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Read this sentence:
Escaping the pull of gravity and to travel at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes.
Which revision of the sentence uses parallel structure?
A. Escaping the pull of gravity and traveling at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes.
B. Escaping the pulling of gravity and to travel at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes.
C. Escaping the pull of gravity and to travel at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passing.
D. Escaping the pull of gravity and to travel at high speeds both affected the rate at which time passes.
The revision that uses parallel structure is:
A. Escaping the pull of gravity and traveling at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes.
Explanation:
Parallel structures are used to create consistency in a series of words or phrases. It is the repetition of a certain grammatical structures inside a sentence with the purpose of avoiding confusion, making the speech clear, interesting, and easy to understand.
In the original sentence "Escaping the pull of gravity and to travel at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes," the lack of parallelism happens in "escaping" and "to travel". Both structures have similar functions inside the sentence and are very close to each other. The best thing to do would be maintaining the same grammatical structure for both. Since the first one uses -ing, we can simply apply it to the second one, instead of using to + base form of the verb. Therefore:
A. Escaping the pull of gravity and traveling at high speeds both affect the rate at which time passes.
