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655-705 Level|   Parallelism|   Verb Tense/Form|                     
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde Updated on: 25 Mar 2020, 05:05
Originally posted by gaurav2m on 25 Mar 2020, 03:01.
Last edited by gaurav2m on 25 Mar 2020, 05:05, edited 1 time in total.
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My answer is B.



I have always had an issue with this type of question. What i have found in GMAt questions is that in most cases like the one here, the question talks about many properties of a single item. In the process they mix the verb tense thereby confusing the subject.



This Q is a classic example of that. The scientists discovered the Fungi, the next 2 are properties of the fungi. hence extends is correct and not extending



Balaji

Hi,

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.



It is imperative to understand the meaning of the sentence in order to get the correct answer. So let’s do that first. Scientists have recently discovered something that could be the largest and oldest organism on Earth. So what have they discovered? They have a discovered a giant fungus which has qualities that make the scientists believe that this fungus could be the largest and oldest living organism. What are these qualities? This giant fungus is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles. This fungus has been spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago. So this is why the scientists think that this fungus is the oldest living organism. The other quality that the fungus has is that it extends for more than 30 acres. This is the reason why the scientists think this fungus to be the largest living organism



After we have understood the meaning, let us evaluate the errors in the sentence. Now notice “spawned” is not verb here. It is verb-ed modifier that is presenting the quality of the giant fungus. In the very same way, “extending” is a verb-ing modifier that is also presenting another quality of the fungus. Hence, verb-ed modifier “spawned” and the verb-ing modifier “extending” are parallel to each other. Hence this sentence is correct as it is.

POE:

Choice A: extending: Correct.

Choice B: extends: Incorrect. This is a verb and a verb cannot be parallel to a modifier.

Choice C: extended: Incorrect. We again have a verb in the past tense that cannot be parallel to a modifier. Also the fungus is still extending. It is still there. So use of past tense is wrong anyway.

Choice D: it extended: Incorrect. Same error as in Choice D.

Choice E: is extending: Incorrect. This is a verb and a verb cannot be parallel to a modifier.

Hope this helps to understand why choice A is the correct answer.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi @egmat/ VeritasKarishma,

little confusion about option C. We can't assume 'extended' as a verb-ed modifier just because it is far away from the modified entity it modifies.
if not, then why it is not considered as a modifier but a verb?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 25 Mar 2020, 04:15
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egmat
balajinaik
My answer is B.



I have always had an issue with this type of question. What i have found in GMAt questions is that in most cases like the one here, the question talks about many properties of a single item. In the process they mix the verb tense thereby confusing the subject.



This Q is a classic example of that. The scientists discovered the Fungi, the next 2 are properties of the fungi. hence extends is correct and not extending



Balaji

Hi,

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.



It is imperative to understand the meaning of the sentence in order to get the correct answer. So let’s do that first. Scientists have recently discovered something that could be the largest and oldest organism on Earth. So what have they discovered? They have a discovered a giant fungus which has qualities that make the scientists believe that this fungus could be the largest and oldest living organism. What are these qualities? This giant fungus is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles. This fungus has been spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago. So this is why the scientists think that this fungus is the oldest living organism. The other quality that the fungus has is that it extends for more than 30 acres. This is the reason why the scientists think this fungus to be the largest living organism



After we have understood the meaning, let us evaluate the errors in the sentence. Now notice “spawned” is not verb here. It is verb-ed modifier that is presenting the quality of the giant fungus. In the very same way, “extending” is a verb-ing modifier that is also presenting another quality of the fungus. Hence, verb-ed modifier “spawned” and the verb-ing modifier “extending” are parallel to each other. Hence this sentence is correct as it is.

POE:

Choice A: extending: Correct.

Choice B: extends: Incorrect. This is a verb and a verb cannot be parallel to a modifier.

Choice C: extended: Incorrect. We again have a verb in the past tense that cannot be parallel to a modifier. Also the fungus is still extending. It is still there. So use of past tense is wrong anyway.

Choice D: it extended: Incorrect. Same error as in Choice D.

Choice E: is extending: Incorrect. This is a verb and a verb cannot be parallel to a modifier.

Hope this helps to understand why choice A is the correct answer.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi @egmat/ VeritasKarishma,

little confusion about option C. We can't assume 'extended' as a verb-ed modifier just because it is far away from the modified entity it modifies.
if not, then why it is considered as a modifier but a verb?
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Understand the structure of the sentence:


Scientists have recently discovered ... a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles...

"an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles" is further modified with 2 modifiers:
- spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and
- extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest

Note what was spawned by a single spore - the interwoven filigree
Note what is extending for more than 30 acres - the interwoven filigree

It is logical that the filigree extends over 30 acres. So both elements need to modify "filigree"
Past participle "spawned" is used because it was spawned in the past.
Present participle "extending" is used because it is currently extending for more than 30 acres.

Hence we cannot use a verb here.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 01 Jun 2020, 02:08
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"Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root-like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest."

Can I compare "a giant fungus that is an....and is extending..." ?? Experts, please guide.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 01 Jun 2020, 06:38
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Debayandc
"Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root-like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest."

Can I compare "a giant fungus that is an....and is extending..." ?? Experts, please guide.
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Hello, Debayandc. I see what you are getting at, and I admit that I was initially considering an option, before I had looked at the answers, that would have a parallel to that is. The problem, as others have pointed out above, is that the two elements would not be parallel: an interwoven filigree is a noun, while is extending is a verb. In the correct sentence, it is clear that spawned by and extending are the parallel elements instead:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

To make a sentence that did create a parallel element to a giant fungus that is, in which is is the verb of that, we would need a second instance of that to avoid any confusion, and the verb would have to be conjugated differently, as in the following sentence:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Now we are saying that a giant fungus is [something] and extends for more than 30 acres. It might seem intuitive to use the form is extending, but again, because the earlier use of is is followed by a noun, we would expect a noun instead of a verb to follow the second is. You will note that among the answer choices on offer, there are none that correspond to our above sentence, thereby eliminating such an interpretation on grammatical grounds.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 20 Jul 2020, 12:30
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

Why is "is extending" wrong?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 20 Jul 2020, 12:45
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Debayandc
Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

Why is "is extending" wrong?
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Hello again, Debayandc. We carried on a dialogue about this question at the beginning of last month, one that I believe answers your current question as well. In short, is extending acts as a verb, but it does not have a parallel element before the parallel marker and (without a comma). Did you happen to come across this one again in your practice and fall for (E) again?

Please let me know if you have read through the earlier discussion and still do not understand why (E) is incorrect.

- Andrew
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 29 Nov 2020, 10:35
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How can I understand the proper parallelism :

a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

that is an interwoven and
that is extending


or

spawned || extending

please explain.

Regards,
Arup
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ArupRS
To make your first interpretation, we'd really need the structure you describe: "that is X and that is Y." Since we don't have that, we need to go the second route. "Spawned" and "extending" are both modifiers describing the interwoven filigree.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

(A) extending
(B) extends
(C) extended
(D) it extended
(E) is extending

Will it make sense to choose (B) if it was (B) that extends? Then we may still have parallelism here. A giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago, and (A giant fungus) that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

I guess fungus or filigree can both extend... egmat GMATNinja
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 16 Apr 2021, 20:41
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TandyWang
Will it make sense to choose (B) if it was (B) that extends? Then we may still have parallelism here. A giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago, and (A giant fungus) that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

I guess fungus or filigree can both extend... egmat GMATNinja
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Hi TandyWang,

Yes, but we still won't be able to say whether the modified version of B would be better than A. For what it's worth, I would not expect the GMAT to force us to choose between that extends and extending.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 26 Apr 2021, 22:38
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

I thought the answer was b - extends - because it is parallel with "is." It sounded good to me:

1. "a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago"
2. "a giant fungus that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil og a Michigan forest."

Honestly, it still seems fine to me - and I am confident that I would have made the same mistake on the test, which incidentally is tomorrow...

What is a quick way to see that this does not work? Do you need a really good grasp of meaning? Or is there something else?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 27 Apr 2021, 02:35
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HansJK
I thought the answer was b - extends - because it is parallel with "is." It sounded good to me:
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Hi HansJK, you can go thru this post on why option B is not the best choice here.
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BunuelWannabe

Nevertheless, I still cannot see why are we eliminating b)

In your explanation you said "Choice B: extends: Incorrect. This is a verb and a verb cannot be parallel to a modifier." but the verb is parallel to another verb that is placed earlier in the sentence:

"A giant fungus that is"

So, in my opinion, b) would be a correct parallelism as it is logical that the two verbs are referring back to the subject Giant Fungus
Hi BunuelWannabe, you ask a good question.

Couple of reasons that tilt the balance against B:

i) The original sentence uses extending as a modifier, deploying the following parallelism:

..an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned....and extending....

So, in the original sentence, spawned and extending modify interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles.

Since this seem to be a very reasonable meaning, we can interpret this as the intended meaning of the sentence. That being the case, option B is changing the intended meaning of the sentence.

ii) Option B depicts parallelism between extends and is. However, notice how far these two verbs are, from each other. Hence, if the intent indeed was for these two verbs to be parallel, then a better sentence construct would be:

...a giant fungus that is an interwoven....and that extends for ...

The repetition of that (second that in the above sentence) would have made it very clear that both that are referring to a giant fungus.
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Is it a problem that the preposition "for more than" follows "extends," as it is a a noun follows the verb "is"? Thank you very much, I really appreciate the help!!
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 29 Apr 2021, 02:18
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No, that's not a problem. We want to make "extending" parallel to "spawned." But if it made logical sense to make "is" and "extends" parallel, the fact that those verb phrases continued in different ways wouldn't create an error. It's common for parallel terms to have different structures, especially in their modifiers, as long as they all fit into the overall structure in the same way.
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Does "the giant fungus" need no verb?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 22 Jun 2021, 22:02
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Does "the giant fungus" need no verb?
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Hi randarth,

A giant fungus that is... is a modifier that does not need a verb. In fact, if we gave that noun a main verb, we'd end up with an independent clause, and then we'd end up with a comma splice (two independent clauses joined by only a comma). For example, if we remove the that, we get:

Scientists have discovered {something}, a giant fungus is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms... ← This is incorrect, as the two clauses are joined by only a comma.
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 27 Jul 2021, 22:07
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ankitapugalia
Hi,

One doubt- 'a giant fungus..Michigan forest' doesn't have a verb. I understand that extending is correct but a giant fungus is not a modifier here. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Awaiting your response.

Thanks
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Hi ankitapugalia,

A giant fungus... is a just one big modifier (it modifies the largest and oldest living organism on Earth).
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 28 Jul 2021, 20:54
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Debayandc
"Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root-like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest."

Can I compare "a giant fungus that is an....and is extending..." ?? Experts, please guide.
Hello, Debayandc. I see what you are getting at, and I admit that I was initially considering an option, before I had looked at the answers, that would have a parallel to that is. The problem, as others have pointed out above, is that the two elements would not be parallel: an interwoven filigree is a noun, while is extending is a verb. In the correct sentence, it is clear that spawned by and extending are the parallel elements instead:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

To make a sentence that did create a parallel element to a giant fungus that is, in which is is the verb of that, we would need a second instance of that to avoid any confusion, and the verb would have to be conjugated differently, as in the following sentence:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Now we are saying that a giant fungus is [something] and extends for more than 30 acres. It might seem intuitive to use the form is extending, but again, because the earlier use of is is followed by a noun, we would expect a noun instead of a verb to follow the second is. You will note that among the answer choices on offer, there are none that correspond to our above sentence, thereby eliminating such an interpretation on grammatical grounds.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew
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Hi AndrewN - reviewing the text in purple

Would this sentence also NOT BE PARALLEL, in that case ?

The Terminator is a machine and is killing A and B

In above sentence case - the X marker has simple present tense (is ) and Y marker : Present progressive (is killing)

Can't simple present tense NOT BE PARALLEL to present progressive ?
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Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and olde 29 Jul 2021, 08:31
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Debayandc
"Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and root-like tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest."

Can I compare "a giant fungus that is an....and is extending..." ?? Experts, please guide.
Hello, Debayandc. I see what you are getting at, and I admit that I was initially considering an option, before I had looked at the answers, that would have a parallel to that is. The problem, as others have pointed out above, is that the two elements would not be parallel: an interwoven filigree is a noun, while is extending is a verb. In the correct sentence, it is clear that spawned by and extending are the parallel elements instead:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and extending for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

To make a sentence that did create a parallel element to a giant fungus that is, in which is is the verb of that, we would need a second instance of that to avoid any confusion, and the verb would have to be conjugated differently, as in the following sentence:

Scientists have recently discovered what could be the largest and oldest living organism on Earth, a giant fungus that is an interwoven filigree of mushrooms and rootlike tentacles spawned by a single fertilized spore some 10,000 years ago and that extends for more than 30 acres in the soil of a Michigan forest.

Now we are saying that a giant fungus is [something] and extends for more than 30 acres. It might seem intuitive to use the form is extending, but again, because the earlier use of is is followed by a noun, we would expect a noun instead of a verb to follow the second is. You will note that among the answer choices on offer, there are none that correspond to our above sentence, thereby eliminating such an interpretation on grammatical grounds.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask.

- Andrew

Hi AndrewN - reviewing the text in purple

Would this sentence also NOT BE PARALLEL, in that case ?

The Terminator is a machine and is killing A and B

In above sentence case - the X marker has simple present tense (is ) and Y marker : Present progressive (is killing)

Can't simple present tense NOT BE PARALLEL to present progressive ?
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Hello, jabhatta2. To get to the heart of the matter, is your sentence about the Terminator valid? Sure. It is fine to list parallel verbs in different tenses, as long as such shifting tenses fit the context of the given sentence. GMATNinja himself just wrote this post that says as much in another thread. But the real question is whether, on the GMAT™, such a sentence presents the best iteration of the five options presented. That is all we are looking to do, after all. We could turn over every grammatical and semantic stone we could think of and still not scratch the surface of what the test could throw at us. I like to note tendencies when I write my posts, not make declarations about what must be true. (There may be something I have not learned or mastered myself.)

- Andrew
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generis


(2) No. The only other present tense verb is IS.
extends would have to be parallel to is (the verb for the subject "giant fungus"),
I think my previous sentence is what you meant. A verb (extends) can't be parallel to a noun (giant fungus).

If extends and is were paired as verbs, we would not have real parallelism.
We would also have a hot mess of a sentence.*


*We don't have the sentence on this page of the thread.
.
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Hi generis - per the yellow why do you say in option B (alternate structure) where the verb "IS" is made parallel to the verb "Extends" , it will be issue w.r.t parallelism ? I think this structure seems parallel

option B)
A giant fungus THAT
X element) is an interwoven ...............
Y element) extends......

The "THAT" can be part of the root phrase so the "THAT" can technically extend to both the two elements (X and Y elements)

Also there are two VERBS being compared ["IS" and "Extends"]

I read in some other posts that - the X element is a noun being compared to the Verb in the Y element but "IS" and "Extends" are BOTH VERBS

Thoughts on where is gap in my logic
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