Last visit was: 08 Jul 2025, 19:32 It is currently 08 Jul 2025, 19:32
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Sub 505 Level|   Parallelism|            
User avatar
sagarsabnis
Joined: 22 Jul 2009
Last visit: 08 May 2012
Posts: 82
Own Kudos:
2,726
 [22]
Given Kudos: 6
Location: Manchester UK
 Q48  V28
Posts: 82
Kudos: 2,726
 [22]
5
Kudos
Add Kudos
16
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Most Helpful Reply
avatar
hafizkarim
Joined: 18 Jan 2012
Last visit: 04 Mar 2025
Posts: 20
Own Kudos:
757
 [22]
Given Kudos: 27
Location: United States
Posts: 20
Kudos: 757
 [22]
16
Kudos
Add Kudos
6
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
User avatar
sudeep
Joined: 05 Jun 2009
Last visit: 13 Nov 2012
Posts: 248
Own Kudos:
1,168
 [5]
Given Kudos: 106
GMAT 2: 720  Q50  V36
WE 1: 7years (Financial Services - Consultant, BA)
Posts: 248
Kudos: 1,168
 [5]
5
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
General Discussion
User avatar
pm4553
Joined: 27 Jun 2008
Last visit: 10 Apr 2012
Posts: 329
Own Kudos:
136
 [2]
Given Kudos: 92
Concentration: General Management
WE 1: Investment Banking - 6yrs
Posts: 329
Kudos: 136
 [2]
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
sagarsabnis
Europe’s travel lndustry is suffering as a result of sluggish economy, a stretch of bad weather as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that is persistent.
(A) as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that is persitstent
(B) and the chilling effect of terrorist activity that is persistent
(C) but persistent terrorist activity has had a chilling effect too
(D) and the chilling effects of persistent terrorist activity
(E) as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that persists

can any 1 pls explain this

X, Y AND Z - parallel
A, E - out
C - "but" changes the meaning

D - is better than B (that is persistent)
User avatar
pierrealexandre77
Joined: 10 Sep 2009
Last visit: 26 Nov 2009
Posts: 32
Own Kudos:
365
 [1]
Given Kudos: 10
Posts: 32
Kudos: 365
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Persistent [Terrorist Activity] ...

This is not ambiguous, this is just an adjective to a noun that has already one.
avatar
SleeB
Joined: 01 Apr 2013
Last visit: 07 Oct 2015
Posts: 6
Own Kudos:
26
 [1]
Given Kudos: 72
Posts: 6
Kudos: 26
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
obviously down to B & D

B is clearly wrong however because B presents an illogical meaning:

B seems to imply that, in addition to the economy and bad weather, the other problem is ONLY terrorist activity that IS persistent --- illogically implying that terrorist activity that ISN'T persistent is not part of the problem
User avatar
MANI530
Joined: 02 May 2018
Last visit: 10 Jun 2021
Posts: 21
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 114
Location: India
GMAT 1: 660 Q49 V31
GPA: 4
GMAT 1: 660 Q49 V31
Posts: 21
Kudos: 6
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
In parallelism,
1) Do all the elements in the list have to agree in number?

Can we write ---He likes apples, orange and banana.
or should we write --- He likes apples, oranges and bananas.

2) In parallelism, can the elements in the list be modified?
Eg- He likes apples, oranges and bananas that are green in color.
User avatar
philipssonicare
Joined: 15 Feb 2018
Last visit: 22 Nov 2022
Posts: 417
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 2,380
Posts: 417
Kudos: 425
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
sluggish economy, a stretch of bad weather

(B) and the chilling effect of terrorist activity that is persistent

(D) and the chilling effects of persistent terrorist activity

B has a mix of modifiers before and after activity, whereas D maintains parallelism with all modifiers before activity.
User avatar
Skywalker18
User avatar
Retired Moderator
Joined: 08 Dec 2013
Last visit: 15 Nov 2023
Posts: 2,052
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 171
Status:Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
GPA: 3.2
WE:Information Technology (Consulting)
Products:
Posts: 2,052
Kudos: 9,677
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Europe’s travel lndustry is suffering as a result of sluggish economy, a stretch of bad weather as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that is persistent.

(A) as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that is persitstent - parallelism issue 'as well as'

(B) and the chilling effect of terrorist activity that is persistent

(C) but persistent terrorist activity has had a chilling effect too - usage of but is incorrect as we don't need a contrast

(D) and the chilling effects of persistent terrorist activity

(E) as well as the chilling effects of terrorist activity that persists - parallelism issue 'as well as'

I chose option D over B because of precision. Is there any other reason to eliminate option B?

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyTargetTestPrep , DmitryFarber , VeritasKarishma , generis , other experts - please enlighten
User avatar
MartyTargetTestPrep
User avatar
Target Test Prep Representative
Joined: 24 Nov 2014
Last visit: 11 Aug 2023
Posts: 3,476
Own Kudos:
5,486
 [4]
Given Kudos: 1,430
Status:Chief Curriculum and Content Architect
Affiliations: Target Test Prep
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V51
Posts: 3,476
Kudos: 5,486
 [4]
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Skywalker18
I chose option D over B because of precision. Is there any other reason to eliminate option B?
    (B) and the chilling effect of terrorist activity that is persistent

In (B), the modifier "that is persistent" in the phrase "terrorist activity that is persistent" is restrictive, with the result that the modifier seems indicate that the only type of terrorist activity that has a chilling effect is terrorist activity that is persistent, as if other types of terrorist activity, such as terrorist activity that is not persistent, would have not have chilling effects.

The meaning expressed is therefore somewhat illogical.
User avatar
VIGHNESHKAMATH
Joined: 28 Sep 2021
Last visit: 21 Nov 2022
Posts: 151
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 259
Posts: 151
Kudos: 53
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Is oxford comma not required in the correct option (before ''and'')?

Regards
Vighnesh
User avatar
ExpertsGlobal5
User avatar
Experts' Global Representative
Joined: 10 Jul 2017
Last visit: 08 Jul 2025
Posts: 5,142
Own Kudos:
4,728
 [1]
Given Kudos: 38
Location: India
GMAT Date: 11-01-2019
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 5,142
Kudos: 4,728
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
VIGHNESHKAMATH
Is oxford comma not required in the correct option (before ''and'')?

Regards
Vighnesh

Hello VIGHNESHKAMATH,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, this sentence certainly needs an oxford comma to join the last element in the list with the other two; the omission of this comma is most likely a transcription error.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
avatar
shubhamsharma997
Joined: 06 Feb 2022
Last visit: 24 May 2022
Posts: 1
Given Kudos: 27
Posts: 1
Kudos: 0
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Can some expert please throw some light on this? Though the difficulty is 5%, the question is actually tough when trying to eliminate answer choices.
User avatar
GMATNinja
User avatar
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
Joined: 13 Aug 2009
Last visit: 8 July 2025
Posts: 7,349
Own Kudos:
68,483
 [1]
Given Kudos: 1,963
Status: GMAT/GRE/LSAT tutors
Location: United States (CO)
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V46
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Products:
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 2: 800 Q51 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V170
GRE 2: Q170 V170
Posts: 7,349
Kudos: 68,483
 [1]
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
shubhamsharma997
Can some expert please throw some light on this? Though the difficulty is 5%, the question is actually tough when trying to eliminate answer choices.
It's worth noting that this is a very old question, so I wouldn't stress over it too much. That said, let's give it a shot.

(B) is probably the easiest to eliminate:

  • Notice that we have an independent clause after the comma + "but": "persistent terrorist activity has had a chilling effect too." So it seems like we're saying something like "the travel industry is suffering because of X and Y... on the contrary, persistent terrorist activity has had a chilling effect too." The "but" doesn't make any sense because there's no contrast between the two clauses.
  • Even if the "but" were appropriate, we'd need an "and" between "sluggish economy" and "a stretch of bad weather" to finish that parallel list before starting the next independent clause.
  • We're trying to list three distinct causes of the suffering, so we want "as a result of X, Y, and Z," not "as a result of X, Y, but Z."

That brings us to (A) and (E):

  • There's no reason to use "as well as" instead of a simple "and" to link the three reasons why the travel industry is suffering. Maybe if we wanted to emphasize the first two and mention the third as a side note we could do something like, "as a result of sluggish economy and a stretch of bad weather, as well as the chilling effects...," but we don't have an option like that.
  • There's also no good reason to use "terrorist activity that is persistent" or "terrorist activity that persists" instead of the much simpler, "persistent terrorist activity." In addition to being unnecessarily wordy, the first two almost make it sound like we're talking about specific terrorist activity that is actively doing something. On the other hand, "persistent terrorist activity" is more succinct and also seems a bit more appropriate since we're talking about terrorist activity in general.
  • That gives us two votes against (A) and (E).

So we're down to (B) and (D), which are very similar:

  • We have "persistent terrorist activity" in (D) and "terrorist activity that is persistent" in (B) -- as discussed above, "persistent terrorist activity" is a bit better.
  • I also like the plural "chilling effects" instead of "chilling effect" -- the plural suggests that the terrorist activity has had a broad range of effects, not just one singular effect, and that makes sense given the complexity of the issue.

Does that make (B) WRONG in a vacuum? Maybe not, but with a couple of small votes against (B), we're left with (D) as our winner.

I hope that helps!
User avatar
TBT
Joined: 09 Aug 2020
Last visit: 26 Nov 2023
Posts: 309
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 494
Location: India
Concentration: Marketing, General Management
Posts: 309
Kudos: 434
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Difficult question. Is there any SV error with effect vs effects? Also, how to differ between 'as well as' vs 'and' usage?
User avatar
egmat
User avatar
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 02 Nov 2011
Last visit: 08 Jul 2025
Posts: 4,600
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 685
GMAT Date: 08-19-2020
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 4,600
Kudos: 32,344
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hey TBT

Happy to help.

TBT
Difficult question. Is there any SV error with effect vs effects?

Let's compare choices B and D:
  1. The first issue with choice B is the use of the ambiguous modifier "that is persistent". It is unclear what the antecedent of the pronoun "that" is. Is it "effect" or "activity"? I'm sure you've heard of "Far Away Noun Modification". If not, please read about it here. Owing to this concept, the relative pronoun "that" could refer to either 'activity' or the slightly far away noun 'effect'. Hence, the use of this clause renders the sentence both wordy and ambiguous. Notice how choice D eliminates this ambiguity by placing the adjective 'persistent' right before 'terrorist activity'.
  2. Now, because the terrorist activity mentioned is persistent, it is only logical to expect it to have many "effects" over time. So, although the singular noun "effect" is not deterministically incorrect, "effects" is a lot more appropriate to the context of the sentence.

TBT
Also, how to differ between 'as well as' vs 'and' usage?

"As well as" Vs "and":
  1. "And" is a conjunction/connector; "as well as" is a phrasal preposition.
  2. This means that "as well as" cannot help complete a list, because only a conjunction can do that.
      For instance:
      • Correct: A, B, C, conjunction D.
      • Incorrect: A, B, C, preposition D.
  3. So, if we wish to create a list and use "as well as" before the last entity, we must place a conjunction (and) before the penultimate entity.
      For instance:
      • Correct: A, B, and C as well as D.
      • Incorrect: A, B, C, as well as D.


I hope this helps.

Happy learning!

Abhishek
Moderators:
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7349 posts
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
235 posts