Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Del

IMO,it is not grammatically correct to use connection words such as which, that or with, and namely etc after the colon to start the second sentence. That is why C, D and E re wrong at the first instance. Of course, this topic which tests the use parallelism essentially has several other mistakes in CDE. Aside them, between A and B

(A) Deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was
used for clothing, its antlers and bones for
tools, and its sinews and gut ------ correct choice.


(B) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide used
for clothing, with its antlers and bones for
tools, and its sinews and gut used --- with its antlers distorts the meaning and spoils the parallelism. It looks as if the hide was used with its antlers and bones; the word used after the gut is again distortion of parallelism
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Here's the version created via the use of the correct answer, (A):

Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Delaware tribes than the Virginia white tailed deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut for bindings and glue.

Following the colon are two ideas expressed by, "it was ..." and "it's hide was ...." While it may seem odd that two "and"s are used to break up what may appear to be a list of four like items, what's really going on is that the first "and" is used to separate different ideas, the first of the two ideas being the "it was a source of" idea and the second being the list of items and how they are used. So, it makes sense to include the first "and."

The first "and" is necessary also because of the ellipsis used in writing the last two items. "Was used" can be elided from the last two items without loss of clarity, because the last two items resemble structurally and logically the second item. Thus, the "was used" that appears in the second item, "its hide was used," can be understood to be expressed by the third and fourth items without its being written. However, this ellipsis would not work were there no "and" between the first and second items, because the first item is logically different from the last three, and because "was used" does not appear in the first item. So, the first "and" allows the ellipsis.

So, following the colon in this version are two parallel items connected by comma + "and," the second of which items is composed of a parallel list of three items in which "was used" is elided in the last two items, which are parallel to the first of the three, even without "was used," because the last two items are understood to express "was used" even though "was used" is not written.

Adding further to the complexity of the sentence is the fact that each of the last two items in the list of how things were used contains a list of two items. At the same time, these lists nested within the list items do not affect the parallelism of the list of how things were used.


A colon in a sentence is meant to separate from what precedes the colon from an item or list of items. Consider the following example:

Jack laid on the table all of his possessions: a set of clothes, a pair of shoes, and an ancient picture of his father.

In the above example, the colon is followed by a list of nouns.

It is also correct to use a clause after a colon, if the clause expresses an item related to what precedes the colon.

A modifier is not an item or a list of items. A modifier modifies something. So, a modifier should not be separated from the what precedes it in a sentence by a colon. A colon separates a modifier from what it modifies in an illogical way. So, (C), (D), and (E) are incorrect because, in all three, a modifier follows a colon.

I personally don't really understand using a colon in the way in which it is used in the correct answer to this question, because the sentence is not really set up in a way that indicates that an item or a list of items is coming. All the same, it is the case that, in the correct answer, a list of items follows the colon.
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(A) is correct since '...the animal was X, and its hide was used for Y...' you have to repeat 'was' since it is as a new verb 'be used' with a new subject. cheers

The reason that B is wrong is the , with after the clothing which makes the bones seem like they are refering to the clothing....makes sense

+1 for A.

Relative pronouns : which, that, who etc are used to modify nouns before them. In the sentence there is a punctuation ":" (colon) involved. Colon is used for giving examples or if it can be replaced by "namely" or "that is/are".

Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Delaware tribes than the Virginia white tailed deer : it was a source of meat ......

which would be incorrect as the following sentence would not make any sense:

Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Delaware tribes than the Virginia white tailed deer namely, which was a source of meat ......

Crick

Of all the wild animals in their area, none was more useful to the Delaware tribes than the Virginia white tailed deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut for bindings and glue.

(A) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut-->correct ,all the phrases are parallel.
(B) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide used for clothing, with its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut used-->transgresses the parallelism rules
(C) deer: which was a source of meat, with its hide used for clothing, antlers and bones for tools, as well as its sinews and gut used--> colon is unnecessary here .
(D) deer: which, as well as being a source of meat, its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut were-->same as D
(E) deer: with, as well as being a source of meat, its hide used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut--> wordy and not clear.

I think it is better if there was a semicolon instead of a colon here .Colon is used to infront of examples .I think the use of semicolon is more apt in the above sentence.A complete sentence is warranted after a semicolon .
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The correct answer is A. B is incorrect as the phrase "Bones' seems as if they refer to clothing.

Can somebody please thow some light on this question? Narrowed to A & C.

1. Rule of WHICH:
C) Which needs to be used with a comma as a non essential modifier.

2. PARALLEL STRUCTURES: It is acceptable if the second element in a parallel structure is parallel to the rest of the elements after it:

(A) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was
used for clothing, its antlers and bones for
tools, and its sinews and gut

of meat is not parallel to the other elements BUT,
for clothing, for tools and for bindings and glue are parallel.

Cool question
Things to note here:
Item is a list concept: "A,B,C and D" is the correct list construction.
This statement however is complex. The right of the colon describes a list of 2 things (not 4). It says the the deer is used for flesh and its other body parts are used for other stuffs.
Also, "with" introduces a phrase/clause which gives further information.
Also, the : should be followed by an independent clause
Considering these points, A is clearly the winner.
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There should be a independent clause after colon or list of things

C,D,E failed to do so.

B changed the tense

So A

IMO this is the only response capturing the real essence of the question. Rest all responses go in weird directions.
I was really curious how A&B, C&D is correct construction. I had eliminated all the 5 answers

Dear MartyTargetTestPrep

1- Can you please show the parallelism in the OA? Is there any ellipsis?

2- Can only we have full sentence after colon, so that which, with in choices C,D & E are wrong?

Thanks in advance

I had the exact same queries when attempting the question. The same has already been covered in expert responses and cleared my concepts. So, Please have a look

1- Can you please show the parallelism in the OA? Is there any ellipsis? look at souvik101990 response above
2- Can only we have full sentence after colon, so that which, with in choices C,D & E are wrong? look at daagh response above

Thanks a lot MartyTargetTestPrep for your response and elaboration. Now it is clear.

I am little confused about parallelism in A.
: X and Y.
Now let's talk about Y.
Its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut for binding and glue.

Its a was used for b, its m for n, and its p for q.
I think my understanding to construction of statement is correct. Now problem is that how these three clauses are in parallel.
Shouldn't it be like below?
Its a was used for b, its m was used for n, and its p was used for q.
Please help me to understand this situation!

There a several things going on in this example: parallelism including two lists. The incorrect choices are terribly awkward and wordy

(A) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut

Note the repetition of the preposition 'for' and the two lists:
The deer was a source of meat AND
The deer's hide was used for clothing, the deer's antler and bones for tools, and the deer's sinews and guts for bindings and glue

(B) deer: it was a source of meat, and its hide was used for clothing, with its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut used
-breaks the parallelism

(C) deer: which was a source of meat, with its hide used for clothing, antlers and bones for tools, as well as its sinews and gut used

(D) deer: which, as well as being a source of meat, its hide was used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut were

(E) deer: with, as well as being a source of meat, its hide used for clothing, its antlers and bones for tools, and its sinews and gut
-awkward and wordy
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EducationAisle could you explain the usage of "and" in this sentence? The way I see it we have A, and B, C and D. Shouldn't it be A, B, C, and D?

Unofficial question and so, perhaps not much learning can be accrued. Nevertheless, you might want to go thru this post.
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