The suspect in the burglary was advised of his right to remain silent

Hey All,

I got asked to take this one on by PM, so here I am! I'm taking a break from the forums after today, however, so this'll be my last few posts for a while! Sorry!


The suspect in the burglary was advised of his right to remain silent, told he could not leave, and was interrogated in a detention room.

Clearly we've got parallelism here (comma, comma, "and"), so that should be our main concern.

(A) of his right to remain silent, told he could not leave, and was
PROBLEM: WAS advised, told, and WAS interrogated. You have to put the "was" in front of all three, or else just the first one.

(B) of his right to remain silent, told he could not leave, and
ANSWER: advised, told, and interrogated

(C) of his right to remain silent and that he could not leave and
PROBLEM: You only use "and" at the very end of a list. So you shouldn't have two "ands" in a row (except in the rare exception where the last item in your list is ITSELF a two part noun ("I like tuna fish, BLTs, and peanut butter and jelly." OR "The money is for growth, dividends, and research and development.").

(D) that he had a right to remain silent, could not leave, and was
PROBLEM: Advised "that" is okay, but now the list has started AFTER "advised" (instead of BEFORE "advised," as in answer choice B). It's logical that he was advised "that he had a right" and "that he could not leave," but you can't say "advised that was interrogated," so the third item isn't in parallel anymore.

(E) that he had a right to remain silent, that he could not leave, and was
PROBLEM: This is actually the same as above. Adding the "that" to the second item in the list just further necessitates it for the third item. We don't get it.

Hope that helps!

-t