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

I would place my bets with C...OA please

bang on target ...

Why C

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

"sprang to life not in a splash"....the usage here sounds awkward and roundabout....a better construction would be did not spring to life....hence A& B are out...

E...."were" slowly evovled alters the meaning of the sentence....

Between C and D....I settled for C because we do not need the perfect tense here

f2001290 wrote: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

A and B no paralelism is constructed in a flash of inspiration is a prepositional phrase whereas evolved is a verb. So Out
C best answer did not spring (simple past) .....but evolved (simple past) . Paralelism is established.
D Out since had slowly evolved is past perfect and distorts paralelism
E Usage of they is redundant, simple past verb required to be followed by simple past verb not with a simple past of ''be''

Hi,

I chose C and not E because C says
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

if it were slowly evolved, i would have chosen C. The adverb slowly should modify the verb evolved. It is incorrect to write 'evolved slowly' instead of 'slowly evolved'

Please let me know your views


Thank you

Correct idiom 'not X but Y' or 'not X but rather Y'

f2001290 wrote: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 - idiom error
(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved - idiom error
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly - Correct
(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved - no need of 'had', because you are not giving any time hirarchy or 'had' is not being used as past tense of 'have'
(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved - 'they' is ambiguous

sure OA is C not A ?

OG has a similar question or may be the same I believe.

GMATMadeEasy wrote:sure OA is C not A ?

OG has a similar question or may be the same I believe.

It would be really nice if you would post the OG question. But I am almost 100% sure, that A is wrong because it lacks parallelism.

the construction is:
Not X, but Y

choice A: sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
not in a flash of inspiration, but evolved slowly from previous works --> not ||
prepositional phrase || verb/simple past

Choice C: did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works
verb/simple past||verb/simple past

C looks fine to me except one thing.

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

since "slowly" is an adverb, shouldn't it precede the verb it's modifying i.e. "evolved"? Is this reason good enough not to choose it over D?

OA is C. You are right.

Vebral review 2nd Edition Question 4, it is .

reply2spg wrote:Correct idiom 'not X but Y' or 'not X but rather Y'

f2001290 wrote: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 - idiom error
(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved - idiom error
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly - Correct
(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved - no need of 'had', because you are not giving any time hirarchy or 'had' is not being used as past tense of 'have'
(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved - 'they' is ambiguous

Perfectly identified by sudhanshu ....
first is having idiom error, but it lie in the parallel construction of Not X but Y ...
same is the error in option B , Option C is perfect ... , D says evolution happened before springing into life .. E is having pronoun error; they can refer to papers or inventions ...

Hello,

what's this source SC-1000?

i just found the same question in the official guide 2017?

From D
.... did not spring implies an action in past tense.
..... but had slowly evolved implies a contrast action that took place over a period of time in the past.
In this sentence, there is no preceding main clause in past tense but can't past perfect be used, as in D, to compare actions to show contrast in both time line and action ?

gocoder wrote:From D
.... did not spring implies an action in past tense.
..... but had slowly evolved implies a contrast action that took place over a period of time in the past.
In this sentence, there is no preceding main clause in past tense but can't past perfect be used, as in D, to compare actions to show contrast in both time line and action ?

To express a PAST GENERAL TRUTH -- something that did not happen at a particular moment in the past but that was generally true in the past -- we use the SIMPLE PAST TENSE:
Mary was the tallest girl in her class.
Here, was (simple past tense) serves to express a past general truth about Mary.

OA: His inventions typically did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.
Here, did not spring and evolved (both simple past tense) serve to express a past general truth about his inventions.

D: His inventions typically did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had evolved slowly from previous works.
Here, had evolved (past perfect) cannot serve to express a past general truth about his inventions.
Eliminate D.