Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports,

STEP 1 - UNDERSTANDING INTENDED MEANING

Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths such as
serving with speed and accuracy,
performing with endurance and run swiftly even late in a match,
and
defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."

The above construction contains a nested list (mini list) within a bigger list (as indicated by the use of the last “and”).

1. serving with speed and accuracy,
2. performing with endurance and run swiftly even late in a match,
and
3. defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."

The nested list is the following:
1. serving with speed and accuracy, - a phrase starting with verb-ing
2. performing with endurance – a phrase starting with verb-ing
and
3. run swiftly even late in a match – a clause starting with a verb

The nested list is not parallel grammatically. It contains two phrases and a clause.
Correct version:
1. serving with speed and accuracy, - a phrase starting with verb-ing
2. performing with endurance – a phrase starting with verb-ing
and
3. running swiftly even late in a match – a phrase starting with verb-ing

INTENDED MEANING
• Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths.
• These strengths are:
• They serve with speed and accuracy, perform with endurance and run swiftly even late in a match.
• They also defend against tricky drop shots and lobs

STEP - 2 ANSWER CHOICE ELIMINATION

Choice E can be eliminated as it has an error similar to that in choice A

Choice B analysis
Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths such as serving with speed and accuracy, performing with endurance and running swiftly even late in a match, and defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."
1. Logical
2. Clear
3. Same as the intended meaning

Correct Choice.


Choice C analysis

Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths such as serving with speed and accuracy, performing with endurance running swiftly even late in a match, and defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."

The above choice conveys a very illogical meaning –
Either “endurance” is “running swiftly”
Or “performing” with something called “endurance running” swiftly. Neither is per the intended meaning.
Incorrect Choice.

Choice D analysis

Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths such as serving with speed and accuracy, to perform with endurance and to run swiftly even late in a match, and defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."

The nested list now has one “verb-ing” phrase and two “to-verbal” phrases. The list is still grammatically not parallel.

Incorrect Choice.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "serving" and "run", as the two verbs are together in a list despite being in different tenses. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice maintains proper parallelism throughout the sentence, as "serving", "performing", and "running" are all in the present continuous tense. This answer choice also maintains proper conjunction. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice C: This answer choice fails to include conjunction before the final element in a list. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between the verbs "serving" and "to run" and "to perform", as the three verbs are together in a list despite being in different tenses. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between the verbs "serving", "run", and "to perform", as the three verbs are together in a list despite being in different tenses. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Easy parallelism


Professional tennis players, similar to professionals in other sports, exhibit different strengths such as serving with speed and accuracy, performing with endurance and run swiftly even late in a match, and defending against tricky drop shots and lobs."


(A) performing with endurance and run ------ "run" isn't parallel to the other elements in the list

(B) performing with endurance and running ------ CORRECT. List of gerunds

(C) performing with endurance running ------- It changes the meaning, taking "running" out of the list, and incorrectly puts "running" next to "endurance", making it look like an adjective.

(D) to perform with endurance and to run ------ Infinitives are not parallel to gerunds

(E) to perform with endurance and run ------ Infinitives are not parallel to gerunds

We see that ‘run’ is not parallel with the other elements in the list.

We need the sentence to say ‘performing with endurance and running.

We can scan the options to see which is the best option:

(A) performing with endurance and run

(B) performing with endurance and running

(C) performing with endurance running

(D) to perform with endurance and to run

(E) to perform with endurance and run

Eliminate Options A, C, D and E.

Option B is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

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