Until quite recently, American presidents lived in a world in which

Hi,

Until quite recently, American presidents lived in a world in which the public and private realms of their lives were largely separate, and the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and Americans judged national leaders without receiving, or expecting, intimate information about them.



The sentence means that till very recently, American presidents had distinct public and private lives, the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and Americans judged national leaders without receiving, or expecting, intimate information about them.
So clearly here we have a list. American presidents lived in a world in which:
i. the public and private realms of their lives were largely separate,
ii. the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and
Americans judged national leaders without receiving, or expecting, intimate information about them.


1. Per the sentence, all the three entities listed in meaning analysis are separate. Hence all the entities must be logically as well as grammatically parallel. But in the sentence they are not. “in which the public and private realms of their lives were largely separate” is not grammatically parallel to “the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction” and “Americans judged national leaders without receiving, or expecting, intimate information about them”. Since the first entity completely lies in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, we need “in which” before the other two entities as well.
2. In a list, comma + and is used before the last entity to denote that there are no further entities in the list. Hence use of “and” before the second entity in the sentence is incorrect.

POE:

(A) and the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and: Wrong as discussed.

(B) where the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and where: The first entity has “in which” in the beginning. So we need “in which” in the beginning of the other two entities as well to make them grammatically parallel. Use of “where” is incorrect as it results in parallelism error.

(C) for the press cooperated to maintain the distinction and: As already discussed in the meaning analysis, all the three entities are separate from each other. This choice connects all the three entities with each other. The choice is grammatically correct but distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. It now means that Americans presidents could maintain distinct public and private lives because the press allowed them to maintain that distinction and the Americans also did not care about getting personal information about their national leaders.
This distortion in the meaning makes choice C incorrect.

(D) the press cooperated to maintain the distinction, for: Wrong. The last entity is not parallel to the other two entities in the sentence. This choice connects the last two entities that distorts the intended meaning of the sentence. Hence this choice is grammatically correct but leads to meaning distortion and hence is incorrect.

(E) in which the press cooperated in maintaining the distinction, and in which: Correct answer. This choice has complete parallelism and conveys the intended meaning of the sentence.



1. It is very important to understand the intended meaning of the sentence.
2. Identify the correct parallel list in the sentence.
3. All the entities in the list must be grammatically as well as logically parallel to each other.
4. Avoid answer choices that distort the intended meaning of the sentence even if they are grammatically correct.

The concepts tested in this sentence have been covered in e-gmat concepts:
1. Level 1 – Significance of Meaning (This concept features in Preview Level 1 Concepts that are available in Free Trial. Just register and learn.)
2. Level 1 – Parallelism – Identify and Correct
3. Level 1 – Parallelism – Helpful Tips

Hope this helps.
Shraddha