As other commenters have noted, between is standard for two items, and among for three or more. The split between among and between looks like a great place to start, then, unless you're not quite sure how many items the sentence is talking about. I wasn't sure, so I started with parallelism.

The first and seems merely to link value and workings, and that compound is just the object of a preposition in one item in the longer list of the things that must be balanced, explanation..., revealing..., and to promote..... You could now eliminate answers that use between. (We should be careful that in some answers the list isn't somehow rejiggered to be just two items, each perhaps its own compound, but that doesn't turn out to be an issue here.)

So eliminate A, C, and E.

In B, the three parallel items are all gerunds, explaining..., revealing..., and promoting.... That's perfectly fine.

In D, the three parallel items are the simple gerund explaining, the noun the revelation, and the infinitive to promote. No two of those things are parallel, so eliminate D.

B it is.

By the way, if you'd like to see an earlier post of mine on parallelism issues with gerunds and other nouns, check out mohica-civilization-88664.html

In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for archaeological sites.

A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote

B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and promoting..parallel and among X,Y and Z format is required ..CORRECT

C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and when promoting

D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote

E. between explaining archaeologys value and workings, in the revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and in promoting...explaining and in revealing is not parallel ..

E for me.

E follows correct parallelism

'among' usage is incorrect hence B and D ruled out.

A: 'to promote' is wrong
C: 'when promoting' is not parallel.

B

if 2 use between if more than two use among

1. Use among when comparing three or more items.
2. Maintain parallelism.

B for me

B is correct due to among and llelism of the tense of verbs though last one promoting respect... seems a bit weird.. but makes sense...

Only B maintains ||sm
among should be used when comparing multiple items - here are the 3 items.

In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for archaeological sites.

A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote Wrong - "between" is an idiom only for two nouns whereas "among" is reserved for comparing three nouns; error in parallelism too

B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and promoting Best answer choice

C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and when "between" is an idiom only for two nouns whereas "among" is reserved for comparing three nouns; error in parallelism too

D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote error in parallelism too

E. between explaining archaeologys value and workings, in the revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and in promoting "between" is an idiom only for two nouns whereas "among" is reserved for comparing three nouns; error in parallelism too

IMO B

In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for archaeological sites.

A. between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote - Parallelism issue and among should be used for comparison .

B. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and promoting - Correct choice. Parallel and use among correctly.

C. between explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and when promoting - Parallelism issue and among should be used for comparison .

D. among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote - Parallelism issue

E. between explaining archaeologys value and workings, in the revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and in promoting - Parallelism issue and among should be used for comparison .

This SC is based on a specific style issue and parallelism:

1) "Between" vs. "Among": the word "between" applies to 2 ideas; "among" applies to 3 or more. Here, we have a list of 3 items, so the word "among" is correct. Eliminate A, C and E

2) A 3-item List requires parallel items (in the same format). B uses 3 "-ing" verbs; D uses 1 "-ing" verb, 1 noun and 1 infinitive verb. Eliminate D.

Final Answer: B
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(A) between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote

(B) among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and promoting

(C) between explaining the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and when promoting

(D) among explaining the value and workings of archaeology, the revelation of the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote

(E) between explaining archaeology's value and workings, in the revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and in promoting

In archaeology, there must be a balance between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology, revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures, and to promote respect for archaeological sites.


we say "between X and Y" and " among P,Q,R... and Z"
so according to this logic, A is out.

follows the idiom "among X, Y ,and Z". Also clean parallelism.

Same reason as A.

Parallelism is wrong.

same reason as A.

Balance by its own virtue is between two objects/subjects - balance is not generally something you seek among three areas.
Can someone please help explain this?

Given balance was provided in the non-underlined portion, it seemed obvious to choose the options with between and ignore the ones with among

As noted by other users, we want to use "between" for two items and "among" for three or more items. Sure, "balance" is often used to describe two objects. But you can certainly have more than two things in balance, either physically or figuratively.

For example:


I hope that helps a bit!
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Hi GMATNinja,

Could you please confirm something for me?

Is "the value and workings of archaeology" in the sentence a single noun entity, and is this confirmed by the usage of the denfinite article "the"?

I had the same issue. Would love to see some input.

When I first saw this question, I just saw the 'between X and Y ' structure and started solving the question, considering "revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures" as a modifier of "archeology"

Is there a way to figure when we have a list of 3 items vs. a list of 2 items (where the first item is being modified)

PRNDL


That is exactly what is did, and I started to look for parallelism in the phrase "between explanation of the value and workings of archaeology" and missed the bigger picture.

I have a hunch that "the value and working of archaeology" is a single noun entity.

Any experts who could please resolve our doubt?

Hi PRNDL, even if you thought that was the case, "revealing the mysteries of past and present cultures" would not modify "archeology"; such participial phrases (towards the end of a clause preceded by a comma) modify the subject of the preceding clause.


afaik, only the intended meaning of the sentence can conclusively help you figure this out. However, even if you thought that there are only two items in the list, hopefully you should then be in a position to conclude that in options A, C, and E (all of which use between that indicates that there are only two elements in the list), these two items are not parallel.
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