Question

Which sentence illustrates parallel structure? The students read the instructions, were discussing how complicated they seemed, and the unanimous decision was to ignore them. The students read the instructions, discussed how complicated they seemed, and decided to ignore them. After reading the instructions, the students were discussing how complicated they seemed and decided to ignore them. The instructions were read by the students who discussed how complicated they seemed and then they decide to ignore them.

Answer 1

The students read the instructions, discussed how complicated they seemed, and decided to ignore them. 

Each verb is a direct-action verb (subject-verb-object) and is in the simple preterite tense. The verbs read, discussed, and decided all follow this structure, unlike "were reading" or "it was decided" .