SC - Idiom and Parallelism

karthikpandian19 wrote:While looking over the records of some job firms, analysts discovered that bosses usually gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those who attended top-ranked universities.


(A) gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those

(B) gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but were choosing to hire those

(C) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those

(D) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but had chosen to hire those

(E) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but they chose to hire those

IMO C

While looking over the records of some job firms, analysts discovered that bosses usually gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those who attended top-ranked universities.

(A) gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those
(B) gave preference not to applicants who attended community colleges but were choosing to hire those
(C) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those
(D) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but had chosen to hire those
(E) did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but they chose to hire those
not X but Y - we need X and Y to be parallel
A - not parallel - we have chose to in second part we dont have a similar verb in first part after not
B- not parallel - we dont have anything parallel for were in first part
C - looks parallel . not prefer ...but chose.....
D- had is second part indicates that he chose before he preferred . not the intention of original sentence
E - they is not required and could be ambiguous (can refers to applicants or bosses)
IMO:C

whats the OA

OA is C

abcgmat wrote:
C - looks parallel . not prefer ...but chose.....

Hi Abcgmat,

Although you have correctly pointed that this question tests parallelism, I think the parts of the sentence identified by you are not actually parallel. Instead, the parallelism lies between,

While looking over the records of some job firms, analysts discovered that bosses usually did not prefer applicants who attended community colleges but chose to hire those who attended top-ranked universities.

In my opinion, the parts marked in blue color are parallel. I understand that you pointed out the parallelism by Not X but Y idiom. I think the structure X but Y best fits here.

Please help me understand if I am wrong.

Bosses did not prefer... Bosses chose...

I will go with (C)

Hi Bubliiii,

I am not sure If I conveyed my message correcly.
C has the below structure
C- bosses did not prefer applicants (who...) but (did) chose to hire applicants (who..)

Not X but Y
I still feel the X,Y to be parallel are 'prefer' and 'chose'

abcgmat wrote:Hi Bubliiii,

I am not sure If I conveyed my message correcly.
C has the below structure
C- bosses did not prefer applicants (who...) but (did) chose to hire applicants (who..)

Not X but Y
I still feel the X,Y to be parallel are 'prefer' and 'chose'

Hi abcgmat,

I understood the message the way you wanted to convey. Please re-read my post above.

Hope it helps.