Question

in this passage, which sentence has the strongest parallelism? select the best answer.

my mother almost hit a deer crossing the highway yesterday. she said the deer was lithe, fast, and that it didnt seem scared. after it crossed the highway, it jumped the barrier, looked at the cars, and bounded into the forest. my mother said she wonders what animals are thinking when they cross the road like that.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Parallel Structure in Sentences
Matching grammatical forms for items in a list

Step 1: Understand Parallelism

Parallelism (or parallel structure) means using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. This is achieved by matching the grammatical forms of words, phrases, or clauses in a list or series.

• Non-parallel example: The deer was lithe, fast, and it didn't seem scared. (Mixes adjectives with a clause)
• Parallel example: The deer jumped, looked, and bounded. (Matches three past-tense verbs: jumped, looked, bounded)

Step 2: Analyze the Sentences in the Passage

Let's break down each sentence in the passage to check for parallel structures:

1. Sentence 1: "My mother almost hit a deer crossing the highway yesterday."

• Structure: Simple narrative sentence. No list or series of items to compare for parallelism.

1. Sentence 2: "She said the deer was lithe, fast, and that it didn't seem scared."

• Structure: Contains a list describing the deer: "lithe" (adjective), "fast" (adjective), and "that it didn't seem scared" (dependent clause). Because it mixes adjectives with a clause, this sentence lacks strong parallelism.

1. Sentence 3: "After it crossed the highway, it jumped the barrier, looked at the cars, and bounded into the forest."

• Structure: Contains a list of actions completed by the deer:
• "jumped the barrier" (past-tense verb phrase)
• "looked at the cars" (past-tense verb phrase)
• "bounded into the forest" (past-tense verb phrase)
• Analysis: All three items in the series use the exact same grammatical structure (past-tense verb + prepositional/noun phrase). This represents a very strong parallel structure.

1. Sentence 4: "My mother said she wonders what animals are thinking when they cross the road like that."

• Structure: Complex sentence, but does not contain a list or series of parallel elements.

Step 3: Identify the Best Answer

The third sentence has the strongest parallelism because it coordinates three actions using identical grammatical verb forms (jumped, looked, bounded).

Answer:

Selected Sentence:
"After it crossed the highway, it jumped the barrier, looked at the cars, and bounded into the forest."