<p>I'll cut right to the chase for this improving paragraphs question. (Sorry for making you have to refer to the book)</p>
<p>The correct answer choice for this question is C. I originally chose choice E.</p>
<p>(Please correct me if you feel I'm wrong on any of the following things)
I can see why choice A is wrong; it has an error in parallelism("exercising outdoors" and "just to relax"). Choice B is wrong because it has an error in parallelism also("exercising outdoors" and "relaxation"). Choice D is wrong, I don't think I need to explain why. Now, I chose choice E as being the correct choice but I was incorrect. What is the problem with choice E? Is it a problem in parallelism?(Is the problem between "outdoor exercise" and "just relaxing"? What should they be changed to?). Please give insight!!! As for choice C, I can see it as being correct because it has no errors. </p>
<p>THANKS!</p>
<p>First of all, the “as” at the beginning of the sentence shouldn’t be there, because you would say “examples would be…” not “as examples would be…”</p>
<p>Second of all, it should be “time spent exercising outdoors or just relaxing.” “To cut down on” is “to reduce.” This is arguable in the grammatical sense because many people say stuff like “cut down on eating” but since the sentence is supposed to refer to time (as sentences 4 and 5 do), E is wrong. It is wrong also because it changes the meaning of the original sentences. Its supposed to say that you will lose time that you COULD have spent or WOULD spend doing something else, not that you that you have to sacrifice those things. So it referring to cutting down the time, and not the activities (which were just examples of things you might not do during the time), is crucial. Even the sentence after (sentence 6) says “cut down on time.” You can answer questions like these without looking into the context (there will always be a grammatical error in a wrong answer), though.</p>