Despite being rivals on the cricket field, Andrew regarded Brett

Question

Despite being rivals on the cricket field, Andrew regarded Brett  not as an adversary but a friend , a fact that was obvious  in the historic Ashes test match between their respective teams in 2005

a) not as an adversary but a friend , a fact that was obvious

b) not as an adversary but as a friend ; a fact that was obvious

c) as not an adversary but as a friend , a fact that was obvious

d) as a friend not as an adversary, an obvious fact

e) not as an adversary but as a friend , a fact that was obvious

Gnpth · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Normally Semicolon is used to connect two independent clauses. The sentence which starts after the semicolon is not a independent clause.

a fact that was obvious in the historic Ashes test match between their respective teams in 2005 -- "A fact" denotes what??

This sentence cannot stand on its own. So it's a dependent clause. It depends on that fact that Andrew considers Brett has his friend and it was proven in this line.

So use semicolon to connect two independent clause.

In this case this line is not a independent clause. So it is wrong.

Gnpth · Answer

Proper idiom is Not X but Y. So eliminate A, & C.

The use of semicolon is not correct in option B. so eliminate B.

And option D is redundant. So correct option is E.

Hope it helps

aashu4uiit · Answer

Can you suggest why use of semicolon is not correct in option B ?

Sasindran · Answer

Can someone explain why D is incorrect?

Posted from my mobile device

Abhishek009 · Answer

not as X but as Y is correct idiomatically and as per parallelism, which is missing in (D)

Sasindran · Answer

Thanks  Abhishek009 . I missed the Idiom part. Kudos to you

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi aashu4uiit,

Thank you for your question. Let's look the clear differences between each answer, and tackle them one at a time:

1. Parallel structure in the "not X, but Y" idiom
2. Use of comma versus semicolon

Let's start with parallel structure because it should narrow down the most answers. For the idiom to work, it needs to be structure "not as an X, but as a Y."

a) not  as an adversary  but  a friend  , a fact that was obvious (NOT PARALLEL)
b) not  as an adversary  but  as a friend  ; a fact that was obvious (PARALLEL)
c)  as not an adversary  but  as a friend  , a fact that was obvious (NOT PARALLEL)
d)  as a friend  not  as an adversary , an obvious fact (NOT PARALLEL/WRONG STRUCTURE)
e) not  as an adversary  but  as a friend  , a fact that was obvious (PARALLEL)

Based on using parallel structure, we can eliminate answers A, C, & D. Now that we're left with answers B & E, let's look at #2 on the list: punctuation.

b) not as an adversary but as a friend; a fact that was obvious 
This is WRONG because it uses a semicolon incorrectly. Semicolons can only be used when there are independent clauses before and after the semicolon. In this case, the clause after the semicolon can't stand alone and is dependent.

e) not as an adversary but as a friend, a fact that was obvious 
This is the CORRECT answer because it uses proper parallel structure AND uses a comma, which is the correct punctuation for an independent clause + dependent clause.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

Answer: E

(A) The use of  not as  necessitates the use of  but as .
(B) The semicolon is not needed because the part after the comma is an appositive phrase
(C) Since  as  comes before  not , it does not need to be repeated after  but .
(D) The use of the phrase  an obvious fact  distorts the meaning of the sentence.
(E) The correct sentence.

Despite being rivals on the cricket field, Andrew regarded Brett

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Despite being rivals on the cricket field, Andrew regarded Brett

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