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According to the meaning of the sentence, we need an independent clause at the end of the sentence. Only choice (B) fits this role.
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, ---

(A) and leisure rarely
- makes it seem like a part of previous list (work, child care,....) while this is a separate sentiment altogether
(B) and leisure was rare
- same issue as A
(C) with leisure as rare
- as rare what?
(D) with leisure as a rarity
- "as" as rarity? leisure was LIKE a rarity or it WAS a rarity?
(E) leisure a rarity
- better than D.

Choosing D.
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Two time and is not a good practice so a and b out

In the sentence if take good look on parallelism so connecting work is not satisfied so c and d out

Ans-E

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(A) and leisure rarely adverbial form , correct and parallelism
(B) and leisure was rare was is incorrect , were would be right
(C) with leisure as rare as is wrong
(D) with leisure as a rarity meaning issue
(E) leisure a rarity same as option D

OPTION A is correct

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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely
(B) and leisure was rare
(C) with leisure as rare
(D) with leisure as a rarity
(E) leisure a rarity


 


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IMO B

A. Incorrect.. If we omit the examples stated, then the sentence becomes - The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations and leisure rarely.
Incorrect. The two parts of the sentence separated by 'and' are not parallel.

B. Correct.
The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations, and leisure was rare

C. Incorrect. 'with' used in the sentence leads to incoherent meaning that the routine was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations along with rare leisure.

D. Incorrect. Same error as C

E. Incorrect. There is no conjuction here. The sentence does not contain a verb as well.
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To indicate contrast, "and" cannot be used. Here, the sentence indicates that some kind of activities dominated the other (leisure). Hence, A and B are incorrect.
"with" is used as a component of a whole. Here, leisure (which is rare) is one of the components in the list after dash. Further evaluate C and D.
"leisure as rare" is incomplete thought. As rare as what? Hence, C is wrong.
"leisure as rarity" is used as a phrase after the comma, indicating that it modifies the previous noun. However, that does not make sense in this context. Hence, E is out.

Answer is D.
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Bunuel
12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition with Lots of Fun

The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely
(B) and leisure was rare
(C) with leisure as rare
(D) with leisure as a rarity
(E) leisure a rarity


 


This question was provided by Experts'Global
for the 12 Days of Christmas Competition

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Explanation:
The sentence talks about the daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial society and mentions the activities as work, child care, household repairs, and prayer. Further, by using conjunction "and" the sentence adds another information that leisure in the life of such peasant was rare.

(A) and leisure rarely
Two independent clauses are joined by "and". Choice (A) doesn't form a clause as there is no verb. Rarely is a modifier for leisure. OUT.

(B) and leisure was rare
Conveys the intended meaning. The given choice is a clause. KEEP IT.

(C) with leisure as rare
Alters the meaning by comparing leisure to rare.
Further,
Two major uses of the word "with":
1. To indicate that one thing or person is accompanied by another: "Tim went with Ron to see a nine-hour documentary about Weiner dogs."
2. To modify or describe an action: "Milena ate an entire pizza with great enthusiasm." The phrase "with great enthusiasm" just describes the action, "Mila ate."
In option (C) "with" doesn't serve either of the purpose. OUT.

(D) with leisure as a rarity
Wrong for the same reason as (C).

(E) leisure a rarity
After prayer there is a "comma" instead of "and" to separate two independent clauses. Further, "leisure a rarity" is not a clause. OUT.

ANSWER B.
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely--- Leisure alone doesn't make any sense, ELIMINATE
(B) and leisure was rare--- Same as first, ELIMINATE
(C) with leisure as rare---Seems perfect
(D) with leisure as a rarity--- Awkward construction, ELIMINATE
(E) leisure a rarity- No connecting word here, ELIMINATE

Answer: C
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely - can not use adverb here
(B) and leisure was rare - parallelism error
(C) with leisure as rare - we can not use rare with as
(D) with leisure as a rarity - Correct
(E) leisure a rarity - incorrect

IMO D
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely (double and- wrong) -violate parallelism
(B) and leisure was rare (double and- wrong) -violate parallelism
(C) with leisure as rare (rare is adjective) -"as" + [adjective] only in a comparative structure , with leisure as rare as something
(D) with leisure as a rarity (rarity is noun, correct)
(E) leisure a rarity (prayer, leisure - . We can have a noun with no connecting word)


with leisure as rarity is right . Hence D
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(A) and leisure rarely-- we need to separate it from the list and not make it seem like a part of list hence and is wrong
(B) and leisure was rare--- we need to separate it from the list and not make it seem like a part of list hence and is wrong, also appears as a separate clause not connected to previous part
(C) with leisure as rare-- as cant be used with adjective
(D) with leisure as a rarity--- yes used to indicate liesure is a rarity (noun)
(E) leisure a rarity-- appositive use is not correct here

Ans D
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Answer is D
The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely and is wrong. the parallelism is ended before
(B) and leisure was rare same as A
(C) with leisure as rare as rare is awkward
(D) with leisure as a rarity correct
(E) leisure a rarity unclear...
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A- and leisure rarely is not parallel with the first and of the sentence.

B- Same as A.

C- with leisure as rare seems incomplete.

D- This seems right.

E- This changes the meaning. It seems like both the prayer and leisure are rarities.
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A) And is not parallel to anything - out

B) Similar error as A - out

C) Leisure as rare is not a good construction - leisure itself was rare, or was leisure rare in the schedule? Out.

D) If you cross out the modifier, this is the best choice: was largely dominated by x and y (modifier) with leisure as a rarity
As a rarity is somewhat awkward, but it makes sense - leisure was a rarity in their schedule. Keep.

E) The modifier seems to be creating another list here, making the meaning some what unclear. Floating modifier, out.

Final answer D.
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

(A) and leisure rarely
use of 'and' to show dissimilar item is inappropriate

(B) and leisure was rare
here also; use of 'and' to show dissimilar item is inappropriate

(C) with leisure as rare
'as' usage is incorrect..'as' is used to compare actions (verbs)

(D) with leisure as a rarity
'as' usage is incorrect..'as' is not used to compare nouns..'like' may be used instead of 'as'

(E) leisure a rarity
the adverbial phrase is correctly used here to qualify the complete preceding independent clause 'The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer'..Correct option

Hence, (E) is the correct option
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer, and leisure rarely.

Note this sentence seems to involve nested list. The placement of a hyphen, denotes a sub list that follows it. Crash and burn we can remove work, child care, household repairs and prayer.

Simplifying the original sentence:

The daily routine was dominated by sustenance activities and social obligation, and leisure rarely.

The list seems not parallel with placement of the multiple 'and' conjunctions.
One option is to look for answer choice that does not include the 'and' and convey the meaning as a modifier.



(A) and leisure rarely
List parallelism is incorrect due to misplacement/unnecessary 'and' conjunction. Eliminate

(B) and leisure was rare
Same issue as in option A. Eliminate

(C) with leisure as rare
AS comparison requires to compare similar or same type of item. 'meat as rare' is incorrect. Leisure is a noun and rare is an adjective. How can a noun be compared with an adjective?Eliminate

(D) with leisure as a rarity
leisure is a noun and so is rarity(a noun). AS comparison is correct. Preposition usage makes the modifier connect with the main clause and there is no error as we see in other options. Keep


(E) leisure a rarity
preposition is missing and grammatically, the phrase is illogical without modifying anything and looks as a 'standalone' noun.
Noun modifying another noun should be more of a description/attribute to the subject/noun in the main clause:
'The godfather', the novel, was written by Mario Puzo that inspired a 1972 film of the same title.
'the novel', which is a noun, in this example describes the subject is a novel.
In our example leisure does not describe the sustenance activities or the social obligations and hence without a preposition, the option introduces grammatical error.
Eliminate.


So the best answer choice is D.
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The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies
was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer,
and leisure rarely.

Sustenance activities and social obligations include work, child care, household repairs, and prayer
and leisure is out of this list

Quote:
(A) and leisure rarely
leisure was not in the list of Sustenance activities and social obligations.
Incorrect

Quote:
(B) and leisure was rare
The daily routine of a peasant in pre-industrial societies
was largely dominated by sustenance activities and social obligations – work, child care, household repairs, and prayer,
and leisure was rare.
Correct

Quote:
(C) with leisure as rare
leisure as rare is incorrect

Quote:
(D) with leisure as a rarity
leisure as a rarity is incorrect

Quote:
(E) leisure a rarity
leisure a rarity is incorrect

IMO B
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