In 1430, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy founded the Order of the

Please explain, I don't understand why the OA is D. please explain by the process of elimination.

Understand the sentence structure by avoiding unnecessary/ extra information in the sentence.

Duke .... founded the Order ...., demanding from the 24 knights nominated to join it uncompromising fealty, devotion to ....., and to defend the Christian faith.......

Now the first split is 'it' vs 'him'. Though the 'it' here refers to the Order and hence you can remove B & E, but still if you have doubt let's keep it for a while.

Now after looking at the options choices, you can easily spot parallelism being asked here. But we have to understand what all should be parallel to each other. For that we can probably further trim down the sentence -

Duke .... founded the Order ...., demanding ....... .. uncompromising fealty, devotion to ....., and to defend the Christian faith.......

Now you see that A is wrong as 'uncompromising fealty', 'devotion to ...', and 'to defend the...' are not parallel to each other. For the same reason, we can remove C & E. C cleverly uses the base form of verbs but has 'to defense' which is wrong. E is a trap as it parallels, 'devoting' and 'defending' with 'demanding' which is not the case according to the sentence structure.

Now when we look at B vs D, 'defense of Christianity' stands out as incorrect. 'Demanding defense of Christianity' doesn't make sense.

D removes all such issues, presents parallel structure and is the correct answer.

Ans D

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

In 1430, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy founded the Order of the Golden Fleece, demanding from the 24 knights nominated to join it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East.

A. it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

Incorrect.

In this answer choice, the first and second items in the list are nouns (fealty, devotion), but the third item is an (unconjugated) verb (to defend).

In a list of 3 or more items, all the items should be in the same part of speech or of the same type of the part of speech (all nouns, or all verbs, or all adjectives...).

What helps us identify this question as a Parallelism question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A list of 3 items or more, separated by commas and and/or before the last item.

B. him uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and defense of Christianity, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

Incorrect.

While this answer choice corrects the parallelism mistake in the original sentence by changing the verb to defend to the noun defense, by changing the pronoun it to him, this answer choice changes the meaning of the original sentence.

In the original sentence the pronoun it refers to the non-human Order of the Golden Fleece, while in the corrected sentence him can only refer to the human subject Duke Philip. The change in what the knights are being nominated to is considered a change in meaning.


C. it to be uncompromisingly loyal, to devote themselves to the glory of God, and to defense the Christian faith, if need be, on an Eastern crusade

Incorrect.

This answer choice is ungrammatical and stylistically flawed.

While this answer choice appears to correct the parallelism mistake in the original sentence by changing the first item in the list from a noun (uncompromising loyalty) to a verbal phrase (to be uncompromisingly loyal), the changes to the second and third items in the list (devotion-->to devote, to defend -->to defense) create stylistic and grammatical errors, and therefore do not truly correct the parallelism.

The change to the third item in the list is an outright grammatical mistake: the proper form of the verb is to defend. Defense is a noun.

In addition, the corrected sentence uses the wordy phrase to be uncompromisingly loyal, which makes the sentence even more stylistically awkward.


D. it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and a commitment to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

What helps us identify this question as a Parallelism question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A list of 3 items or more, separated by commas and and/or before the last item.

By changing the third item in the list from a verb (to defend) to a noun phrase (a commitment to defend), this answer choice corrects the parallelism mistake in the original sentence.

Although this answer choice is less concise than the original sentence, it is the only answer choice which is both grammatically correct and logical.


E. him uncompromising fealty, devoting themselves to the glory of God, and defending the Christian faith by going on a crusade to the East, if necessary

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The first item in the list is a noun (fealty), whereas the second and third items in the list (devoting, defending) are verbal forms (V+ing).

Note that in this sentence, the word uncompromising is an adjective that describes the noun fealty, and does not serve as a verbal form (V+ing) as the other two items in the list do.

In addition, this answer choice changes the meaning of the original sentence.

In the original sentence the pronoun it refers to the non-human Order of the Golden Fleece, while in the corrected sentence him can only refer to the human subject Duke Philip. The change in what the knights are being nominated to is considered a change in meaning.

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

In 1430, Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy founded the Order of the Golden Fleece, demanding from the 24 knights nominated to join it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East.

A. it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

Incorrect.

In this answer choice, the first and second items in the list are nouns (fealty, devotion), but the third item is an (unconjugated) verb (to defend).

In a list of 3 or more items, all the items should be in the same part of speech or of the same type of the part of speech (all nouns, or all verbs, or all adjectives...).

What helps us identify this question as a Parallelism question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A list of 3 items or more, separated by commas and and/or before the last item.

B. him uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and defense of Christianity, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

Incorrect.

While this answer choice corrects the parallelism mistake in the original sentence by changing the verb to defend to the noun defense, by changing the pronoun it to him, this answer choice changes the meaning of the original sentence.

In the original sentence the pronoun it refers to the non-human Order of the Golden Fleece, while in the corrected sentence him can only refer to the human subject Duke Philip. The change in what the knights are being nominated to is considered a change in meaning.


C. it to be uncompromisingly loyal, to devote themselves to the glory of God, and to defense the Christian faith, if need be, on an Eastern crusade

Incorrect.

This answer choice is ungrammatical and stylistically flawed.

While this answer choice appears to correct the parallelism mistake in the original sentence by changing the first item in the list from a noun (uncompromising loyalty) to a verbal phrase (to be uncompromisingly loyal), the changes to the second and third items in the list (devotion-->to devote, to defend -->to defense) create stylistic and grammatical errors, and therefore do not truly correct the parallelism.

The change to the third item in the list is an outright grammatical mistake: the proper form of the verb is to defend. Defense is a noun.

In addition, the corrected sentence uses the wordy phrase to be uncompromisingly loyal, which makes the sentence even more stylistically awkward.


D. it uncompromising fealty, devotion to the glory of God, and a commitment to defend the Christian faith, if need be, by going on a crusade to the East

What helps us identify this question as a Parallelism question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A list of 3 items or more, separated by commas and and/or before the last item.

By changing the third item in the list from a verb (to defend) to a noun phrase (a commitment to defend), this answer choice corrects the parallelism mistake in the original sentence.

Although this answer choice is less concise than the original sentence, it is the only answer choice which is both grammatically correct and logical.


E. him uncompromising fealty, devoting themselves to the glory of God, and defending the Christian faith by going on a crusade to the East, if necessary

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The first item in the list is a noun (fealty), whereas the second and third items in the list (devoting, defending) are verbal forms (V+ing).

Note that in this sentence, the word uncompromising is an adjective that describes the noun fealty, and does not serve as a verbal form (V+ing) as the other two items in the list do.

In addition, this answer choice changes the meaning of the original sentence.

In the original sentence the pronoun it refers to the non-human Order of the Golden Fleece, while in the corrected sentence him can only refer to the human subject Duke Philip. The change in what the knights are being nominated to is considered a change in meaning.