Hello Everyone!
Let's take a closer look at this question, one issue at a time, to determine the correct answer as quickly as possible! To get started, here is the original question, with the main differences between each option highlighted in orange:
Many experts regarded the increase in credit card borrowing in March not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely handle new debt.
A. rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
B. yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to
C. but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely
D. but as a sign that households were confident they could safely
E. but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to
If you look closely at the entire sentence, you can see there is a phrase that starts with "not as...," which is an indication that we have to deal with idiomatic structure!
The idiom we're working with today is this:
not X, but Y
Both X and Y in the idiom must be worded using parallel wording or structure:
I am not crying, but laughing. --> OK
I am not crying, but also I'm laughing too. --> WRONG
Let's go through each option and figure out which use parallel structure and wording, and which ones do not. To make this easier to see, I've added the first half of the idiom:
A. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, rather a sign of confidence by households that they could safely --> WRONG (Doesn't use the "not X, but Y" idiomatic structure or parallel phrasing of "not as X, but as Y.")
B. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, yet as a sign of households' confidence that it was safe for them to --> WRONG (While it uses parallel wording, it still doesn't stick to the "not X, but Y" format - it replaces "but" with "yet," which isn't how the idiom works.)
C. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but a sign of confidence by households that they could safely --> WRONG (While it does use the "not X, but Y" format, the X and Y in the idiom aren't worded the same. They should both follow the "not as a sign...but as a sign" format to be parallel.)
D. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but as a sign that households were confident they could safely --> CORRECT (This is correct because it follows the "not X, but Y" idiom format, and it uses parallel structure for both X and Y!)
E. not as a sign that households were pressed for cash and forced to borrow, but also as a sign that households were confident in their ability safely to --> WRONG (This sentence actually mixes two idiom structures together: "not X, but Y" and "not only X, but also Y." This creates a parallelism issue, so it's wrong.)
Well, there you go! Option D is the correct option because it's the only one that uses the idiomatic structure "not X, but Y" correctly!
Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
