The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and West

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Comparisons + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• A comparison must always be made between similar things.
• “not only A but also B” is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "quality" with the plural verb "surpass" and the plural pronoun "those". Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrases "by far surpass" and "when regarded not only in terms of", leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly compares "The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe" to "those ("pieces of blown glass"); remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things.

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "quality" with the plural verb "surpass".

D: This answer choice incorrectly compares "The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe" to "that ("the quality") of the eastern Mediterranean"; remember, a comparison must always be made between similar things. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between A ("the variety of shapes represented") and B ("in terms of decorative techniques and functionality"); remember, “not only A but also B” is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "quality" with the singular verb "surpasses" and the singular pronoun "that". Further, Option E correctly compares "The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe" with "that ("the quality") of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean". Additionally, Option E correctly maintains parallelism between A ("with regard to the variety of shapes represented") and B ("in terms of decorative techniques and functionality") in the idiomatic construction "not only A but B". Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

E is my choice

The subject is Quality and singular, needs singular verb surpasses. Hence A & C are out.

D is out because it compares Quality of X to Quality of EM

Between B & E, E is correct as the not only but also sequence is parallel. In B it is broken.

OA: E

A. by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of
B. surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to ->those from em point to piece of glass but here we are comparing the quality
C. far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding-> Parallelism issue
D. far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only-> sub -verb issue and parallelism issue
E. far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to

Hi E-GMAT,

The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe by
far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in
terms of the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques
and functionality.
A. by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded
not only in terms of
B. surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to
C. far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding
D. far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only
E. far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with
regard to

My query is with choice C, apart form the Subject -verb issues , can you please explain me what is wrong with "not only --- But also " structure.?

Thanks

The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe by
far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in
terms of the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques
and functionality.

A. by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded
not only in terms of
The quality is singular subject.
B. surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to
"those" is ambiguous - pieces / quality of pieces ??
not only ... but also needs to be parallel. Because we have "but also in terms" ahead, we can have parallel "not only in terms" or similar element.
C. far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding
D. far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only
E. far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with
regard to

Comparison is between 'quality of early pieces of blown glass' and 'quality of pieces from EM'. To have correct comparison we need 'that' instead of 'those'. A and B are out

Notice an idiom- not only in terms of, but also in terms of. C and D are out.

E is the answer

The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality.

A. by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of - usage of those is incorrect , we need that to refer to quality ; subject-verb agreement issue - quality needs singular surpasses
B. surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to - same as A
C. far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding - idiom Not only X but also Y ;subject-verb agreement issue - quality needs singular surpasses
D. far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only - idiom Not only X but also Y, far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean is incorrect -- we need that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean
E. far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to - Correct

Answer E

sudarshan22, GMATNinja, aragonn, GMATNinjaTwo, broall, hazelnut, Vyshak, generis

I have a problem with E , that the subject verb does not look right. Since its talking about the quality and we have terms in the but clause which is singular, so shouldn't regard be regards?

"far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to"

Samakshkapoor92
We are dealing here with two prepositional idioms.

(1) The prepositional phrase with regard to is idiomatic, and regard is always singular.

Correct: With regard to the rules that we discussed. . .
Correct: With regard to the bank that I recommended ...
WRONG: With regards to [noun]

(2) Similarly, in the prepositional phrase in terms of, terms is always plural.

Correct: In terms of your salary...
WRONG: In term of [noun]
Correct: In terms of salaries

Those prepositional phrases never change.
I do not recall having seen a question that tested either phrase with respect to the middle word in each phrase.

A prepositional phrase is still a preposition, so maybe it would help to think:
The word "about" does not turn into "abouts" when the noun is plural. The story was . . .
. . . about a boy
. . . about girls

Further, perhaps if we shorten the sentence, answer E will look less odd.

The quality of ABCs excavated in Italy and Europe far surpasses [that = the quality of] pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to [X], but also in terms of [Y].

Similar:
The quality of Picasso's painting far surpasses that of Mr. Smith, not only with regard to color choice and subject matter, but also in terms of creative expression and originality.

Hope that helps.

Shouldn't we requestion 'not only in' to be parallel to 'but also in'?? I'm very confused how E is the answer because it misses parallelism.

Hi prav04, can you explain why you think E is not parallel?

In E, both non only and but also are followed by prepositional phrases.

egmat BrightOutlookJenn Hi! Why "regarding" is not parallel to "in terms of", is that because "regarding" is a gerund and not a prep. phrase? Also, is the parallelism in B wrong? "not only to the variety..., but also in..." tks!

Hi Will2020

Your first triage on this question should be for subject/verb agreement "the quality ... surpasses". So A and C are immediately eliminated because of "surpass", and you don't need to parse whether "regarding" could be parallel to "in terms of."

B is screwing up both the comparison (at the beginning of the answer choice) and the "not only / but also" at the end.
What are we trying to compare? We want to compare the quality of pieces from Place A to the quality of pieces from Place B. Note that the comparison is not actually about the pieces themselves but about the quality of each set of pieces. We are stuck with this construction from the first part of the sentence, so we need to keep a clean comparison with our answer choice. This is why we need all those words in E: "that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean." B tries to take a shortcut with the comparison, by comparing the quality (in the first, non-underlined part) with pieces themselves (in the answer choice.) That's a hard no.
If that wasn't bad enough B fails again when it tries to use not only/ but also. B puts "with regard" actually outside of the not only/but also construction, which means it is like an umbrella over the whole construction and must not be re-stated. B is like saying:
"with regard to the variety of shapes represented, and with regard in terms of decorative techniques and functionality." (Trainwreck in highlights)

Does this clear it up? Let us know.

The quality
of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe
by far surpass
those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean,
when regarded
not only in terms of the variety of shapes represented,
but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality.

(A) by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of

(B) surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to

(C) far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding

(D) far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only

(E) far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to

IMO E

This question is based on Subject-Verb agreement, Comparison and Parallelism.

The subject of the verb ‘surpass’ is “The quality”. Since it is a singular subject, the plural form ‘surpass’ does not agree with the subject. There is also a pronoun reference error in A. The plural pronoun ‘those’ cannot refer to “The quality”. So, Options A and C can be ruled out.

The comparison in Option B is not parallel. “The quality of...pieces…..Europe” can only be compared to ‘the quality of pieces from the Eastern Mediterranean’. However, in Option B, the pronoun ‘those’ can only refer to pieces, thus making the comparison between ‘quality’ and ‘pieces’. So, Option B can be ruled out.

In Option D also the comparison is not parallel. “The quality of...pieces….Europe” is being compared with ‘the quality of the Eastern Mediterranean’ in this option because the pronoun ‘that’ can only refer to ‘quality’. So, Option D can also be ruled out.

In Option E, the comparison is parallel. Parallelism is also maintained. The last part of the sentence has the correlative conjunctions – ‘not only-but also’. Each of the pair of conjunctions is appropriately followed by a prepositional phrase, thereby maintaining parallelism.

Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality.

(A) by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of

(B) surpasses by far those from the eastern Mediterranean, with regard not only to

(C) far surpass that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only regarding

(D) far surpasses that of the eastern Mediterranean, with regard to not only

(E) far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, not only with regard to

This is a very good question for someone (like me) who is in rush to solve the SC question just observing the parallelism indicator like not only and but also, and seeing the similar following text in terms of.

Those (plural )refers to quality(singular) A and B eliminated
surpass (plural )refers to quality(singular) C eliminated
Now the non underlined portion contains "but also + prepositional phrase" and underlined portion contains "not only", so find an option with parallel construction.
E is the correct answer

The current solutions aren't the best, so I am going to try my best.

The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe by far surpass those of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean, when regarded not only in terms of the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality.

Here, the subject is "The quality." You know that "early pieces" is not the subject because it has the preposition "of" in front of it.

1st major split: do we use "that" or "those?"
Well, the subject is "The quality" which is singular. "that" is singular and "those" is plural, so we need "that."
Eliminate A and B.

2nd major split: "surpass" or "surpasses"
Well, since "that is singular" we need to use the singular "surpasses"
Eliminate C


There are two nice ways to choose E over D.
1. "that" refers to "the quality"
if you go with D, you would be saying that "The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe far surpasses the quality of the eastern Mediterranean" We can't compare the quality of pieces with the quality of a geographical area"
if you go with E, you would be saying that "The quality of early pieces of blown glass excavated in Italy and Western Europe far surpasses that of pieces from the eastern Mediterranean." This makes sense, you are comparing the quality of pieces in Italy and Western Europe with the quality of the pieces from the eastern Mediterranean.
2. The parallelism of "not only... but also"
For these, what comes directly after "not only" must be parallel with what comes right after "but also"
In D, we say "with regard to not only the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality."
"the variety of shapes" (noun) is not parallel with "in terms of" (non-noun), for my computer science friends, think of these as two different data types.
In E, we say "not only with regard to the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality."
"not only with regard to the variety of shapes represented, but also in terms of decorative techniques and functionality."
"with regard to" and "in terms of" are parallel; look, they both start with prepositions ("with" and "in").

I hope I did an okay job hehe