Couple of things to start with : Notice the comparison, the earliest writing was probably not x, but y. Here the x,y should be parallel.

Intrusive "it" in D and E make these choices wrong.

given the construction, began as seems right construction rather began from. SO C too is out.

Contenders are A and B.

more than likely in B is awkward. So I choose A .

chendawg wrote:According to scholars, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but was more likely to begin as a separate and distinct symbolic system of communication, and only later merged with spoken language.

A. was more likely to begin as
B. more than likely began as
C. more than likely beginning from
D. it was more than likely begun from
E. it was more likely that it began

Source: OG12

OA after some discussion.

I would go with B because of the past tense began in order to keep the sentence parallel. Wats the OA?

A wrong tense
C awkward
D & E ambiguous "it"

Are you sure abt the tense issue Where? Do not say me "begin" infinitives are always base formed

aspirant2011 wrote:I would go with B because of the past tense began in order to keep the sentence parallel. Wats the OA?

A wrong tense
C awkward
D & E ambiguous "it"

Hi Maihuna,

In A if you read it says "was more likely to begin as" and in the second part "only later merged"................both these things are not at all parallel and thats why I went for B option..............

If that is the case you are thinking too far. Why dont u look closer, in another non-underlined part, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but was more likely to begin as a separate ?

aspirant2011 wrote:Hi Maihuna,

In A if you read it says "was more likely to begin as" and in the second part "only later merged"................both these things are not at all parallel and thats why I went for B option..............

hi guys my vote for B
clearly D and E are out
c) a rendering of is not || with beginning, noun can never be || with gerund
a) also not ||
they try to test idiom not .....but, i agree with previous posters,
was not a rendering of, but was more.....this form is not ||, we don`t need second was, as first was stands before not
though i think B is also is not perfect, it is best then others
also i don`t think that tense is an issue here, correct me if i am wrong

OA is B.

According to the GMAC, the main points here are parallelism (the verbs.....The earliest writing was......began......merged) and idioms (probably not x but more than likely y).

A. Not idiomatic
B. Correct
C. Beginning from not a verb
D. it is ambiguous and begun is the wrong tense
E. it is ambiguous

I personally didn't really see the parallelism markers when I was doing the problem, but I guess that's what makes this problem tough.