Parallelism Question - What elments are parallel .

[goelnikhils]

The boom in agricultural exports in the early 1970s emptied United States grain bins and many were led to thinking that overproduction was now a problem of the past.

A. many were led to thinking that overproduction was now

B. many had been led to thinking of overproduction as if it were

C. the thought this led to was that overproduction had become

D. led many to the thought of overproduction as if it were

E. led many to think that overproduction had become

Source of the problem - I got it from one of the GMAT Blogs.

OA - E .

I was right in OA however I have confusion in this question.

As 'and' is there in the sentence what elements are parallel . I was not able to identfy them. Is emptied and led parallel as they are both past participle .

Pls help.

[RonPurewal]

FYI, you forgot to underline "now" in the original.

As 'and' is there in the sentence what elements are parallel . I was not able to identfy them. Is emptied and led parallel as they are both past participle .

Pls help.

yes, "emptied" and "led" are parallel.

these are not participles! they are verbs, in the past tense. in fact, "emptied ... and led" is the main verb of the sentence!