Wetlands contribute to the stability of the environment in multiple wa

Wetlands contribute to the stability of the environment in multiple ways, preventing flooding by holding water; filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release vegetative matter which helps feed fish in the rivers.

Original sentence means that Wetlands contribute to environment in ways by preventing flooding, filtering and purifying water and by releasing vegetative matter which is surprising. Reviewing options we can see that all have semi-colon thus a related independent clause is required after that.
Only C has suffices the condition.

A. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release

B. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing

C. filtering and purifying surface water; and they surprisingly release – CORRECT. As explained above.

D. they filter and purify surface water; and surprisingly release

E. they filter and purify surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing

Answer (C).

Wetlands contribute to the stability of the environment in multiple ways, preventing flooding by holding water; filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release vegetative matter which helps feed fish in the rivers.

A. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release (Release is not parallel to filtering and purifying)

B. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing Correct (Parallelism is correct as it shows the intended list and semi-colon (;) is correct since (;) can be used for segregating the items of list as well)
C. filtering and purifying surface water; and they surprisingly release (Release is not parallel to filtering and purifying)

D. they filter and purify surface water; and surprisingly release (Release is not parallel to filtering and purifying)

E. they filter and purify surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing (they - pronoun error)

This question tests parallelism. The list of ways through which wetlands contribute to the stability of the environment must be parallel.

Option A is not correct because release vegetative matter is not parallel to preventing flooding, and filtering and purifying water surfaces. Release should be in verb-ing form in order to make it parallel to the other part of the sentence.

Option C is also not parallel because release is not in verb-ing form, which is required in order to make the sentence parallel.

Option D is as well not parallel because “they filter and purify surface water; ... release” is not parallel to preventing flooding in the non-underlined portion of the sentence.

“they filter and purify surface water” in option E is not parallel to “releasing vegetative matter..” and “preventing flooding”. Hence it can also be ruled out.

Option B is the right answer because “filtering and purifying surface water” and “releasing vegetative matter” are parallel to “preventing flooding”.

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meaning: wetlands contribute to the stability… in many ways, [list] preventing…; filtering…; and,…releasing.
rule: elements in a list must maintain parallelism.

Answer (B)

Concept of parallelism ,
Only option B, E correctly write the form releasing,
Option E, use of " they filter " is incorrect,

Option B: Correct

Wetlands contribute to the stability of the environment in multiple ways, preventing flooding by holding water; filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release vegetative matter which helps feed fish in the rivers.

A. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, release

B. filtering and purifying surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing

C. filtering and purifying surface water; and they surprisingly release

D. they filter and purify surface water; and surprisingly release

E. they filter and purify surface water; and, surprisingly, releasing

(B) is correct. It is the only one that maintains parallelism in the list "preventing ... filtering and purifying ... and releasing."

B.
As it maintains the parallelism

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Official Explanation

Creating a filter: The prompt raises a flag. Namely, we have a list, so something to check quickly is whether the elements of the list are in parallel form. By the way, there's no problem with separating the elements of a list in a sentence with semicolons, especially when some or more of the items are lengthy. This is a list of verbs, and they are "preventing," "filtering and purifying" and "release." "Release" is in error and should match the other two as "releasing." Since "preventing" is outside the underlined portion and hence can't be changed, we know that we will have to settle on "ing" forms in the correct answer.

Applying the filter: There's only one answer choice meeting our criterion.

The correct answer is (B).