing massive power outrages...UNDERLINED PORTION, and causing widespread business closures. We want the underlined portion to make sense with 'causing' logically and be parallel to the rest of the elements in the non-underlined portion grammatically. The elements in the non-underlined portion are basically 3 simple nouns, namely -

the collapse of several homes
massive power outrages
widespread business closures

Therefore, our underlined portion should also be a simple noun. This eliminates A and C - 'tearing' and 'tear' are not simple nouns.

Out of B, D, and E - the noun in D and E is 'construction projects that..', and the noun in B is 'the tearing apart of construction projects'. This is where we must think a bit logically, and ask the question "What destruction could the tornado have caused - construction projects OR the tearing apart of construction projects?". Logically, "Construction projects" aren't a destruction, so it doesn't make sense to say that the tornado caused 'construction projects' (unless these were severely corrupt construction projects :)). Therefore, although D and E are grammatically parallel - we are connecting 4 nouns in the list - they are not logically parallel. Eliminate D and E

Hence, Bis the only logically and grammatically correct parallel construction and the correct answer.

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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:48 am
BTGmoderatorRO wrote:The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing the collapse of several homes, massive power outages, tearing apart construction projects, and widespread business closures.

a) tearing apart construction projects
b) the tearing apart of construction projects
c) tore apart construction projects
d) construction projects torn apart
e) construction projects that were torn apart
and must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS.

A: the collapse of several homes, massive power outages, tearing apart construction projects, and widespread business closures.
Here, the blue portions are all composed of NOUNS and MODIFIERS, while the red portion is composed of a VERBing (tearing apart) and a DIRECT OBJECT (construction projects).
The result is a lack of parallelism.
Eliminate A.

C: the collapse of several homes, massive power outages, tore apart construction projects, and widespread business closures.
Here, the blue portions are all composed of NOUNS and MODIFIERS, while the red portion is composed of a VERB (tore apart) and a DIRECT OBJECT (construction projects).
The result is a lack of parallelism.
Eliminate C.

D and E: The tornado left a path of destruction in its wake, causing...construction projects.
This meaning is nonsensical, implying that the tornado caused CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS.
Eliminate D and E.

The correct answer is B.
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