In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier

[frank_le]

In the 18th century, Antoine Lavoisier demonstrated that combustion consumes oxygen; previously, many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance that was believed to extinguish flames.

a) consumes oxygen; previously, many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance that was believed to extinguish flames

b) consumed oxygen, and many scientists had previously believed that phlogiston was an imaginary substance released by combustion, which extinguished flames

c) consumes oxygen; phlogiston was previously an imaginary substance that was believed to extinguish flames and that many scientists had believed was released by combustion

d) consumed oxygen; phlogiston, an imaginary substance that extinguished flames, was believed by scientists to be released by combustion

e) consumes oxygen; previously, many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released by combustion and was an imaginary substance that was believed to extinguish flames

OA A

I apologize if my question may seem rudimentary, but is it correct to connect the parallelism between "combustion consumes oxygen" to the incorrect parallelism of the rest of the answers which state that "phlogiston is released from combustion?" Or did I just luckily stumble upon that reasoning?

[ganile]

In above sentence (src MGMT :CAT 4), doesn't the use of "Previously" clearly state that "believed" happened before "demonstrated"? Don't we use past perfect to make sequence of events clear? Please help

[tim]

Frank, you got lucky by applying parallelism in an inappropriate context. There is nothing requiring these elements of the sentence to be parallel. Remember, unless you see a parallel marker, parallelism is a non-issue..

Ganile: yes, and yes. I don’t see what seems to be the problem..