Which sentence demonstrates parallelism?

• A. She likes reading, writing, and painting.
• B. She likes reading, to write, and painting.
• C. She likes reading, writing, and to paint.
• D. She likes read, writing, and painting.

Answer: (A)

Parallel structure means items in a list share the same form. After the verb likes, the three activities should be written the same way. Using reading, writing, and painting keeps all three as -ing forms (gerunds), so the sentence reads evenly and clearly because each item is the same kind of word.

This works best because reading, writing, and painting all function as nouns formed from verbs, representing activities. The other options mix different forms: one uses an infinitive (to write) along with gerunds, another uses an infinitive (to paint) with gerunds, and another starts with a base verb (read) while the rest are -ing forms. These mismatched forms disrupt the smooth, balanced rhythm of the list.