parallelism

1 Improve the texts below by correcting all the non-parallel elements in the following paragraphs.

Intermediate

She was a successful businesswoman, a member of a rock band (1)and women’s soccer is also her passion. Who is this superstar? It’s none other than Barbie doll. A little hard to believe, but the Barbie doll started out as a human being! She was Barbara Handler, the daughter of Ruth and Elliot Handler.

In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter, Barbara, and her girlfriends (2)are enjoying playing with adult female dolls as much or more than with baby dolls. Handler felt that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become, (3)and also for them to focus on what caring for children might be like.

Handler observed that all the adult dolls available were either made of paper (4)and cardboard so she decided to create a three-dimensional adult female doll (5)that was both lifelike and serves as an inspiration for her daughter’s dreams of her future. Handler took her idea to the ad executives at Mattel Corp., the company that she and her husband, Eliot, had founded in their garage some years before. The all-male committee rejected the idea as too expensive and (6)it was said that there was little potential for wide market appeal.

Sometime later, Handler returned from Europe with a “Lilli” doll, modelled after a character in a German comic strip. Handler was so inspired by this doll that she not only spent hours creating a doll similar to Lilli, (7)and also she hired a designer to make realistic doll clothes. The result was the Barbie doll (named after the Handlers’ daughter) a pint-sized model of the “girl-next-door”.

Mattel finally agreed to back Handler’s efforts; and the Barbie doll debuted at the American Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. Girls clamoured for the doll and a new sales record (8)was set for Mattel in its first year on the market (351,000 dolls, at $3 each). Today the Barbie product line is the most successful in the history of the toy industry.

The first Barbie doll sported a ponytail hairstyle, black and white zebra-striped bathing suit, open-toed shoes, (9)and she also wore sunglasses and earrings. Buyers at the industry’s annual Toy Fair in New York were not impressed by the Barbie doll, but (10)she certainly impressed little girls. In fact, the Barbie doll took retailers by storm. Mattel was so swamped with orders that it took several years for supply to catch up with demand.

Key:

She was a successful businesswoman, a member of a rock band (1) and a women’s soccer enthusiast. Who is this superstar? It’s none other than Barbie doll. A little hard to believe, but the Barbie doll started out as a human being! She was Barbara Handler, the daughter of Ruth and Elliot Handler.

In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter, Barbara, and her girlfriends (2) were enjoying playing with adult female dolls as much or more than with baby dolls. Handler felt that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become, (3) as it was for them to focus on what caring for children might be like.

Handler observed that all the adult dolls available were either made of paper (4) or cardboard so she decided to create a three-dimensional adult female doll (5) that was both lifelike and served as an inspiration for her daughter’s dreams of her future. Handler took her idea to the ad executives at Mattel Corp., the company that she and her husband, Eliot, had founded in their garage some years before. The all-male committee rejected the idea as too expensive and (6) said that there was little potential for wide market appeal.