<p>By the sixteenth century. the old geocentric order had been shattered by Copernicus, the moral order undermined by Montaigne, and [Machiavelli destroyed the political order]</p>
<p>D) the political order destroyed by Machiavelli
E) the political order was destroyed by Machiavelli</p>
<p>WHY IS IT D??? BOTH OF PERFECTLY PARALLEL!!</p>
<p>The “was” is unnecessary. If you look at the first two “listed” parallel clauses, there is no “was.” Nevertheless, D sounds more concise than E.</p>
<p>Well the first one was “past perfect”, the second one is “past”. So I thought “was destroyed” or “destroyed” would both be able to work.</p>
<p>Beside a lot of question isn’t about how concise the answer is, since a lot of answers are actually one of the longer ones. Short does not always make it correct.</p>
<p>This is a very good SAT question. It tests basic grammar concepts.</p>
<p>The phrase “shattered by Copernicus” is a participial phrase. Typically a participial phrase acts as an adjective. Here it modifies the noun phrase “the old geocentric order”.</p>
<p>Analogously the phrase “undermined by Montaigne” is a participial phrase. It modifies the noun phrase “the moral order”.</p>
<p>So “shattered by Copernicus” and “undermined by Montaigne” are parallel. (D) is fine.</p>
<p>However “was destroyed” is NOT a participial phrase. Here “was” is the past tense of the verb to be, and “was destroyed” is used as a passive construction … i.e. “the political order was destroyed”. It’s passive because we are not told “who” or “what” caused the political order to be destroyed.</p>
<p>You can’t combine a participial phrase and a passive verb construction in a parallel construction. So (E) is wrong.</p>
<p>Look, sorry for sounding like a newb.</p>
<p>But what about the whole “had been shattered” and “undermined”. How is that a participle phrase?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>You’re right. I didn’t look at the question with enough care. The “had been” is implicit in the phrase that starts with “the moral order.” It is also implicit in choice D. The tense in E does not match. Sorry.</p>
<p>haha. No worries! Thanks for the help! Much appreciated!</p>