Dung beetles attach themselves to herbivores, waiting for their dung to drop, and after capturing it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or making a brooding ball.
(A) waiting for their dung to drop, and after capturing it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or making a brooding ball.
(B) waiting for their dung to drop, and after capturing it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
(C) wait for their dung to drop, and capture it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
(D) wait for their dung to drop, and after capturing it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or making a brooding ball.
(E) wait for their dung to drop, and after capturing it, roll the dung, follow a straight line in spite of all obstacles, burying it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
Doubt- what is wrong with option C?
This question requires you to understand the main verbs/actions and subordinate actions in the sentence. This will help you determine whether to use a verb or a verb+ing modifier/participle and identify the correct parallel structure.
Dung beetles (subject) attach (main verb) themselves to herbivores, waiting (participle) for their dung to drop, and after capturing (participle) it, roll (verb) the dung, following (participle) a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury (verb) it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
(C) wait for their dung to drop, and capture it, roll the dung, following a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
Dung beetles (subject) attach (verb) themselves to herbivores, wait (verb) for their dung to drop, and capture (verb) it, roll (verb) the dung, following (participle) a straight line in spite of all obstacles, and bury (verb) it either for food storage or for making a brooding ball.
Option C contains an error of superficial parallelism
All the main actions and subordinate actions are under the same list.
Make sure that you are able to identify which items fall within the list or to which
parallelism applies
Example- Maria spent her entire quarantine period indoors, read books, listened to
music, and watched television - incorrect
This would mean that Maria did four things- spent her quarantine indoors, read books, listened to music and watched television.
read books, listened to music, and watched television- describes how she spent her quarantine period indoors and hence must be separated from the main verb in the sentence.
Maria spent her entire quarantine period indoors, reading books, listening to music,
and watching television- Correct