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.

(A) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to
(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and

Error of parallelism:
There are 3 actions: leave them, corral them, drive them. These actions need to be parallel.

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.
(A) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to - third action not parallel.
(B) all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and - third action not parallel.
(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and - parallel with drive them
(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and - Changes meaning, has to be done is passive form. In GMAT active tone is always preferred.
(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and - Changes meaning, has to be done is passive form. In GMAT active tone is always preferred.
Correct option - C

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.


(A) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to

(B) all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and

(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and

CORRECT.

All one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves
and then
corral them and drive them...

It's well-written in active voice


(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and

This answer choice is worse than (C) for the following reasons:
1) Passive voice
2) "thing" is very informal and more incorrect than correct on the GMAT
3) the list doesn't consist of "things" but ACTIONS. Therefore, "thing" isn't really the right noun to describe what's needed in this context
4) sentence would've been better if it had "to" before leave


(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and