Question

(1) Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by pilgrims who are journeying to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. (2) Such pilgrimages were common in the Middle Ages. (3) They often served to bring people from different backgrounds together. (4) Chaucer's pilgrims, who form such a heterogeneous group, include representative medieval social classes, but they are also presented as real people with real biographies. (5) Chaucer's pilgrims are introduced to the reader in "The Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales. (6) By describing people from all walks of life, the narrator of "The Prologue" paints a picture of fourteenth-century England. (7) The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society: the nobility, clergy, learned professions, skilled workers, tradesmen, and laborers. (8) Each pilgrim represents a group. (9) Perhaps that is why the narrator does not refer to them by their names. (10) He instead identifies the pilgrims by their class, like the Knight; or by their occupation, like the Merchant; or by their situation in life, like the Wife of Bath. (11) The first pilgrim the narrator introduces is the Knight. (12) The treatment of this nobleman is a good example of how the narrator combines the general and the particular. (13) He starts by describing the Knight as a "worthy" man. (14) This quality might seem ordinary to a modern reader. (15) One modern translation renders this term as "excellent" and another as "most distinguished." (16) Some of the other qualities the narrator attributes to the Knight, such as chivalry, are also indefinite to a modern reader.(17) But the narrator doesn't stop with these rather generic qualities; he also presents the Knight as an individual. (18) This nobleman becomes much more than a mere fact of social history. (19) The narrator describes the Knight's military career in very specific detail. (20) He mentions all the foreign places where the Knight has fought, both near and far, such as Spain, Egypt, Turkey, and Russia. (21) The narrator also depicts him fighting fiercely in tournaments, which were a knight's dangerous recreation, and in which the Knight "always killed his foe." (22) However, despite all his soldiering, this tough, deadly fighter has remained as "meek as a maiden." (23) In this way, the Knight becomes more than a mere role model for chivalrous behavior. (24) He starts to exist as a real person with a full biography.

Question
Which is the best way to revise the syntax of sentence 7 using parallel structure?
Select one:
a. The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society. These include the nobility, clergy, learned professions, skilled workers, tradesmen, and laborers.
b. The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society-from the nobility and clergy, to learned professions and skilled workers, to the tradesmen and laborers.
c. The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society. The reader meets the nobility, clergy, learned professions, skilled workers, tradesmen, and laborers.
d. The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society. There are the nobility and clergy. There are learned professions and skilled workers. There are tradesmen and laborers.

Answer 1

The revision of sentence 7 retaining clear, consistent and parallel structure is accomplished by option B.

Step-by-step explanation:

The best way to revise sentence 7 from The Canterbury Tales using parallel structure is option B, which reads: "The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society-from the nobility and clergy, to learned professions and skilled workers, to tradesmen and laborers."

This option uses a hyphen to introduce a list and maintains a consistent pattern for naming the social groups, thereby improving the sentence with a clear and parallel structure that successfully conveys the diversity of characters presented by Geoffrey Chaucer.

In sentence 7, the best way to revise the syntax while maintaining parallel structure is option b: "The Canterbury Tales displays the entire range of medieval society-from the nobility and clergy, to learned professions and skilled workers, to the tradesmen and laborers."

This option uses parallelism by listing different groups within medieval society in a consistent manner, making the sentence clear and concise.