Question

Which sentence(s) contains an error in parallelism?

(1) Once dry, Ts'ai Lun discovered that he had created a quality writing surface that was relatively easy to make and lightweight.
(2) He took the inner bark of a mulberry tree and bamboo fibers, mixes them with water, and pounded them with a wooden tool.
(3) He then poured this mixture onto a flat piece of coarsely woven cloth and let the water drain through, leaving only the fibers on the cloth.
(4) The person credited with inventing paper is a Chinese man named Ts'ai Lun.


OPTIONS:
A) Sentence 1
B) Sentence 2
C) Sentence 1 and 3
D) Sentence 4

Answer 1

Answer: B) Sentence 2.

Explanation: parallelism is a literary device that consists in the repetition of the grammatical structure of different words or phrases in a sentence or paragraph, in order to emphasize an idea or to create an impact in the audience. From the given options, the one that contains an error in parallelism is the corresponding to option B, because the first and third element of the list have the same grammatical structure ("took the inner bark of a mulberry tree and bamboo fibers" and "pounded them with a wooden tool") but the second element has a verb in present instead of past ("mixes them with water").

Answer 2

Answer:

B)

Explanation:

its B) because there is a past tense verb, took; a present tense verb, mixes; and a past tense verb, pounded.