Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First

There might be some mistakes that make this topic untouchable for some. But looking at the broad picture, here are some facts that many seem to have overlooked.

1. Here is list of six factors that many have jumbled up in a single list. Nope; they are indeed in two series, namely

A – the upward series and B - the downward series.

A. The upward series: 1. the growth of nationalism, 2. the escalation in territorial disputes, 3. Intensified and intricate system of alliances, and 4. a heightened race for arms
B. The downward series: 1. the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and 2. a drop in mutual regard

Now, first thing is to put an ‘and’ between the A and the B series, but not a comma because there are only two lists.

Next, take the first (upward) series: put a ‘comma’ and the ‘and’ before the last item namely, ‘a heightened race for arms’.

Then, take the second (downward series): join the two items in the series with an ‘and’ without the comma, since there are only two items in the list.

Now please review choice C in the light of the above explanation.

C. Some of the most important long-term or structural causes of the First World War were [A 1. the growth of nationalism across Europe, 2.escalation in territorial disputes, 3. intensified and intricate system of alliances, and 4. a heightened race for arms] and [ B 1.the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and B2.a drop in mutual regard ]
The theme for this complex question came from an old OG question given in the link
manifestations-of-islamic-political-militancy-in-the-first-79870.html?fl=similar

Thanks for the feedback. If you think, however, that the question under current discussion isn’t worth it, sorry guys, you can kick it out.
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This sentence is nowhere near acceptable in any of its forms. Here are two problems that occur in all five choices:

1) "nations especially neighbors and"
Where is the punctuation?

2) "intensified and intricate system of alliances"
This needs an article (in this case, "an" would make most sense).

As for C, the traffic jam of additional factors tacked on with "and" makes it a shockingly poor choice. B would actually be much better; it still has the two flaws above, but other than that, it's just missing commas near the end. Add some punctuation and you *almost* have a grammatical sentence.

Unless you are learning a great deal from seeing *why* problems like this are flawed, though, I'd highly recommend that you study more from the OG and less from dubious problems posted online. It is very easy to get accustomed to bad English, and then you'll actually be undermining yourself rather than strengthening your score!
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option C looks weird to me !
with so many "and" the parallelism is suffering .parallelism is required when we need to list items
i feel that following items can be a part of a list :
1)The growth of nationalism across Europe,
2)escalation in territorial disputes,
3)intensified and intricate system of alliances,
4)a heightened race for arms,
5)the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard

there is no reason as why the last three in the list should be connected with so many "and"
what is the source of this question ?

I choose C - the least weirdest. The difficulty of this question lies in fitting a too long list of items that need to be parallel. Hopefully such stuffs don't come in GMAT. It only tests your endurance level after almost 2 n half hours of IR, AWA and Quants.

The first 3 clauses were parallel and the last three clauses needs to be parallel.
Option 3 best serves the need by keeping and before all the noun clauses

Can you please elaborate why "and" is required after race for arms? Please?

Is this question correct? Option c looks just not ok.

Question looks fine.

C is the best among the five options. C maintains parallelism - (meaning wise as well as grammatically)

Parallelism - is always 2 pronged - logical as well as grammatical.
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C looks weird here -> ",and" structure is used to join two clauses but there is no verb in the second clause.

D looks better here though meaning wise, it shifts the focus of the sentence and hence not apt.

Thanks for the input, daagh. That is very interesting reasoning, and I can see the logic behind it, but we don't want to rely on an abstract difference like upward/downward as our only cue for interpreting parallelism. It's not at all clear in C that we are using a central "and" to join two things, a set of "upward" conditions and a set of "downward" conditions. Even reading the sentence again with that awareness, I can't see C as a valid sentence.

The way to redeem this concept would be to make the distinction you're talking about concrete. For instance, we could say "The First World War was brought about by increases in X, Y, and Z and decreases in A and B" or "The First World War was caused by both upward trends--X, Y, and Z--and downward trends--A and B."

Note a couple of key differences in the official question (Islamic militancy):

1) The correct answer gives us a concrete marker for identifying parallel terms.

After the sentence closes the first list (",and the Mahdi in the Sudan"), it uses "in" to point us back to the larger structure. "Militancy was manifested in the rise of [list] and in the victory."

2) The correct answer adds a comma for clarity.

Notice that in the shortened version I just provided, I didn't use any commas. However, when you've got a lot of complexity going on, a comma can make things clearer for your reader: "Militancy was manifested in the rise of A, B, C, and D, and in the victory of E and F."
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I don't know if this reason has been discussed but one of the main reasons I crossed out D & E is because of non-connected meaning at the end:

Both D&E end with World War, however, the underlined section in the sentence only ends here: mutual regard for others.

So, if D&E completes the sentence it'll look like: World War for others --> which for me it doesn't convey the correct meaning.

Therefore, even though (C) look a bit out of standard, it's the most appropriate one.

I have gone through the explanation given by Daagh: upward and downward series.
Seems perfect and Option C looks good.
I marked Option D as the correct answer, as it maintains parallelism and gives equal importance to all the contributing factors for WW1.
Do we need to review statement as deeply and justified by Daagh.
Any other errors with Option D?.

I dont know why D is wrong. Is it wrong to say

growth of A, escalation in B, intensified C , a heightened D and the decline in E were reasons for war.

Is D wrong because it has "for others" that is not the underlined? Had the whole sentence been underlined, can D be the correct choice then?

Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, and escalation in territorial disputes, and intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms and the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard for others.

A. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, and escalation in territorial disputes, and intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms and the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard

B. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard

C. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, and a heightened race for arms and the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard

D. The growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms, the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard were some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War

E.The growth of nationalism across Europe, along with intensified and intricate system of alliances, escalation in territorial disputes, a heightened race for arms, the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard were some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War----


quick poe
in the end of the question we have words "for others".
D and E is out because they aren't correlated with the ending (for others);
also in the answer E, adding along with in the context requires "was", not "were";

So the answer is C, because parallelism is correct:
- (first only upward trend verbs) the growth ..., escalation ..., intensified system..., and hightened and (then downward trend verbs) the decline... and a drop... .

A puts too many "and" - it is wordy and verbs aren't parallel;
B doesn't have and between "intesified... and hightened..."

There are six factors can explain the causes of the first world war, but what i am confusing is that why these factors are divided into two series because all these factors are the equal causes of the war. I think a sentence ,like 1,2,3,4,5,and 6, is easier and more concise than a sentence like 1,2, 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 if GMAT test is a kind of examination that prefers to the way of expression that is concise, direct, and unambiguous.

A really long one took me complete 5 min still was clueless how i got the answer right

A. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, and escalation in territorial disputes, and intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms and the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard
This has way too many and in between making it redundant therefore out

B. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard
i was so tempted to chose this optionn however it lacked a few commas that would have better conveyed the meaning for example 'a heightened race for arms the decline ' this is one instance where the comma was lagging

C. Some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War were the growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, and a heightened race for arms and the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard
i am still not sure why i chose this however one reason was that the and placement felt correct only after reading other expert reply it had abstract concepts that defined upward and downward trend


D. The growth of nationalism across Europe, escalation in territorial disputes, intensified and intricate system of alliances, a heightened race for arms, the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard were some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War
The sentence is starting without context what are the reason for the following series of events it felt better to start with the structural causes therefore out


E.The growth of nationalism across Europe, along with intensified and intricate system of alliances, escalation in territorial disputes, a heightened race for arms, the decline in mutual trust between nations especially neighbors and a drop in mutual regard were some of the most important long term or structural causes of the First World War----
Similar reasoning as D

Therefore IMO C

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