John Jordan Crittenden, a politician from Kentucky, worked not only

John Jordan Crittenden, a politician from Kentucky, worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

A. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in
B. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served
C. worked under three presidents not only as the United States Attorney General but also served
D. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in
E. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served

A quick scan of the options reveals the words “not only” and “but also,” which is the most iconic idiom pair on the GMAT. Parallel structure also goes hand-in-hand with the “not only...but also” idiom since parallel structure is must align after each part of the phrase. If the verb comes before “not only,” then the verb also has to work with whatever comes after the phrase “but also.” If “not only” is immediately followed by a verb, then “but also” must be immediately followed by a verb.

After reading the sentence extremely carefully to gain context, let’s review the options. Options A, B, and C all have the verb “worked” in front of “not only.” That means the portion of the sentence that follows “but also” should make sense with the verb “worked.” The sentence would read “John Jordan Crittenden worked served in both . . .” That doesn’t make any sense. “But also” is followed by a verb so “not only” needs to be followed by the verb as well. Options A, B, and C cannot be the correct answers.

Options D and E both put the verb “worked” after “not only,” and the verb “served” comes after “but also.” That is parallel and makes sense. Option E does not use the preposition “in” after “served.” Option E reads “but also served both the U.S. House of Representatives . . .” How does one serve the House of Representatives? Politicians can serve in the house as legislators, but the House of Representatives doesn’t have anyone that serves it. Additionally, “not only” is followed by “worked under,” which is a verb + preposition. Option D follows “but also” with “served in,” which is also a verb + preposition. That is parallel, and it makes sense.

Option D is the best answer.

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Option A and D makes the parallelism error. The correct form would have been "both in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S.Senate."
All options except C uses the modifier "under three presidents incorrectly". It presents as if presidents were the USAG.
C conveys the correct meaning and avoids parallelism error.

IMO C.

Thank you!
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John Jordan Crittenden, a politician from Kentucky, worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

Errors analysis:
this question is testing parallelism and comparisons
the parallel marker is "not only X but also Y"
in the questions above worked is a verb taken out as common so the parallel marker reads as "worked not only X but also worked Y" since worked is placed before not only. the elements in a parallel list should be parallel i.e. once you place "worked" (verb) before not only the phrase followed after "not only" becomes a fragment and is not parallel to thesentence containing the verb which is followed after "but also".

in the first sentence the parallel elements are : under three presidents as, served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

therefore only two options correct this error D and E

the only difference b/w D and E is "served" vs "served in"

D. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in
E. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served

the sentence reads served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

U.S senate is not followed by a "the" therefore served in the X and served in Y is illogical as U.S senate should be followed by a "the"

therefore E is the correct option
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John Jordan Crittenden, a politician from Kentucky, worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

A. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in - not parallel not only worked under but also server in
B. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served - same as a
C. worked under three presidents not only as the United States Attorney General but also served - same as a
D. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in - correct option
E. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served - not parallel because its worked under and should be served in

Posted from my mobile device

John Jordan Crittenden, a politician from Kentucky, worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

A. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in - not parallel not only worked under but also server in
B. worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served - same as a
C. worked under three presidents not only as the United States Attorney General but also served - same as a
D. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in - correct option
E. not only worked under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served - not parallel because its worked under and should be served in

Posted from my mobile device

Marked D.
“Not only worked.... but also served” is the correct parallel structure.
“Served in” is the correct option.

Hence marked D.

Posted from my mobile device

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Hello TheNightKing!

You are definitely on the right track with looking at parallelism. However, remember that when you want to create parallelism in GMAT questions, the parts that are NOT underlined have to stay the way they are, and the underlined portions have to match up with them - not the other way around!

Take a closer look at the original sentence's ending:

worked not only under three presidents as the United States Attorney General but also served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

You cannot do anything about the non-underlined part - it's already parallel the way it is. Your task is to make the underlined part work WITH what's already there. You are correct that it would also be parallel to say "both in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate," but that isn't one of the options you have to choose from, so you'll have to focus your parallelism search elsewhere.

Keep working on it, and feel free to tag EMPOWERgmatVerbal if you have any questions!
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Hello sampriya!

You are so close! You correctly eliminated options A, B, & C because they don't fit the parallel "not only X but also Y" structure.

However, pay close attention to the last part you talked about:

the sentence reads served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

U.S senate is not followed by a "the" therefore served in the X and served in Y is illogical as U.S senate should be followed by a "the"


The phrase "both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate" is NOT underlined. Remember that non-underlined portions of the sentence, no matter how much you want to correct them, are NOT able to be corrected. Even if you would put "the" in front of both groups, it doesn't matter because it's not underlined. None of the options available to you even address this - so you'll need to focus on other parts of just the underlined portions.

Keep going with this - you're very close! You are also welcome to tag me at [b]EMPOWERgmatVerbal if you have any questions!
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Well done, Shipps7952! You quickly figured out the problems with parallelism in each option!

Kudos to you!
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Well done, @Same_Good_Kid! You cracked the parallelism problems in both spots!
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Approach:

mostly parallelism error based

Step 1: Parallelism error in Options A, B, and C -> worked not only under......... but also served in...
Right Idiom is NOT ONLY X...BUT ALSO Y or in this context should be NOT ONLY WORKED...BUT ALSO SERVED.
Option A, B, and C - Incorrect

Step 2: Between Option D and E, Option D properly covers parallelism -> not only worked under..... but also served in

Option D it is!!
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