It has been said that all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it

You are right. I sometime am very unsure when not practicing OG questions.

However, I chose D over C because I thnk that the added "then" in C is more of a problem than the "the only thing one can do". But I'm not satisfied with the question either.

The difference between "all one can do" and "the only that can be done" is problematic. I prefer the former, by a long shot, even though the "OA" (I put it in quotes, because it has no OFFICIAL source.) for the first question here chooses the latter. I'm not sure if it's a straight issue, but I think it's quite unclear who is doing the action in that answer.

It has been said that all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to lie with it in a slightly elevated position.

(A) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to
PROBLEM: The list starts after the word "is". Then we get a list, meaning we need parallelism. "leave" and "ice" are parallel. But "to lie" is not.

(B) all one can do for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone to heal itself, to ice it, and
PROBLEM: This time, we lost the "to" on the last item".

(C) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, and then ice it and
PROBLEM: This doesn't make sense. If you the "then" in, it sounds like you're icing it after leaving it alone while it heals. But that's illogical.

(D) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and
ANSWER: Leave, ice, and lie are all parallel. However, I still hold "the only thing...is leave, ice..., and elevate..." is ridiculous on two separate levels. First, how is that a thing? Secondly, how is that ONE thing?

(E) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone while it heals itself, to ice it, and
PROBLEM: We lost our last "to" again.

It has been said that all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to lie with it in a slightly elevated position

(A) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to
(B) all one can do for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone to heal itself, to ice it, and
(C) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, and then ice it and
(D) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and
(E) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone while it heals itself, to ice it, and

this is pure parallelism
A X,Y and to Z incorrect
B to X,to Y and Z incorrect
C then ice it not correct as per the meaning of sentence
D X,Y and Z correct
E to X,to Y and Z incorrect

My usual disclaimer: HUGE amounts of resources are poured into every single official GMAT question, and even the best test-prep companies can't compete. And there are clearly some issues with this question.

I'm cool with the parallelism part of the question: it's easy enough to discard (A), (B), and (E) because of clearly botched parallelism, as pqhai indicated.

Beyond that... well, I'm really not convinced by (C) or (D), to be honest. You're onto something, RMD007: "the only thing is"... three different things? Nope, that makes no real sense. "The only things ARE..." would be OK, I guess.

And the meaning of the sentence is also pretty murky. It doesn't make sense to me to say that all you can do for a sprained ankle is "leave it alone" -- but then we're also going to ice it and lie with it in an elevated position? That's pretty contradictory.

So the parallelism lesson here is reasonable enough, but I don't think it's worth expending much effort distinguishing between (C) and (D).

I thought that C changes the meaning, was I wrong? As I understand, 'Then' in C implies some order of actions (we first do this, and then the other two things) while there is no such order in original sentence?

Yeah, I think you're onto something there, kivalo. I think you could make a decent argument for (C) on that basis -- though I still think it's weird to say that you'd "leave it alone while it heals itself", and THEN ice it... presumably after it has already healed itself?

Actual GMAT questions really don't leave this much room for debate. So again, I wouldn't waste too much energy debating between (C) and (D). As long as you're clear about the parallelism issue, you're all good.

Waw... Bunuel can you please explain the difference between this question and another one very similar "It is an oversimplified view of cattle raising to say that all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to drive them to market when the time is ripe."

I'm getting so much confused...
Many thanks in advance

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A lacks parallelism - leave it, ice it and to lie
B - same issue as A
C- changes the meaning by changing the things to do with a sprained ankle to the sequence of things to do.
D - no errors
E - lacks parallelism


It has been said that all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to lie with it in a slightly elevated position

(A) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and to
(B) all one can do for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone to heal itself, to ice it, and
(C) all one can do for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, and then ice it and
(D) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is leave it alone while it heals itself, ice it, and
(E) the only thing that can be done for a sprained ankle is to leave it alone while it heals itself, to ice it, and

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Your answer gave me much needed solace that I am not the only one thinking on the same line as you mentioned it out.

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