Sentence Correction

By offering lower prices and a menu of personal communications options, such as caller identification and voice mail, the new telecommunications company has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced them to offer competitive prices.

(A) has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced them
(B) has not only captured customers from other phone companies, but it also forced them
(C) has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced these companies
(D) not only has captured customers from other phone companies but also these companies have been forced
(E) not only captured customers from other phone companies, but it also has forced them

OA C

Hi simplyjat:

This one uses a very common GMAT idiom, "not only.... but also". Answers B and E do not use the correct idiom since they insert the word "it" between the "but also".

Next, this is a list, and lists need to be parallel. So, the sentence needs to say "not only captured... but also forced". Answer D does not do this, so it is incorrect.

Finally, answer A uses the ambiguous pronoun "them" - is "them" the customers? The options? The companies? We can't tell.

Therefore, the answer is C.

I agree with the answer, but not the reason why (b) and (e) are wrong.

There will be cases in which we insert a word between "but" and "also", but only when doing so is necessary to preserve the meaning or paralellism of the rest of the sentence.

For example:

"Not only does Bob go to the gym 3 mornings a week, but he also runs on the weekend."

Of course, we also could have said:

"Bob not only goes to the gym 3 mornings a week, but also runs on the weekend."

Either of those sentences could appear on the GMAT (and we wouldn't have to choose between them).

The real problem with (b) and (e) is the ambiguous pronoun "them", which could refer to either customers or companies.

In this particular sentence, we don't want "it" between "but" and "also" because the antecedent (company) comes BEFORE "not only". If the company had come AFTER not only, then the it would have been appropriate.

In other words, if the sentence had begun:

"... not only has the company captured..."

then the second part would have read:

"... but it also forced...".

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for chiming in. Good point about the "them" in B and E - I think that's also a good error to focus on, since the "them" problem appears in other answer choices as well.

As for the technical discussion of the idiom, I think your thorough explanation is great for study purposes. However, I try not to get students caught up in lots of grammatical details - my experience has been that students are better off remembering 10 rules that work 90% of the time than 100 rules that work 100% of the time, if that makes sense. On the actual test, I don't think students have time to go through such a technical thought process.

Just my two cents!

..

By offering lower prices and a menu of personal communications options, such as caller identification and voice mail, the new telecommunications company has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced them to offer competitive prices.

(A) has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced them

"Them " -- customers or companies: OUT
(B) has not only captured customers from other phone companies, but it also forced them
out -- wrong idiom
(C) has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced these companies
Correct

(D) not only has captured customers from other phone companies but also these companies have been forced

Passive
(E) not only captured customers from other phone companies, but it also has forced them

incorrect idiom

Simplyjat

Hi, I know this is an old question, but i have a query,

in choice A, Them should refer to the noun closest to it, therefore, them should refer to companies right? Why should "them" refer to the customers?

Can some one please elaborate?

mohit11 wrote:Hi, I know this is an old question, but i have a query,

in choice A, Them should refer to the noun closest to it, therefore, them should refer to companies right? Why should "them" refer to the customers?

Can some one please elaborate?

That's the reason why A is wrong brother.

C correctly makes it by saying "these companies "

No, what i am trying to convey here is that..

'Them' refers to the companies, which is what "them" should refer to, therefore Choice A is correct.

mohit11 wrote:No, what i am trying to convey here is that..

'Them' refers to the companies, which is what "them" should refer to, therefore Choice A is correct.

In this case "them" can refer to customers and also can refer to companies(or also can refer to collectively both of them) ...it is quite ambiguous.

You said it correctly that - pronoun should be always close to the noun. But this is only in case of simple sentence.

The above sentence is a complex sentence with "not only......but also" .

The ambiguity increases in complex sentence and we cannot always refer pronoun to its nearest noun.

Hope you get it.

Ermm, i'll keep that in mind. Thanks

C it is.

In choice C
"has not only captured customers from other phone companies but also forced these companies"

There is no comma before but

In "not only...but also", do we not always need comma in between?

easily C

When I tried to solve this question, I was looking for parallel verbs and did not find them in any solution.
Solution C: "has captured" - present perfect tense and "forced" - past tense.

Now I figured that maybe the "has" from "has captured" also refers to "forced", making it "has forced", because the "not only" comes in between, "has not only captured"

Is that reasoning correct?

Thank you