Italy is famous for its composers and musicians, France, for its chefs

The correct answer must be (A) for the highlighted errors in other options....

hello generis, why in option A, Italy is not followed by comma? this thing confused I thought "hey man its not parallel" and clicked on B which at first sight looks okay

here are 2 reasons to choose B
B has a verb "IS"
B is separated by commas (parallelism)

dave13 - This question tests quite a few concepts, but the most important one is ellipsis, also known as "omitting extra words."

For parallel lists in which elliptical construction is used to shorten the sentence:
(1) We make the other items' meaning parallel to that of the first item, checking to see whether the ellipsis mechanism works, and

(2) We do not try to make the structure of the first item "match" the structure of the other items that contain ellipsis.

The first item in an elliptical, parallel list must be complete and clear. The first item is the blueprint or template from which other items are derived and compressed.

A comma after Italy would ruin the template. The result would be ungrammatical and nonsensical.

True.
And when was the last time you saw a comma between an adjacent subject and verb in a full sentence?

I can understand the confusion, however. Elliptical construction in lists can be really confusing. (What gets omitted? How, exactly, does the parallel construction work?)

Let's back up a bit.

Relationship between first list item and other items

Item #1 is a template for the other items. Its meaning must be captured by the other items, which are constructed in shortened form.

In this case that shortened form is created by an "elliptical comma" right after France and Poland. The comma both stands for "is famous" (in one piece, no comma) and omits that phrase.

Parallel list, ellipsis: The first item
Unlike its shortened parallels, the first item must contain all the words that other items omit.

The first item uses a structure that is different from that of subsequent items.

If we put a comma between "Italy" and "is," our blueprint becomes
Italy, is famous for its composers and musicians

That setup does not work on its own, let alone as a basis from which to derive other items.

We must have the initial full clause without strange commas in strange places to understand that
France [is famous] for X, and Poland [is famous] for Y

Our first item is a "regular" independent clause (IC), a sentence, and is punctuated as such.

In sentences, we do not put a comma between subjects and verbs that are right next to each other.

If in doubt, remove the rest of the sentence. See what happens.

Italy, is famous for its composers and musicians.
Italy is famous for its composers and musicians.

Jennifer, moved the furniture.
Jennifer moved the furniture.

I hope that helps. If I have failed to address any of your concerns, tag me again.

Today is International World Development Information Day.
dave13 , however uninformative THAT description is, Happy World Development Information Day!

generis thank you for a great explanation thank you ! i didnt know yesterday was International World Development Information Day

Today is International Day when the deadline comes to close So Happy International Day When the Deadline Comes Too Close !

dave13
Best Visual of the Year.

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