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Question

Difficulty: EasyParallel Structure

While researching ancient civilizations, the archaeologists focused on excavating ruins, translating inscriptions, and they wanted to document local pottery.

Which choice most effectively maintains the parallel structure of the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. documentingAnswer
  3. C
    to document
  4. D
    document

Answer

documenting
The correct option is 'documenting' because it uses the gerund form, which matches the grammatical pattern of the other items in the list ('excavating' and 'translating'). This maintains parallel structure in the sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the list of items in the sentence.
The list consists of three activities: 'excavating ruins', 'translating inscriptions', and the underlined portion describing the action with 'local pottery'.
Recognizing a list helps determine if parallel structure is required.
2
Analyze the grammatical form of the first two items in the list.
Both 'excavating ruins' and 'translating inscriptions' begin with a gerund (an -ing verb acting as a noun phrase).
To maintain parallel structure, the third item in the list must match this grammatical pattern.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that matches this pattern.
The word 'documenting' is a gerund and creates the parallel phrase 'documenting local pottery'.
Choosing 'documenting' ensures all three items in the list are grammatically parallel.

Key Concept

Parallel Structure
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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