Yucatan peninsula drought

[kushal.adhia]

The asteroid that struck the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and that is how it killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world.


A. Quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and that is how it killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world

B. Caused the killing off of hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world through the quick incinerating of much of the plant and animal life in North America and the creating of a dust cloud that changed the global climate

C. Caused the quick incinerating of much of the plant and animal life in North America, the creating of a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and the killing off of hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world

D. Killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world by quickly incinerating much of the plant and animal life in North America and creating a dust cloud that changed the global climate

E. Killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world, quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate


OA is D

I chose E. Can someone please tell me where I went wrong?

Thanks

Kushal

[Amit@EconomistGMAT]

This question is really about rephrasing A, which is very awkwardly phrased ('and that is how it killed off..'). The problem with E is that it strips the meaning off the sentence, by turning it into a list where all the items are equal:

(1) killed off... (2) quickly incinerated... and (3) created...

But the original sentence made it clear that (3) and (2) were the means by which the asteroid did the killing (1). This relationship is lost in E. However, D maintains it by using the word by:

Killed... by (quickly incinerating... and creating...).[/b]

[ankurmit]

D seems best choice but I am confused.

Sentence structure must be .

by quickly incinerating much of the plant and animal life in North America and by creating a dust cloud that changed the global climate.

"By" before creating is missing in D.

Is sentence parallel without use of "By" before creating?

[Amit@EconomistGMAT]

The short answer is yes, it's still parallel.

Your version of D is clearer and easier to read, but grammatically speaking D is correct. The "cut-off" point of the parallelism (where the list begins, marked here by a colon) can be placed almost anywhere in the sentence. The parallelism is correct so long as the items that follow (a) are parallel to one another and (b) can each be placed after the cut-off point:

Killed off ... the world : ... slot items here ...
1. [by quickly incinerating much of the plant and animal life in North America]
and
2.[by creating a dust cloud that changed the global climate]

Killed off ... the world by : ... slot items here ...
1. [quickly incinerating much of the plant and animal life in North America]
and
2. [creating a dust cloud that changed the global climate]

[kushal.adhia]

Thanks a lot guys

Kushal

[mundasingh123]

The asteroid that struck the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and that is how it killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world.


A. Quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and that is how it killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world

B. Caused the killing off of hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world through the quick incinerating of much of the plant and animal life in North America and the creating of a dust cloud that changed the global climate

C. Caused the quick incinerating of much of the plant and animal life in North America, the creating of a dust cloud that changed the global climate, and the killing off of hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world

D. Killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world by quickly incinerating much of the plant and animal life in North America and creating a dust cloud that changed the global climate

E. Killed off hundreds of thousands of species throughout the world, quickly incinerated much of the plant and animal life in North America, and created a dust cloud that changed the global climate

Wats the source?
OA is D

I chose E. Can someone please tell me where I went wrong?

Thanks

Kushal