St. John's, Newfoundland, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France,

If you expand the choice A, the subtle llism will pop-up

Residents are less likely (X) to be sitting at outdoor cafes than(Y) to be [1) bracing themselves against arctic chills, 2) shoveling snow, 3) or seeking)]

The symmetrical and idiomatic parallelism of " x than y” is maintained by using ‘ to be’ for both arms of comparison ; the series parallelism is maintained by using progressive forms such as bracing , shoveling and seeking and the ‘to be’ mentioned for the first factor is common to all the three factors.

On the contrary, C fouls tenets of comparative parallelism by choosing to drop the comparative cursor ‘than’ from the sentence and C is merely an expository statement, deviating from the focus of the text. More importantly, C breaks series llism by missing the infinitive ‘to be’ in the second arm ‘shoveling’. To be perfectly parallel, it should either state “to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, to be shoveling snow, or to be seeking” or retain ‘to be’ for the first arm and leave it for the other two, as done in choice A.

Of course B, D and E can be dropped for various infringements. A is the eventual choice,

Sananoor
Hi

The answer to this simple question is not that simple.

We are aware that there are three types of verbs namely, 1. Action verbs, 2. Linking verbs, 3. and helping verbs. We will deal with the first two types of verbs in this context.
Action verbs clearly indicate an action on the part of a doer namely the subject.

I sing well

Linking verbs on the contrary just do not do any action but simply connect the subject with the rest of the information the sentence. They are also called extant verbs, status verbs, coupling verbs, or simply copulas.

It is also a basic tenet that, when an action is being compared, we compulsorily use the word 'as' a conjunction and therefore there will be always two clauses in the comparison. Here the comparison is between the action of X and Y. We can't afford to skip the second verb in these cases
I sing as well as my brother does.

Nobody knows the child as well as the mother does. if you skip the second verb, it will mean that both th mother and the child ar not known.

However in the case of the linking verbs, since there is no action involved, the comparison essentially remains between the two arms of comparison namely X and Y and not between X's action and Y's action. Here, the word 'as ' is used as a preposition and since a preposition is involved, what follows must be a noun yet again.

Eg. I am as tall as my brother --- We do not say, --- I am as tall as my brother is. The second verb is unnecessary since I am just comparing me with my brother.

We can also see the prepositional use of 'as' to mean 'in the role of'.

As the parent, the mother has plenty of responsibilities in the early child rearing.
As the head of the company, the CEO is responsible to the investors.

Now on to our example:

St. John's lies on the same latitude as Paris --- Here 'lies' is not an action verb. It is simply a linking verb. Therefore, St' John's is being compared with Paris.

(Lies is a tricky word. When somebody deliberately tells a lie, it is an action verb. As the plural of the singular 'lie', it is a noun.)

How to make out between an action verb from a linking verb

Try to replace the doubtful verb with the word 'is'. If it makes sense, it is a linking verb. If it does not make any sense, then it is an action verb.

Nobody knows the child as the mother. -- Replace the verb 'knows' with the word 'is'; you get - Nobody is the child as the mother-. This does not make any sense. Hence knows is an action verb.You must now say - Nobody knows the child as the does the mother-.

Tom appeared nervous when he appeared for the GMAT for the first time - Now, let us replace the two words 'appeared' with either is or was.

Tom was nervous when he was for the GMAT for the first time.

The first 'was' seems to make some sense. Hence, the first 'appeared' is a linking verb. However, the second 'was' does not make any sense. Therefore, the second 'appeared'is an action verb

I have tried to explain as I understood Sananoor's query. Sorry, If I am irrelevant.

St. John’s, Newfoundland, lies on the same latitude as Paris, France, but in spring St. John’s residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking shelter from a raging northeast storm.

(A) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes than to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or seeking

'to be sitting...' is parallel to 'to be bracing...', which, in turn, is parallel to 'shoveling snow' and 'seeking'

(B) residents are less likely to sit at outdoor cafes, and more to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or be seeking

'be seeking' is not parellel with the rest of the sentence.

(C) residents are less likely to be sitting at outdoor cafes, and more likely to be bracing themselves against arctic chills, shoveling snow, or to be seeking

'to be seeking' breaks up the parallelism of 'Verb-ing'

(D) residents, instead of their sitting at outdoor cafes, they are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or seek

'their sitting at...' is awkward.

(E) residents, instead of sitting at outdoor cafes, are more likely to brace themselves against arctic chills, shovel snow, or to be seeking

'to be seeking' is not parallel with 'brace' and 'shovel.'