Sentence Correction

The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typically sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.

A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved

C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved

E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved

OAC

Hi Experts ,

Can you please advise that what is the use of DID in OA?

Also in OA spring and evolved are not parallel , because one is in simple present and the other is in past. So come this option is right?

Please explain.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ

Hi Rich ,

Thanks for your reply, but truly I still don't understand the solution.

Please shed some light on this.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ

jain2016 wrote:Hi Experts ,

Can you please advise that what is the use of DID in OA?

Did can be used as a helping verb as part of creating a negative expression.

For instance, here is a positive expression followed by a negative expression created using did.

John arrived before midnight.

John did not arrive before midnight.

Here is another example, one that uses the present form of to do, does, to go from positive to negative.

Amanda bikes to work.

Amanda does not bike to work.

Notice that in the first example the past form of the helping verb, did, is used with the present form, arrive, to create a past tense expression.

Also in OA spring and evolved are not parallel , because one is in simple present and the other is in past. So come this option is right?

While spring is the present tense form of to spring, the use of the past tense form, did, results in the creation of a past tense expression, did not spring.

Marty Murray wrote:

jain2016 wrote:Hi Experts ,

Can you please advise that what is the use of DID in OA?

Did can be used as a helping verb as part of creating a negative expression.

For instance, here is a positive expression followed by a negative expression created using did.

John arrived before midnight.

John did not arrive before midnight.

Here is another example, one that uses the present form of to do, does, to go from positive to negative.

Amanda bikes to work.

Amanda does not bike to work.

Notice that in the first example the past form of the helping verb, did, is used with the present form, arrive, to create a past tense expression.

Also in OA spring and evolved are not parallel , because one is in simple present and the other is in past. So come this option is right?

While spring is the present tense form of to spring, the use of the past tense form, did, results in the creation of a past tense expression, did not spring.

Hi Marty ,

Thanks for your reply.

Just a quick question, so how come this statement is correct. Because the correct idiom is NOT X....BUT Y..., both should be parallel right. Here, one verb is in present and the other is in past so come this is correct?

Please advise.

Many thanks in advance.

SJ

jain2016 wrote:Just a quick question, so how come this statement is correct. Because the correct idiom is NOT X....BUT Y..., both should be parallel right. Here, one verb is in present and the other is in past so come this is correct?

Hey, did you really read what I said? I answered that question already.

If you look again at what I wrote above and don't see the answer to your question, let me know and I will put it a different way.

Hi Marty ,

I got it now.

Sorry for the confusion. I got confused. Now all clear.

Thanks.

SJ

OK great. I figured that your unconfusing yourself would be better than my explaining again, almost a GMAT verbal exercise in itself.

All,

can you please tell me why option A is wrong?

vishalwin wrote:All, can you please tell me why option A is wrong?

(A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

A starts off saying that the inventions sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration.

So what follows but would logically convey how in fact they did spring to life.

For example, here's a logical contrast.

His inventions typically sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but through a methodical process.

In that example, not in a flash of inspiration but through a methodical process logically conveys the contrast between the way the inventions did not spring to life and the way the inventions did.

A is not logical in this way. Rather A starts by saying that the inventions sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration and then, rather than saying how they sprang to life, changes course to say that the inventions evolved slowly.

DID because to show past tense