A vocal opponent of the unequal distribution of wealth, the itinerant

I think D has to be the correct answer as it is the only sentence which makes it clear that the activist was railing against "the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes" and was "trying to forge a transnational people’s movement"

E is unclear because it includes "trying to forge a transnational people's movement" in the enumeration of things the activist was railing against.

A vocal opponent of the unequal distribution of wealth, the itinerant activist has spent time in several countries across the world, railing against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement.


(A) railing against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement
According to this option railing is common for all three terms, which cannot be possible as "railing against trying" makes no sense.

(B) to rail against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement
Again parallelism error since "to rail" is not parallel to "trying.

(C) railed against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and tried to forge a transnational people’s movement
Incorrect tense. Also parallelism error since "railed against tried" doesnt mean anything

(D) railing against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement
Correct option.
Callousness and injustices are parallel. The negligence is parallel to the callousness. "Trying to forge" is parallel to "railing against".

(E) railing against the callousness and injustices of governments, the neglecting of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement
Incorrect Parallelism. "railing against trying" doesnt mean anything.

(A) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement Almost correct. The only error is there is no conjunction before the negligence. True meaning is rallying against the callousness...and rallying against the negligence. Without And before negligence the list items of parallelism become 3 instead of 2...with trying to forge becoming the 3rd item of the list and that is wrong on many levels

(B) to rally against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement to rally and trying arent parallel. Former is prepositional phrase and later is verb

(C) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and tried to forge a transnational people’s movement rallying and tried arent parallel. Former is ing modifier and later is past tense verb

(D) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement Correct

(E) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the neglecting of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement Error similar to A

why was option A wrong here ? it seems rallying...trying to forge are in parallel in option A

A is Almost correct. The only error is there is no conjunction before the negligence. True meaning is rallying against the callousness...and rallying against the negligence. Without And before negligence the list items of parallelism become 3 instead of 2...with trying to forge becoming the 3rd item of the list and that is wrong on many levels.
Hope it resolves your doubt.

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A vocal opponent of the unequal distribution of wealth, the itinerant activist has spent time in several countries across the world, rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement.
D is correct answer. Parallelism markers highlighted

(A) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, conjunction AND missing the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

(B) to rally against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

(C) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and tried to forge a transnational people’s movement

(D) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement correct

(E) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the neglecting of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

Official Explanation:

(A) The activist has done two things that need to be made parallel—railed against the callousness and the negligence and tried to forge something. Hence, there needs to be an and between callousness and negligence.

(B) The use of the infinitive to rail after the comma is incorrect. Also, to rail is not parallel to trying.

(C) This construction tries to make three things parallel – has spent, railed, and tried. This is obviously incorrect as the sentence does not try to convey this. Also, the and is missing before negligence.

(D) The correct answer.

(E) The and is missing before neglecting. Also, the use of neglecting changes the meaning of the sentence by suggesting that the upper classes are being neglected.

A vocal opponent of the unequal distribution of wealth, the itinerant activist has spent time in several countries across the world, rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement.


(A) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

(B) to rally against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

(C) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the negligence of the upper classes, and tried to forge a transnational people’s movement

(D) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments and the negligence of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

(E) rallying against the callousness and injustices of governments, the neglecting of the upper classes, and trying to forge a transnational people’s movement

In sentences above, ,negligence/neglecting of the upper classes, (separated by commas before and end of the sentence) has no bondage with previous sentence hence it seems to be a run on.
Hence in sentences starting with 'rallying' and 'negligence/neglecting of the upper classes' these two sentences separated by simply commas doesn't intend to convey the meaning. Rallying is modifying the previous sentence and hence 'negligence/neglecting of the upper classes' should be joined by 'and'.
We are left with D only