Correct Parallelism is what we want to test our answer choices on. In the construction
not only A but also B, the elements of the parallelism A and B must be not only structurally identical, but also logically similar (Did you notice how I’ve just used this idiom?
).
1. The following structures are parallel:
I. Iphones are produced in NOT ONLY China BUT ALSO India.
NOT ONLY noun BUT ALSO noun.
CorrectII. Iphones are produced NOT ONLY in China BUT ALSO in India
NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO prepositional phrase.
CorrectIII. Iphones’ processors are NOT ONLY designed BUT ALSO produced in California.
NOT ONLY verb BUT ALSO verb.
Correct2. The following structures contain incorrect parallelism:
I. Iphones are produced NOT ONLY in China BUT ALSO India.
NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO noun.
IncorrectII. Iphones are produced NOT ONLY in China BUT ALSO are produced in India
NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO verb.
IncorrectIII. Iphones are NOT ONLY produced in China BUT ALSO India
NOT ONLY verb BUT ALSO noun.
IncorrectFor the sake of convenience and speed, let’s use just
health instead of
the overall health of the human microbiome, and get rid of an
appositive modifying microbiome for a moment. Keeping all the above in mind let’s analyze answer choices.
A. health is not only influenced by diet and alcohol consumption, but also are by behavioral factorsIn short: NOT ONLY working verb BUT ALSO linking verb… we know that working verb is not parallel to linking verb.
Additionally, the second element of the parallelism doesn’t make any sense with the root phrase:
health is are by behavioral factors… that’s
nonsensical and thus A is out.
B. health is not only influenced by diet and alcohol consumption, but also behavioral factorsIn short: NOT ONLY verb BUT ALSO noun… we know that verb is not parallel to noun.
Additionally, the second element of the parallelism doesn’t make any sense with the root phrase:
health is behavioral factors… that’s
nonsensical and thus B is out.
C. health is influenced not only by diet and alcohol consumption, but also are by behavioral factorsIn short: NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO linking verb… we know that prepositional phrase is not parallel to a linking verb.
Additionally, the second element of the parallelism doesn’t make any sense with the root phrase:
health is influenced are by behavioral factors… that’s
nonsensical and thus C is out.
E. health is influenced not only by diet and alcohol consumption, but also behavioral factorsIn short: NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO noun… we know that prepositional phrase is not parallel to noun.
Additionally, the second element of the parallelism doesn’t make any sense with the root phrase:
health is influenced behavioral factors… that’s
nonsensical and thus E is out.
D. health is influenced not only by diet and alcohol consumption, but also by behavioral factorsIn short: NOT ONLY prepositional phrase BUT ALSO prepositional phrase… finally we have a correct parallelism.
Additionally, the second element of the parallelism DOES make sense with the root phrase:
health is influenced by behavioral factors… that’s the correct solution.
Hence
D