In all, the new algorithm sorts through thousands of bits of

Nicely done..pqhai and ankur..+1 to both

Thanks anish123ster. You deserve a kudo for a GOOD question too

IMO, E is correct, not C.

A)the skills that are listed on a person’s resume; and the school a person attended and in what major, as well as that school’s ranking in U.S. News and World Report.
Wrong. Not parallel.

B)the skills that are listed on a person’s resume; the school a person attended; and the major of that person, as well as that school’s ranking in U.S. News and World Report.
Wrong. Not parallel.

C)what skills are listed on a person’s resume; what school a person attended; and what major, as well as that school’s ranking in U.S. News and World Report.
Wrong. Not parallel structure because the last part "and what major........" is a noun phrase, not a clause. In addition, "the major" should be the one that a person attended, not the major of the school.

D)what skills are listed on a person’s resume; and what school a person attended, as well as the major and ranking of that school in U.S. News and World Report.
Wrong.
- The usage of "as well as": the clause before "as well as" is not parallel with the noun phrase after "as well as". The two portions should be parallel, e.g. noun as well as noun, clause as well as clause
- Change meaning: the intended meaning is the major that a person attend, not the major of the school. But D changes the meaning to "the major of the school".
- "The ranking" is more clear than "ranking"

E)what skills are listed on a person’s resume; and what school a person attended and in what major, as well as the ranking of that school in U.S. News and World Report.
Correct. Good parallel structure.

I read somewhere, all the sentences separated by semi colon should be independent sentences. in this question, all the sentences have at least one part after a semi colon that starts with "and". Is this correct. Can someone please put a light on it?

I have a doubt on this one - two independent clauses are joined by a semi-colon or by "comma + and" , is it correct to join 2 independent clauses using ";" and a co-ordinating conjunction such as "änd". Experts please help !

If there is requirement of comma within an item of a list, semicolon is used instead of comma to separate the items of the outer list. For example (from MGMAT SC guide):

Wrong: I listen to Earth, Wind & Fire, Wow, Owls, and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Right: I listen to Earth, Wind & Fire; Wow, Owls; and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

There are three items in the outer list:
1. Earth, Wind & Fire (comma used within the item)
2. Wow, Owls (comma used within the item)
3. Blood, Sweat & Tears (comma used within the item)

In the subject question, there are 4 items in a list:

1. what sites a person visits
2. what types of language, positive or negative, a person uses to describe certain technologies (comma used within the item)
3. what skills are listed on a person’s resume
4. what school a person attended and in what major

Within one of the items (item 2), comma is required to separate a modifier. Hence we are required to use semicolon instead of comma to separate the items of the outer list.

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

Solution: E

Explanation: This long sentence contains a structure that many students are unfamiliar with: multiple semicolons in one sentence. Semicolons are used this way to link together several complex elements in a series when commas would be too confusing. The key on this problem is to make sure that all components are parallel and contain uniform structures. Since the first two parts of the series begin with “what….”, the remaining portions must use a comparable structure. (A) and (B) are wrong because they lack this essential structure in the remaining parts of the series. In (C), the last portion, “what major…..,” cannot be disconnected from the discussion of the school and must have some verb with it. In (D) you cannot have the “major…of a school.” Only (E) contains parallel structures and gets the last portion correct: “what school a person attended and in what major (he attended is understood), as well as the ranking of that school.” (E) is correct.

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