Although carotene and xanthophyll are present in leaves throughout the

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(C)

Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors

Notice that the underlined portion of the sentence contains a list. This is a hint that there may be a parallelism issue at play. Items in a list must be in identical grammatical format, but the original sentence has two noun-verb pairings—“days shorten” and “temperature drops”—followed by an -ing construction. This is not parallel. Also, the first item is preceded by “the,” the second item lacks a “the,” and then “the” reappears in front of the third item.

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices

Due to the variation in the choices, grouping them would be inefficient. Evaluate the choices individually.

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains

Eliminate (A) for the error identified in step 1. In (B), “is to reveal” is not parallel with “shorten” and “drops,” so it’s incorrect. Eliminate (D) due to a lack of parallelism. In the first two list items, a form of the verb “to be” is used (“are” and “is”) while “reveals” is used in the third. Additionally, the phrasing of the last item makes it unclear what is breaking down to reduce the amount of chlorophyll in the leaves. (E) uses “the” before the first two items but drops it in the third item; also, moving “in the leaves” further from “chlorophyll” makes it less clear where the chlorophyll is. (C) has all items in parallel form—“shorten . . . drops . . . breaks down”—and is correct. Read it back into the original sentence to confirm:

Although carotene and xanthophyll are present in leaves throughout the year, these pigments are not usually visible until the days shorten, the temperature drops, and the chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down, revealing the yellow and orange colors.