Multiple choice

Directions: The following question presents a sentence, part of which or all of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose one of the others.

It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them and to drive them to market when the time is ripe.

  1. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to

  2. all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and

  3. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and

  4. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and

  5. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The original sentence has a parallelism error in the list of actions: 'leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to drive them to market.' The phrase 'to drive' breaks the parallel structure established by 'leave' and 'corral.' Option C corrects this by making all three actions parallel: 'leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and' (implying 'drive').

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