Many experts regarded the large increase

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Many experts regarded the large increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.

A) rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely

B) yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to

C) but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely

D) but as a sign that households were confident they could safely

E) but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to

D

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by fabiocafarelli » Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:05 am

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The easiest way to resolve this question is through the correlative conjunctions NOT ... BUT that appear in the given sentence. Like other correlative conjunctions, these must be followed by a parallel structure.

Eliminate A because not as a sign ... rather a sign omits BUT and is not parallel.

Eliminate B because not as a sign ... yet as a sign replaces BUT incorrectly with YET.

Eliminate C because not as a sign ... but a sign lacks the AS that would make it parallel.

Keep D because not as a sign ... but as a sign uses the correct correlative form and is parallel.

Eliminate E because not as a sign ... but also as a sign replaces BUT incorrectly with BUT ALSO. (NOT ONLY ... BUT ALSO is correct, but NOT ... BUT ALSO is not correct.)

The correct answer therefore has to be option D. There are other ways in which this question could be resolved, but I think that the matter of the correlative conjunctions provides the quickest and surest solution.

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by OptimusPrep » Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:49 pm

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boomgoesthegmat wrote:Many experts regarded the large increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.

A) rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely

B) yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to

C) but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely

D) but as a sign that households were confident they could safely

E) but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to

D
This question is testing the idiom "not X but Y" and we need to take care that the form of X and Y is same.
We have "not as a" in the non - underlined portion, therefore we need the same in the underlined portion too.

Only one option has this.
Correct Option: D

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Hi Experts,

I want to understand how in the option below the independent clause - They could safely- is connected to the previous clause:

D) but as a sign that households were confident they could safely

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by fiza gupta » Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:24 am

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\when the meaning of sentence is clear, "That" can be omitted
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by [email protected] » Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:14 am

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Hi Fiza,

Thanks for your reply. Can you share some official question examples to show this?

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by fiza gupta » Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:07 am

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below question is from "GMAT default pack"

Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns the Record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains, announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed
B. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales
C. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales
D. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores
E. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed

OA:C
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by [email protected] » Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:02 pm

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Hello Everyone!

Let's take a closer look at this question, one issue at a time, to determine the correct answer as quickly as possible! To get started, here is the original question, with the main differences between each option highlighted in orange:

Many experts regarded the increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.

A. rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
B. yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to
C. but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
D. but as a sign that households were confident they could safely
E. but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to

If you look closely at the entire sentence, you can see there is a phrase that starts with "not as...," which is an indication that we have to deal with idiomatic structure!

The idiom we're working with today is this:

not X, but Y

Both X and Y in the idiom must be worded using parallel wording or structure:

I am not crying, but laughing. --> OK
I am not crying, but also I'm laughing too. --> WRONG

Let's go through each option and figure out which use parallel structure and wording, and which ones do not. To make this easier to see, I've added the first half of the idiom:

A. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely --> WRONG (Doesn't use the "not X, but Y" idiomatic structure or parallel phrasing of "not as X, but as Y.")

B. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to --> WRONG (While it uses parallel wording, it still doesn't stick to the "not X, but Y" format - it replaces "but" with "yet," which isn't how the idiom works.)

C. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely --> WRONG (While it does use the "not X, but Y" format, the X and Y in the idiom aren't worded the same. They should both follow the "not as a sign...but as a sign" format to be parallel.)

D. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but as a sign that households were confident they could safely --> CORRECT (This is correct because it follows the "not X, but Y" idiom format, and it uses parallel structure for both X and Y!)

E. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to --> WRONG (This sentence actually mixes two idiom structures together: "not X, but Y" and "not only X, but also Y." This creates a parallelism issue, so it's wrong.)

Well, there you go! Option D is the correct option because it's the only one that uses the idiomatic structure "not X, but Y" correctly!


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