David@VeritasPrep wrote:Let's put this one to rest!

1) First, this is not a well-written question. The people at Aristotle say that they will edit it to make it more acceptable to the GMAT. And it is the correct answer that they will edit.

2) Second, the original sentence taken from the New York Times is answer choice A. So to the extent that there is a correct answer it is A.

3) Third, the parallel list is a list of things that the report urges. It urges three things "convening a conference, encouraging Congress, and establishing networks." These are the things that the report urges. So this is correct.

So this is not a great question and A is the best answer.

aspirant2011 wrote:The report urges convening a White House conference, encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and establishing networks of black mentors

A. convening a White House conference, encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and establishing networks of black mentors
B. convening a White House conference, to encourage Congress to appropriate more money for schools and for establishing networks of black mentors
C. convening a White House conference, encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and to establish networks of black mentors
D. the convening a White House conference, encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and establishing networks of black mentors
E. for convening a White House conference, for encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and establishing networks of black mentors

[spoiler]OA: Will be posted later. Please discuss each option in detail[/spoiler]

In this case we do not have to think about the meaning because there is a clear problem with the grammar. The problem is that you cannot separate two parallel terms with a comma -- and the two terms I am speaking of are "convening" and "encouraging."

If you have an and there then you have two things that the follow the "encouraging" namely "encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and to establish networks of black mentors."

So if you just change the comma between "convening" and "encouraging" to an "and" you will have two separate parallel pairs - "convening" and "encouraging" as well as "to appropriate" and "to establish".