The first thing to remember here is the there are only two items in this list and not three as one would be led to believe. This is the essence of this tricky question. The two items of the list are 1. Leave them alone while they feed themselves (meaning graze) and 2. Corral them and drive them. The first of the lists is the one that the cattle themselves can do without outside help and the second is the one wherein somebody as the rancher has to do those things for them. You need the conjunction ‘and’ at appropriate places to conjugate the two items in the overall list and to join the two items in the second arm. You do not need any commas before any of the ‘ands’ in the choice, since there are only two items in each of the master list and in the sub-list. As per this tenet, only C fits in and you can dump all the other four. Thus you can hit four mangos with a single stone.

If you still want, you can ponder with infinitive parallelism and so on
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C sounds better to me than A.

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

D and E are incorrect because they say " the only thing..." and then give two 'things' that need to be done
1) to leave them alone ... and
2) corral them and drive them to the market...
(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and

What about B, does it change the meaning by saying " leave them alone to feed..." rather than "leave them alone while they feed..."

(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

The main issue with B is not '...while they feed...", it is the use of '...to corral them, and to...'
".... all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and to drive them (now it appears that the cattle would do all these things and not the owner)..."
whereas in C, the sentence has a better flow stating that the cattle needs to be left alone only while they feed themselves.

Does that help..?

THIS QUESTION IS CHECKING FOR PARALLELISM + CONJUNCTION.LETS LOOK AT THE OPTIONS
A. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and to
ALL ONE HAS TO DO IS A) LEAVE THEM ALONE B) CORRAL THEM C) AND TO DRIVE
LACK OF PARALLELSIM..OUT
B. all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and
A)TO LEAVE B) TO CORRAL C) AND DRIVE..PARALLELISM BREAKS..OUT
C. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
A) LEAVE THEM B)AND CORAL THEM C)AND DRIVE THEM
PARALLEL BUT CONJUNCTION USAGE INCORRECT.2 "AND" USED WHEN A COMMA SHOULD HAVE BEEN USED TO SEPARATE 3 ELEMENTS..OUT
D. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
PARALLEL AND CORRECT CONJUNCTION USAGE..CORRECTE. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and
LACK OF PARALLELISM..OUT

OA is C. I searched in other forums for the explaination.
C is correct because it mantains correct parallel structure and there are two phrases (and not 3) that shud be considered for parallelism in 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
PROBLEM: the "to" at the end isn't parallel with "leave" or "corral".

(B) all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them, and
PROBLEM: We need our last "to".

(C) all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and
ANSWER: Okay. So this one can technically work. Basically, we have two lists, and one of those lists has a list of two things INSIDE it. That's why we end up with two "and" in a row (ANOTHER EXAMPLE: I like reubens and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). But there's a problem, in that

(D) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and
PROBLEM/POSSIBLE ANSWER: Okay. As I said, I much prefer "one" on BOTH of these questions, because it creates an actor/subject for the verbs. But the list here is problematic, because corral has two meanings. It can mean "round up" (which makes the last sentence make sense, because you would corral them and bring them to market one after the other). However, it can also mean "keep in a corral", which you would ALSO have to do in order to keep cattle, meaning that THIS list would ALSO be correct. While the previous sentence would still make more sense, I don't see a grammatical issue with the list here.

(E) the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and
PROBLEM: We lost our last "to" again.


-t

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

Dear Answer is C only,

the is of course a case of parallelism but not with infinitive form. once you opt infinitive such as in option D " the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and..., the only thing it communicates that one has to do three things: to leave them..., to corral them..., and to..
but here the meaning is to do one thing so after the only thing that has to be done with cattle is there should be only one thing as one object.
consider this example. Why all elephants ran away is the only point of concern. in this sentence main verb is singular as it is not linked with elephants but the phrase " why all elephants ran away" as a singular subject.

thanks
Sid

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 -- infinitive parallelism is bad -- wrong

B. all one has to do with cattle is to leave them alone to feed themselves, to corral them and --since 'to' is missing in the third arm, this is unparallel. -- wrong

C. all one has to do with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves and then corral them and -- C is the only one left; here the parallelism is : the first series of A and B, in which A is the feeding and B is the corralling is duly separated by a conjunction and both are without the infinitive 'to'; The second series is a single item list that has been appropriately separated by the conjunction from the other list and happens to have the 'to' infinitive. Since it is a separate list, there is no need to maintain parallelism with the first list. correct choice. ( the template here is 'A and B' and 'C"

D. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and ----There are three actions, not one - drop
E. the only thing that has to be done with cattle is to leave them alone while they feed themselves, to corral them, and-- There are three actions, not one - drop

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I can see lots of open questions are going on here. Time for me to chime in.

This question reinforces the fact that one should focus alot on understanding the meaning of the sentence.

The meaning of the sentence is the current over simplified view is to leave them alone while they are feeding and then corral and drive them to the market. Or I can say corral and drive should happen after they are done with feeding.

Now, let's see what you all are saying.



Hey itisSheldon ,

Yes, D is changing the meaning of the sentence. The sequencing is not maintained in D. It implies leaving them alone, corralling and driving are happening at the same time. Do you see the importance of "then"?



Hey Tapesh03 ,

B is incorrect for the same reasons mentioned above for D. Also, B has another issue. B says leave them alone to feed themselves. Meaning the purpose of leaving them is to feed. While the original meaning is while they are feeding, don't dare to disturb them. Do you see how using the infinitive "to feed" changes the meaning?



Hey GMAT215 ,

D is incorrect for reasons explained above. Remember "the statement C is more correct" is absolutely incorrect on GMAT. An option is either 100% correct or 100% wrong.


Hey AdityaHongunti ,
I agree somewhat to l01os 's explanation. When I am saying "only thing", I can't list out multiple things in the list. "All one has to" opens the doors for multiple things. That could be another reason to reject option D and E.



Hey colinlin1 ,

We are given a general fact/information here on what is the view. So, there is not need of using present continuous tense. Usually, facts are presented in Simple tense.

Let me know if anyone of you has any question.
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D: The only thing that has to be done with cattle is leave them alone while they feed themselves, corral them, and drive them to market when the time is ripe

Here, it is illogical to equate a PASSIVE ACTION (to be done) with an ACTIVE ACTION ([to] leave them alone).
In addition, it is nonsensical to define a SERIES of actions performed at various times -- while the cattle feed themselves, when the time is ripe -- as THE ONLY THING that has to be done.
Further, it is questionable whether ANY action may rightly be considered a thing.
Eliminate D.
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In C, to take corralling (done for two to three years) and driving to the markets ( for a day or two) as the same function for the sake of parallelism is peculiar.
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Dear GMATGuruNY

Do you find the OA correct in this question? How can it be 'is leave'? I think it is 'to leave'? Also, I think the language somehow colloquial.

Thanks

OA: all one has to do with cattle is [to] leave them alone
Here, the to in brackets is implied because of the usage of the green to in the preceding clause.

This SC is included in Paper Test 37, an official test published by GMAC.
The paper tests are quite old and were written not by Pearson (the current administer of the GMAT) but by ETS (the former administer).
For this reason, some SCs in the paper tests -- including this SC -- do not seem reflective of the modern GMAT.
I recommend that you disregard this SC.
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Thanks for your reply.

Regardless of the 'to' in the OA, How does OA maintain parallelism? i.e. How 'and' in both places maintain the parallelism?


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

Thanks

The green and serves to convey that the two connected actions (corral and drive) are both modified by the following adverb (when the time is right).
The red and serves to link the action performed while they feed (one has to leave them) to the two actions performed when the time is right (one has to corral them and drive them).
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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

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

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


The sentence tries to convey that all one has to do is leave them alone while they feed themselves and after that you corral them and drive them to the market. The list is leave them alone and corral and drive them. C is correct as its the only option that conveys this meaning clearly.

All other sentences have parallelism error.
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism; the verb "to drive" is included in a list with the verbs "leave" and "corral", despite the fact that the former in the infinitive form and the latter two are not. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism; the verb "drive" is included in a list with the verbs "to leave" and "to corral", despite the fact that the latter two are in the infinitive form and the former is not. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C: This answer choice maintains parallelism by splitting the list into two separate lists; the first list contains one verb "leave", which is modified by a verb phrase that includes the verb "feed", and the second list contains the verbs "corral" and "drive". Therefore, both lists maintain parallelism. This answer choice also preserves the intended meaning of the sentence quite well. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice D: This answer choice changes the meaning of the sentence; the phrase "the only thing that has to be done with cattle" implies that there is a single thing that must be done with regard to cattle, although the remainder of the sentence clearly describes three distinct activities. Another vital thing to keep in mind is that "all one has to do with cattle", the phrase used in the original sentence, carries no such implication. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E: This answer choice repeats the error made in Option D. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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