According to anthropologists, the use of human language covers a wide spectrum from practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy within a social group.
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy
communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishing of hierarchy
communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to hierarchy established
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy

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I went with C because it corrects communication and "establishing of". In the answer E, the "establishment of" sounds tricky; because establishment has somewhat different meaning. He rebelled against establishment, for example, can not be replaced by he rebelled against the establishing of.
But the correct answer is E. Please explain (the explanation provided misses of after establishing in choice C).

I have another question on this SC.
Is the use of "between" correct here?
Should it not be "communication among people" instead of "communication between people"?

Although both "establishment" and "establishing" can be used as nouns, you don't want to put a "the" in front of "establishing". Do you ever talk about "the swimming" or "the walking"? :) "Communication" here is properly parallel to "establishment" as they are both non-participle nouns. Your example about rebelling is a red herring, because is does not use "establishment" in the same way as it is used in E. To answer the other person's question, it all depends on who is doing the communicating. We can talk about communication between people if we assume that the typical communication occurs between two people rather than among three or more. Either "between" or "among" could be correct depending on the intent of the writer, although they convey different meanings.

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

According to anthropologists, the use of human language covers a wide spectrum from practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy within a social group.

a) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy

b) communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy

c) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishing of hierarchy

d) communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to hierarchy established

e) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy


CAT explanations tell that an action noun - communication - cannot be made parallel to simple gerund phrase - establishing......

BUT then it also says that an action noun - communication - can be made parallel to another action noun - establishment - as used in (e) AND also to another complex gerund phrase such as in choice (d)

What is the difference between a complex and simple gerund phrase and how to identify them?

This information is explained in our sentence correction book. Please refer to that section, and then we’ll be happy to answer questions about any issues that didn’t make sense to you in the book..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor