karthikpandian19 wrote:A late 19th century newspaper article targeted at readers desiring to increase their musical knowledge recommended reading books that were written not for musicians who have been trained professionally, which was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but music lovers who are not familiar with the technical terminology used in those publications.

(A) written not for musicians who have been trained professionally, which was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but

(B) written not for professionally-trained musicians, the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but

(C) written not for professionally-trained musicians, as was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but for

(D) not written for professionally-trained musicians, which was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but were written for

(E) not written for musicians who have been trained professionally, the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but for

Usage of IDIOM "NOT X..BUT Y.."

Here the challenged lies in identifying X AND Y (as Y is hidden behind series of modifiers).

A - NOT for musicians...., which...century, BUT MUSIC (note Y STARTS with a NOUN and therefore X should also start with NOUN). Drop as X is a prep phrase. Same for B

D - were NOT WRITTEN FOR....BUT WERE WRITTEN FOR music (X = VERBAL + PREP PH; Y = VERB + PREP PH); drop

E - were NOT WRITTEN FOR....BUT FOR music (X = VERBAL + PREP PH; Y = PREP PH); drop

IMO C

Furthermore usage of WHICH in A/D - wrong;

E - musicians who have been trained professionally IS WORDIER THAN professionally-trained musicians. IMO "THE CASE...CENTURY" does not modify the logical preceding clause (in this case is "who have...professionally")

The correct answer should be C. Let me explain:

(A) written not for musicians who have been trained professionally, which was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but
"have been" : for past tense agreement, it should be either "had been" or "were". Even then, it is unnecessarily wordy. Also "not for" should be parallel with "but for", but the "for" has been omitted. NO.

(B) written not for professionally-trained musicians, the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but
This clears the "have been" and conciseness problem, but "not for" doesn't have a parallel "for" after "but". NO.

(C) written not for professionally-trained musicians, as was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but for
This is correct. It is concise and "not for" and "but for" are parallel YES.

(D) not written for professionally-trained musicians, which was the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but were written for
Conciseness OK. Parallelism problem: "not written for" is not parallel with "but were written for". NO.
For this one to be correct (and parallel), it should only have been "but".

(E) not written for musicians who have been trained professionally, the case with many of the publications in circulation during the early part of the century, but for
Again, this one is not concise, wrong tense, and "not written for" is not parallel with "but for". NO.

Let me know if this helps

Great explanation guys.....

Thanks


OA is C

OE is :

This sentence displays a parallel construction error.

Books that were written not for....but music lovers is not parallel. When using a coordinated construction like not..but the items compared must be in parallel form, but for musicians is a prepositional phrase and music lovers is a noun.

Options B, D, and E retain the comparison error; not for....but for music lovers (B) is not parallel, not written...but were written (D) is not parallel, and not written...but for (E) is not parallel.

Option D also contains a modification error; musicians, which was the case is incorrect because which was the case does not modify musicians.

Choice C is parallel: not for professionally-trained musicians...but for music lovers, and this option eliminates an unnecesasry wordy relative clause: musicians who have been trained professionally can be shortened to professionally-trained musicians.

The correct answer is C.