At the end of the day, the prime minister

[NandishSS]

At the end of the day, the prime minister and her staff ended UP both sharing not merely a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress for the foreseeable future; also a fear that her party was losing the initiative on a number of issues.

A)ended up both sharing not merely a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress for the foreseeable future;also
B) share in common not just a pessimistic legislative progress view, but
C)both shared not only a pessimistic view of legislative progress for the foreseeable future but as well
D)ended up sharing not merely their pessimistic view of potential legislative progress, but they also shared
E)shared not only a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress, but also

Source:GMATPrep EP2

OA:E

Please explain the POE

[GMATGuruNY]

At the end of the day, the prime minister and her staff ended UP both sharing not merely a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress for the foreseeable future; also a fear that her party was losing the initiative on a number of issues.

A)ended up both sharing not merely a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress for the foreseeable future;also
B) share in common not just a pessimistic legislative progress view, but
C)both shared not only a pessimistic view of legislative progress for the foreseeable future but as well
D)ended up sharing not merely their pessimistic view of potential legislative progress, but they also shared
E)shared not only a pessimistic view of potential legislative progress, but also

A: both sharing
B: share in common
C: both shared
The prime minister and her staff share X means that they BOTH have X or that they have X IN COMMON.
Thus, the phrases above are redundant.
Eliminate A, B and C.

D: not merely THEIR PESSIMISTIC VIEW...but THEY ALSO SHARED
Here, their pessimistic view (noun phrase) and they also shared (clause) are not parallel forms.
Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

[meenakshimiyer]

A. Place of "both" should be after "sharing" as "both" here refers to the pessimistic view and the fear. So, A is wrong.
B. "but" should be followed by "also". Moreover, choice B has completely changed the words used in the original sentence. We usually prefer correcting the sentence by making least changes.
C. "not only....... But also" is the correct usage. "But as well" makes the sentence grammatically wrong. Moreover, the use of "both" before "shared" is wrong.
D. Use of "they" is redundant here.
E. This sentence made correct use of preposition. Hence, E is the answer.