Kaplan SC The US Senate's ratification process for

No intuition please , stolyar.

Lets try to point out the mistake, if there is one

Explanation anyone ?

thank god its E....noun form of pay...

The US Senate's ratification process for Jay's Treaty of 1795, concerning frontiers with Canada, trade relations with the British West Indies, and the payment of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were so polarizing that it fostered the creation of the political parties in the United States.

Breaking the question:

1) The US Senate's ratification process for Jay's Treaty of 1795 was so polarizing that it fostered the creation of the political parties in the United States.
2) concerning frontiers with Canada, trade relations with the British West Indies, and the payment to British financiers of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence

Hence E.

It's indeed a very elegant explanation. Thank you very much.
However, I am still slightly confused. 'paying' is a noun form (a gerund, as you correctly identified). I have never come across a grammar rule which says 'simple' noun should parallel simple noun. As far as I know, the grammar rule is - 'sentence structure should be parallel in parallel elements of the sentence'. Moreover, the organization of phrases in option E seems somewhat awkward to me.

payment of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were

paying of private debts to British financiers pre-dating the War of Independence, was

payments of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were

paying of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, was

payment to British financiers of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence, was
Kaplan SC


The US Senate's ratification process for Jay's Treaty of 1795, concerning frontiers with Canada, trade relations with the British West Indies, and the payment of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were so polarizing that it fostered the creation of the political parties in the United States.


payment of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were

paying of private debts to British financiers pre-dating the War of Independence, was

payments of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, were

paying of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence to British financiers, was

payment to British financiers of private debts pre-dating the War of Independence, was

B and D not || "Concerning relations.... frontiers... and payment.....
So, E
Any doubt???

Good Question....Got Stumped by C. I thought that were is refering to the previous list of __,__, and ___.But now I realise that its the process we are referring to , not the list of Modifiers !!!!!

marked E but still confused with the comma b4 was????

The US Senate's ratification process is singular so it has to was. So ruling out A and C

In B pre-dating the War of Independence is modifying British financiers which changes the meaning.
So coming to ||ism, frontiers with Canada, trade relations with ... all are simple noun. So we should look for simple noun. payment to is simple noun but paying of private debts is gerund.

So E is correcr

I picked E because British appears right after the noun, seems to be more parallel than other choices

damn i chose D and realized later why it should be E