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Vasudha: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 46; Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:24 am; Location: Notre Dame; Thanked: 1 times

by Vasudha » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:36 am

Is this some kind of a software error? 'C' clearly violates the idiom "not only...but also"..!!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:36 am

aks19: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:58 am

by aks19 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 11:27 am

Interesting question.

I think the only problem in E is the extra "coma" which creates sentence fragment.

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Vasudha: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 46; Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:24 am; Location: Notre Dame; Thanked: 1 times

by Vasudha » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:34 pm

'E' seems correct in every aspect. It also uses comma and the coordinating conjunction "but" appropriately to avoid a fragment.

I dont know what have I missed. Is there still any other reason that 'E' is wrong...

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:33 pm

Strange about C. I have seen writers use "not only X but Y" in the real world but it's rare - and I have never seen the test do that.

E technically breaks the idiom too, though. It says

"were not only able to... but they were also able to..."

Correct usage should be "were not only X but also Y"

If I had had to choose on this one, I'd probably have gone with E also. You should email them and ask! (And let us know if they reply!)

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gkammaje: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 64; Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:32 am; Location: Phoenix; Thanked: 1 times

by gkammaje » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:27 pm

This is an old GMAT PREP question.... Any thoughts on this? :roll:

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:17 am

Since I first posted (wow - almost 2 years ago now!), I have seen the test use the "not only X but Y" setup (omitting the "also"), so the GMAT writers apparently think this idiom is an acceptable alternative. As such, I would've been wrong in picking E. Both C and E contain acceptable idioms, but E breaks parallelism and C doesn't... so C wins.

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Umar82: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 21; Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 9:41 am; Thanked: 1 times

by Umar82 » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:08 pm

Thanks Stacey,

BTW what "breaks" the parallel structure in "E". Is it the "they were" between the "but also" that creates the false structure?

I guess a corrected version would be: "were not only able to transform the gas into a solid, but also to create . . "??

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pmFollowed by: 694 members; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:00 am

You've got it!

In a double idiom (not only X but Y), the part before the idiom starts (so before "not only") must apply equally to both X and Y. We've got:

Scientists were not only X (able to...) but Y (they were also...).

Scientists were able to blah blah blah. That's okay.
Scientists were they were also able to. That's not okay.

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