Sentence Correction

IMO D.
Correct Idiom used. In A, "also" is required. Whenever we use "not only" its with the intention of emphasizing on something wherein the word/phrase after "not only" and after "but also" both add to the emphasis..

So also is a must..

In D, "prove to be" and "both x and y" are correct idioms.. and the meaning of the sentence isn't changed..

Probably I am not able to understand what OG meant to say in the similar situation in Q216 of OG-10.

For kicking out option D.....OG says that "choice D is not parallel". Please note that OG is not kicking out D because of "also" missing. But for kicking out E, OG says that the same is not idiomatic.

As per the above explanation of OG what I interpret is that "also" is optional for "not only X but [also] Y"

Can someone please tell what I am missing here ?

The following is the question for quick reference.

==============================================
Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.
(A) helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(B) helps the control of the employer's costs, and also
(C) not only helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(D) helps to control not only the employer's costs, but
(E) not only helps to control the employer's costs, and also helps

Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.
(A) helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(B) helps the control of the employer's costs, and also
(C) not only helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(D) helps to control not only the employer's costs, but
(E) not only helps to control the employer's costs, and also helps

yes D is not parallel...

D says Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps to control not only the employer's costs, but to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.

See the bolded part. not only X but [also] Y, this idiom has been used but wrongly
In E, all-in-all wrong idiom has been used, not only...and also....

dumb.doofus wrote:IMO D.
Correct Idiom used. In A, "also" is required. Whenever we use "not only" its with the intention of emphasizing on something wherein the word/phrase after "not only" and after "but also" both add to the emphasis..

So also is a must..

In D, "prove to be" and "both x and y" are correct idioms.. and the meaning of the sentence isn't changed..

Hi dumb.doofus,

I was also of the same opinion. But looking at some of the OG explanations, it looks to me that OG says "also" is optional.

As far as I remember....Kaplan too says that "also" is optional.

Please tell what I am missing here...or mixing two different concepts.

Thanks
Mohit

goelmohit2002 wrote:

rahulg83 wrote: because it's a preposition phrase 'of' and noun after preposition can't be subject of the sentence.

Thanks Rahul,

Can you please tell a bit more about this rule....how does this subject etc....changes the equation.

Please help.

Thanks
Mohit

Can someone please comment on this ?

goelmohit2002 wrote:Probably I am not able to understand what OG meant to say in the similar situation in Q216 of OG-10.

For kicking out option D.....OG says that "choice D is not parallel". Please note that OG is not kicking out D because of "also" missing. But for kicking out E, OG says that the same is not idiomatic.

As per the above explanation of OG what I interpret is that "also" is optional for "not only X but [also] Y"

Can someone please tell what I am missing here ?

The following is the question for quick reference.

==============================================
Many policy experts say that shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers.
(A) helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(B) helps the control of the employer's costs, and also
(C) not only helps to control the employer's costs, but also helps
(D) helps to control not only the employer's costs, but
(E) not only helps to control the employer's costs, and also helps

You can read the explanation from this angle..

Shifting a portion of health-benefit costs back to the workers does two things:
1. helps to control the employer's costs - X
2. helps to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers - Y

Idiom is - not only X, but also Y

As you can see, D changes the meaning of the sentence by taking "helps to control" out of the idiom.. Now it seems that "helps to control" applies to both X and Y and that is incorrect..

Why the explanation says that D is not parallel because in D:
X - Employer's cost
Y - to limit medical spending by making patients more careful consumers

and so X and Y are not parallel.. for them to be parallel, X also needs to be something like "to.. "

Hope it is clear now.. I don't know the answer to the question, but as you can see the only feasible answer seems to be option C

Thanks dumb.doofus. Yes the OA is C.

Yes parallelism issue is clearly there.

But what confuses me is why OG goes so far about parallelism etc....

Why can't it just simply say that D is unidiomatic.....exactly the same it says for E.

OG clearly say that E is non idiomatic. But the same is not said by OG for D.

Can you please tell whether I am missing something that OG want to convey ?

Hey Guys,

I just looked into the net for this not only X but [also] confusion.

It indeed looks like "also" is optional.

Please see the below links where Manhattan Instructors suggest that "also" is optional.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/by- ... t1459.html
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/con ... t3680.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/idiom-not-on ... t9913.html

My bet was on D:

an inanimate object cannot do much--it cannot prove anything. So the X...can be proven to be....

lunarpower wrote:

mittalashwani13 wrote:OG says only in the explanation of #241 that not only ...but also is preferable over not only ...but [also] ....but i never saw a single problem where i can found not only ...but [also] is deemed correct...

But ...It is a matter of caution ...because on the Standard English,

Not only ...but [also] is correct ...also you can use synonym for "also" such as "as well" , "too" etc...

Not Only ...[but] also is also correct ...

And and and...

Not only ... is also correct in some of the cases ...

BUT AS FAR AS GMAT is Concerned ....GMAT never tested the incomplete idiom. GMAT always tested Not only ...but also construction...

here's an official problem (from GMATPrep software) on which "not only ... but", without the "also", is used
(from another forum)

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/by- ... t1459.html

so that should settle the issue.

i'll go look at this #241. which edition of the o.g. are you using? 11th or 12th?

Thanks a lot Ron!!

In that case which is the best option for the question at hand:

As a result of surging economic indicators, most analysts upgraded thre company's stock to a strong "buy" ignoring the advice of the head of a watchdog organization who warned that the company's product would prove not only dangerous but ineffective in the long run.

A. who warned that the company's product would prove not only dangerous but

B. warning that the company's product would prove not only dangerous and also

C. Warning that the company's product would prove itself to be both dangerous and

D who warned that the company's product would prove to be both dangerous and

E. who was warning that the company's product would prove not only dangerous but

Thanks Ron for the reply.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/by- ... t1459.html

I remember reading this stuff about nitrogen on NYTimes... the guys at NYTimes have a habit of using not only..but

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/scien ... ormed.html

i'll go look at this #241. which edition of the o.g. are you using? 11th or 12th?

It's actually in OG-10 ...

lunarpower wrote:

mittalashwani13 wrote: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/scien ... ormed.html

did you notice that the sentence with "not only ... but" in the cited article actually contains incorrect parallelism?

yes...just dig into the website and you will notice plenty of such kind of errors ... one has to figure out the way of filtering the good out of bad writing [:(] ... any recommendations for good publications which doesn't require extra efforts to separate good from bad?