The elements of a list start after the dash. They are
vegetables
fresh cheese
oatmeal
AND
meal cakes

Notice the capitalized AND. The list ends there itself.
After the end of this list, we dont want to show any continuity of thought coz meat is not vegetarian...
So, with is preferred... So, A, B are out.

I am still not convinced why A is wrong :

As I wrote :

I am seeing a parallelism in A

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X any Y. -> what's wrong with this sentence ??

X -> largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes
Y -> meat rarely

The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes， and meat rarely．

Please response guys why A is wrong.

paes,

the sentence must be in parallel and also its must be concise in meaning.

IMO there is no parallel element as "was X any Y".

Diet consists of only vegetarian

-->vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes

Note that "and" comes before meal cakes itself.If meat also meant to be veg,the sentence will be like this

vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，meal cakes and meat.

So the meaning should be rarely meat is taken along with veg foods.

Only option E has clear meaning.

Hope this clarify

I agree E is right but still I am unable to discard A.

I am not counting 'meat' parallel to fresh cheese,oatmeal and cakes

but see :

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X (largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes) ， and Y (meat rarely) ．

How the above parallelism is wrong ?

paes wrote:I agree E is right but still I am unable to discard A.

I am not counting 'meat' parallel to fresh cheese,oatmeal and cakes

but see :

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X (largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes) ， and Y (meat rarely) ．

How the above parallelism is wrong ?

should if the option A was "largely vegetarian- . . . . and rarely meat" then it would have been correct.

Ok see I will show you the example.

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X (largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes) ， and Y (meat rarely) ．

X and Y

X is the list if items & "and" appears before the last item Y.

Consider the below example,

I like apple,orange,grapes and peach.[and appears before peach]

Now consider the same example written in format as option A.

I like apple,orange and grapes and peach.[and is repeated&redundant]

In the sentence note that list of items comes after "-" last item ends after " and"(ie) meals.

Let me know if this help.

still not convinced

See the sentence :

I like fruits such as apples, oranges and grapes, and vegetables.

It seems a correct sentence.

jathin12 wrote:

paes wrote:I agree E is right but still I am unable to discard A.

I am not counting 'meat' parallel to fresh cheese,oatmeal and cakes

but see :

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X (largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes) ， and Y (meat rarely) ．

How the above parallelism is wrong ?

should if the option A was "largely vegetarian- . . . . and rarely meat" then it would have been correct.

makes some sense.
What the other guys think about it ??

paes wrote:still not convinced

See the sentence :

I like fruits such as apples, oranges and grapes, and vegetables.

It seems a correct sentence.

ok this sentence is correct.

Note that apples,oranges and grapes refer to fruits.

Vegetables is seperate entity.

In the original sentence list of items appears after "-"so the list of items following must refer to veg foods.

Now consider this example,

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes[This correct]

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes- and vegetables[This is correct format]

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes with vegetables[This is correct format]

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes and vegetables[Option A is like this.Here vegetables seems to refer to fruits,not as seperate entity]

let me put a comma

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes, and vegetables.

A is like this which seems correct to me.

The option A would have been correct if the adjectives "largely" and "rarely" were not present. Here there is a parallelism error.

paes wrote:let me put a comma

I like fruits-apple,oranges and grapes, and vegetables.

A is like this which seems correct to me.

paes wrote:The question is discussed multiple times.

The diet of the ordinary Greek in classical times was largely vegetarian-vegetables, fresh cheese, oatmeal, and meal cakes, and meat rarely.

(A) and meat rarely
(B) and meat was rare
(C) with meat as rare
(D) meat a rarity
(E) with meat as a rarity

[spoiler]OA is E.
Why A is wrong. I am seeing a parallelism in A

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X any Y. -> what's wrong with this sentence ??

X -> largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes
Y -> meat rarely[/spoiler]

When you see conjunctions such as and, but, or, etc. changing in the answers, ask yourself:

Is the correct conjunction being used?
Is the conjunction in the right place?

In the original sentence above, the list of vegetarian items is vegetables, fresh cheese, oatmeal, and meal cakes. Meat is not included in this list, so we can't say and meat rarely because and cannot serve to introduce a contrast.

Eliminate A and B.

A conjunction is needed in D. Eliminate D.

Answer choice C changes the meaning. The phrase meat as rare suggests meat that was cooked only for a short period. The intended meaning of the sentence is that meat was uncommon. Eliminate C.

The correct answer is E.

Thanks Guru to address my concern.

I agree E is right but still I am unable to discard A.

I am seeing A as :

The diet of the ordinary Greek was X (largely vegetarian-vegetables ， fresh cheese，oatmeal，and meal cakes) ， and Y (meat rarely) ．

How the above parallelism is wrong ?