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Sentence Correction
During Industrial revolution, England meted out the death penalty for more than two hundred offences, including stealing turnips, to associate with gypsies, cut down a tree, or to pick pockets.
(A) to associate with gypsies, cut down a tree, or to pick
(B) to associate with gypsies, to cut down a tree, or to pick
(C) associating with gypsies, cutting a tree, or picking
(D) associating with gypsies, cut a tree, or pick
(E) to associate with gypsies, cut a tree, or pick
The error in this question is one of lack of parallelism in the structure.
This sentence seeks to enumerate four offences for which the death penalty is meted out in England during the Industrial Revolution.
Idiomatic English requires that all these four be mentioned in the same grammatical form.
But, while the first offence (which is non-underlined) is mentioned in the form of a gerund’ stealing turnips’, the other offences have been mentioned in other forms. So, (A) lacks parallelism in structure, and is not the answer.
The correct version must have all the other three offences also in the form of gerunds. Of the remaining choices,It is only (C) which fulfills this condition, and is the answer.
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