James enjoys writing books, playing soccer, and burgers. Which change can improve the sentence above?

James enjoys writing books, playing soccer, and burgers. Which change can improve the sentence above?

• A. Delete the word "playing".
• B. Add the word "eating" before burgers.
• C. Remove the words "writing" and "playing".
• D. Replace "enjoys" with "likes".

Answer: (B)

Think about rhythm and grammar when listing activities. The parts "writing books" and "playing soccer" follow a pattern: verb + object. The last item just says "burgers," a noun. If we want the list to read smoothly as things James enjoys, all items should match. Adding "eating" before burgers makes the last item "eating burgers," so the list becomes writing books, playing soccer, and eating burgers. Now each item is a verb phrase that describes an activity James enjoys, which makes the sentence clear and balanced. Deleting "playing" leaves an uneven, clunky pair and disrupts the rhythm; removing both writing and playing removes two items and leaves only "burgers"; replacing "enjoys" with "likes" doesn't fix the structure because the last item would still be a noun rather than a parallel verb phrase.

Think about rhythm and grammar when listing activities. The parts "writing books" and "playing soccer" follow a pattern: verb + object. The last item just says "burgers," a noun. If we want the list to read smoothly as things James enjoys, all items should match. Adding "eating" before burgers makes the last item "eating burgers," so the list becomes writing books, playing soccer, and eating burgers. Now each item is a verb phrase that describes an activity James enjoys, which makes the sentence clear and balanced.

Deleting "playing" leaves an uneven, clunky pair and disrupts the rhythm; removing both writing and playing removes two items and leaves only "burgers"; replacing "enjoys" with "likes" doesn't fix the structure because the last item would still be a noun rather than a parallel verb phrase.