Identify the best parallel element in this sentence from douglass' speech
"{they} have emerged at the end of two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving"
a. "two hundred and fifty years"
b. "two hundred and fifty years of bondage, not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful."
c. "of bondage, not morose."
d. "not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving."

d. "not morose, misanthropic, and revengeful, but cheerful, hopeful, and forgiving."

Parallel structure is using the same grammatical structure for elements in a list. This helps with the flow of the sentence and ideas, as well as aids the reader in seeing how the items are similar or different. In this case, the items in both lists are written as adjectives. This allows the reader to see the similarities among the that are grouped together and how the contrast to each other across the conjunction "but". The phrase "two hundred and fifty years" is not part of parallel structure in this sentence.

answer: this is not a good thesis statement because a thesis statement is not supposed to have questions in it. a thesis states your position on your topic. a question cannot state anything because it is not a statement. a question is a great lead in to a thesis, but it can't be the thesis.

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