Dental caries and gingivitis can be exacerbated not only by the foods

Question

Dental caries and gingivitis can be exacerbated  not only by the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them .

(A) not only by the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them

(B) by not only the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them

(C) not only by the foods patients eat but also by time when the foods are eaten

(D) by not only the foods that are eaten by patients but also by the times the foods are eaten

(E) not only by what patients eat but also by when they eat it

phillypointgod21 · Accepted Answer

Dental caries and gingivitis can be exacerbated not only by the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them.

(A) not only by the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them
(B) by not only the foods patients eat but also by when the patients eat them
(C) not only by the foods patients eat but also by time when the foods are eaten
(D) by not only the foods that are eaten by patients but also by the times the foods are eaten
(E) not only by what patients eat but also by when they eat it

Answer E.

There is a problem with parallelism in the original sentence. "...not only by the foods but also by when" is not parallel. If the phrase begins by comparing food, which is a noun, the second half of the comparison must also be a noun. As it is currently constructed, "by the foods" is compared to "by when the patients eat". In order to correct the error, select answer E. "By what patients eat but also by when they eat it" maintains parallelism in two ways. First, what and when are both parallel. Second, both words are preceeded by the word by.

lys · Answer

Thanks for the explanation. But I still don't understand why:

- C is incorrect. It also maintains parallelism (by the foods ll by time - both foods and time are nouns)
- in E. the "it" seems to have no antecedent as I don't expect the phrase "what patients eat" can be an antecedent. (am i wrong?)

yogeshagarwala · Answer

Got it wrong as A. Thanks phillypointgod21 for explaning the problem with parallelism.
However I dont believe its C due to an awkward construction. Again it cannot be E as 'it' does not refer to food there.
I believe the solution is something other than those listed.

daagh · Answer

As the explanations have gone about, there seems to be a consensus that this is an issue of parallelism and E is the only parallel presentation but for the irksome pronoun reference of the word  ‘it’ .

The pronoun simply refers to ‘what’ in the clause ‘ what patients eat’ . It may be seen that 'what' may stand either foods or for anything else for that matter since the choice cleverly avoids the word ‘food’ in its entire text. So we should not miscomprehend that ‘it’ has no referent and that if at all there was a referent, it should be a plural referent.

Phoenix72 · Answer

IMO E

"not only by x but also by y" form should be used.
So B & D are out.left with A,C and E.
A uses "them" so incorrect.
C uses incorrect form of parallelism
E- Correct form and also maintains parallelism.

Hope my explanation is correct.Would be great if someone could plz verify.

ketanth · Answer

A – “foods that patients eat” is correct. Them refers to “food” which is incorrect. Eliminate
B – not only X but also Y is not maintained. Eliminate
C – As A
D – same as B
E - Keep

Ayushkumar2294 · Answer

E changes meaning of sentence as food is there in original sentence but in e word food is missing

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shailee09 · Answer

E is the correct answer for parallelism and conciseness.
But can anybody confirm whether C is grammatically correct.
And also is it OK to use active clause and passive clause in parallel structure as used in C?

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JustAboutDone · Answer

Hi  CrackVerbal

After going through the thread, I am still confused between A & E.

"not only by  what  patients eat but also by when they eat  it "
- I find the usage of "it" incorrect. As per my understanding, "it" is the pronoun reference for "what". But "what" could mean either "Foods"(plural) or Food(singular).

A has clear pronouns for foods and patients.

Appreciate your help.

Archit3110 · Answer

for co relative conjunctions we have not only X but also Y.. where X and Y are either nouns, verbs , adverbs or a adjectives
but in this case in option E what which is a referent pronoun has been compared with 'it' which is a singular pronoun? is kind of comparison ideal and correct ?

GMATNinja   VeritasKarishma   generis   Bunuel

Bambi2021 · Answer

Can we really use "them" to refer to "foods"?

One type of food, many types of food. Them typer of food?

One food, many foods. Them foods?

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Dental caries and gingivitis can be exacerbated not only by the foods

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Dental caries and gingivitis can be exacerbated not only by the foods

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