The commissior’s office of compliance, inspections, and investigations

The commissioner's office of compliance, inspections, and investigations plans to intensify its scrutiny of stock analysts to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when they are paid for their work by a firm’s investment.


(A) to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when they are

(B) to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also if conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or they are

(C) to not only investigate whether or not research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also if conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or are

(D) not only to investigate whether or not research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or are

(E) not only to investigate whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when

Imo. A

The commissior’s office of compliance, inspections, and investigations plans to intensify its scrutiny of stock analysts to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when they are paid for their work by a firm’s investment.

Correct expression: ..not only X...but also Y....

(A) to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when they are -both X & Y are parallel.

(B) to investigate not only whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also if conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or they are - X & Y are not parallel.

(C) to not only investigate whether or not research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also if conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or are- X & Y are not parallel.

(D) not only to investigate whether or not research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or are- X & Y are not parallel.

(E) not only to investigate whether research is an independent function at brokerage firms, but also whether conflicts result when analysts own the stocks they write about or when[/quote]- X & Y are not parallel.

Could you explain why B is wrong?
Is it because whether.... and if..... are not parallel?

Hi, Lilyj,

Yes, that is one of the reason as it represents parallelism error. Here, whether represents alternatives and if presents conditionality. As per parallelism rule, the structure and meaning must match in either side of connectors, e.g. and, or, but, either.. or.., not only.. but also.. Option B is wrong for two reasons.
1) Usage of whether and if changes the meaning of the original sentence.
2) left and right side parallelism not maintained for connector 'or', changing the meaning of original sentence.

P.S.: GMAC usually prefers whether instead of if (if you see most of the official questions), though it's not hard and fast rule.

This question can get very tricky if you look at the different parallel structures that are couched within this sentence.
The quickest way to go about it is to pick the overarching structure and check for parallelism.

In this case, the main error to look out for is Not only X… but also Y.

Also, it’s worth remembering that on the GMAT, ‘if’ expresses a condition and ‘whether’ is used to showcase two choices.

Now let’s examine the choices:

Option A: Correct usage of ‘not only… but also…’. This option maintains the parallelism. Let’s hold on to this. Eliminate.

Option B: This option does not maintain parallelism. ‘not only whether’ and ‘but also if’ are not parallel. Remember that ‘if’is used to state a condition and not a choice. Eliminate.

Option C: Breaks parallelism. ‘not only investigate’ is not parallel with ‘but also if’. Another error here is the use of ‘whether or not’ which on the GMAT is considered as redundant. Eliminate.

Option D: Same as C. ‘whether or not’ is redundant and there is lack of parallelism. Eliminate.

Option E: ‘not only to investigate’ and ‘but also whether’ are not parallel with each other. Eliminate.

Option A is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

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