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Difficulty: HardParallel Structure

A biographer is drafting a sentence to describe the life of a famous sculptor:

"The biography traces the subject's life ________."

To complete the sentence in a chronologically logical sequence while maintaining strict parallel structure, in what order should the following grammatical segments be arranged?

  1. 1from a childhood of extreme poverty,
  2. 2through a youth of academic dedication,
  3. 3to an adulthood of international acclaim.

Answer

The correct sequence of segments is: 'from a childhood of extreme poverty,' followed by 'through a youth of academic dedication,' and concluding with 'to an adulthood of international acclaim.'
The correct sequence arranges the segments chronologically ('childhood' to 'youth' to 'adulthood') and matches them to the prepositional structure 'from... through... to...' to establish a parallel and logical progression.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the chronological stages of life represented in the segments.
The stages are childhood, youth, and adulthood.
This establishes a logical time progression for the biography description.
2
Align the prepositions that coordinate with these stages to show progression.
The prepositions 'from', 'through', and 'to' must match the stages 'childhood', 'youth', and 'adulthood' respectively.
The prepositional framework 'from... through... to...' idiomatic to show progress aligns with the chronological order.
3
Verify that parallel grammatical structure is maintained across all three segments.
Each segment consists of a preposition, a singular noun for the life stage, the preposition 'of', and an adjective-noun pair describing the stage.
Parallel structure requires that all items in a series share the same grammatical form.

Key Concept

Parallel structure requires that parts of a sentence that are work-sharing or series-based must be expressed in the same grammatical form.
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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