Honors English 10 Spring Practice Exam

Which sentence demonstrates parallel structure?

We came to learn, growing, and to help.

We came to learn, to grow, to helping.

We came to learn to grow to help.

We came to learn, to grow, and to help.

Parallel structure means keeping the same grammatical form for similar ideas in a series. In the sentence that keeps all actions in the same form, each item after the subject is an infinitive: to learn, to grow, to help. The commas separate the items, and the conjunction before the last item clearly links them as a coordinated list. This uniformity makes the sentence balanced and easy to follow.

The other options break this balance. One uses a gerund form (growing) instead of an infinitive, which disrupts the pattern. Another mixes forms with to helping, which doesn’t match the others. The last stacks verbs without keeping the same infinitive structure throughout, making the list feelChoppy and unclear.