NEW HERE? LEARN MORE
closeclose
Last visit was: 25 Apr 2024, 03:43 It is currently 25 Apr 2024, 03:43
Decision Tracker
My Rewards
New posts
New comers' posts

Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel

Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no

SORT BY:
Date
Kudos
Tags:
Find Similar Topics 
Show Tags
Hide Tags
avatar
anandnat
Intern
Intern
Joined: 10 Jun 2010
Posts: 31
Own Kudos [?]: 120 [8]
Given Kudos: 2
Send PM
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   04 Jul 2010, 03:14
2
Kudos
6
Bookmarks
00:00
A
B
C
D
E

Difficulty:

15% (low)

Question Stats:

74% (00:53) correct 26% (00:54) wrong based on 385 sessions
Hide Show timer Statistics
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.


A. saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn

B. saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn

C. saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured

D. save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn

E. save water, but also the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured
ShowHide Answer
Official Answer
D
Most Helpful Reply
User avatar
KyleWiddison
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 30 Apr 2012
Posts: 782
Own Kudos [?]: 2583 [7]
Given Kudos: 5
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   29 May 2013, 22:16
7
Kudos
Expert Reply
madzstar wrote:
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.

A. saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.
B. saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
C. saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured
D. save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
E. save water, but also the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured

The answer here is just APPAULING!


OK, let me see if I can explain this for you. There are a few key issues at play on this question. First you have the "not only..., but also" phrasing. When you use "not only" you need "but also" to complete the phrase, so A & C are eliminated.

Second you have to determine the proper Subject/Verb agreement (the saves/save split at the beginning). Your subject is the combination of noun phrases - "Managing your irrigation system well" (one 'thing') and "watering your grass wisely" (another 'thing'). The word 'and' is very powerful and it creates a compound, or plural, subject. The plural subject requires the plural form of the verb, so we want 'save' (no 's' on the plural form of the verb) - eliminate B.

We're left with D & E, and here comes parallelism to finish it off. When we say 'not only SAVE water', we are going to need a verb (HELP) after 'but also' to maintain parallelism - eliminate E. That leaves us with answer choice D.

Does this help? Do you have other questions?

KW
General Discussion
User avatar
B
saikarthikreddy
Manager
Manager
Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 128
Own Kudos [?]: 1005 [0]
Given Kudos: 53
Concentration: Finance,Entrepreneurship,General Management
Schools:Booth,NUS,St.Gallon
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   17 Feb 2012, 04:54
The subject phrase here must be singular Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely ,but none of the option take it to be singular .The option D which is wrong takes it to be plural .
User avatar
Chembeti
Manager
Manager
Joined: 25 Nov 2011
Posts: 126
Own Kudos [?]: 870 [0]
Given Kudos: 20
Location: India
Concentration: Technology, General Management
GPA: 3.95
WE:Information Technology (Computer Software)
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   20 Feb 2012, 17:06
saikarthikreddy wrote:
The subject phrase here must be singular Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely ,but none of the option take it to be singular .The option D which is wrong takes it to be plural .


The key to identify a subject phrase as singular or plural based on how the individual nouns/items in the phrase are connected with rest of the sentence.

1) If separating them makes sense, then they have to be considered two different nouns and hence verb goes into plural

2) If separating them does not make sense, then the verb has to be singular
For e.g,.

--> My mentor and role model is my mother. (I am talking about my mother, but not mentor and role model. Logically I can say my mentor is my mother and my role model is my mother, but does it sound right? To emphasize a fact probably you can say my mentor is my mother and my role model also is my mother)

--> Burger and coke is my all time favorite lunch (burger and coke are independently two different items; but what i am talking about is the lunch not those individual items)

Coming to the question, we can separate those statements and they both are independently valid statements and hence we need to use plural verb.

D is the right answer
User avatar
MichaelS
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 06 Sep 2011
Posts: 49
Own Kudos [?]: 837 [1]
Given Kudos: 2
GRE 1: Q800 V800

Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   20 Feb 2012, 21:51
1
Kudos
Expert Reply
Couple of quick points:

(1) Not only...but also.... is the usual idiom, but not only...but.... has appeared in some correct answers on real GMATs. This is a good question, but I doubt it would quite pass muster as a real GMAT SC question.

(2) Although Chembeti makes an interesting point about standard usage, I'm not sure it's relevant to the GMAT. As far as I can recall, whenever and joins to nouns in a GMAT SC, it creates a plural compound noun.
User avatar
KyleWiddison
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 30 Apr 2012
Posts: 782
Own Kudos [?]: 2583 [2]
Given Kudos: 5
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   30 May 2013, 22:42
2
Kudos
Expert Reply
Bluelagoon wrote:
KyleWiddison wrote:
madzstar wrote:
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.

A. saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.
B. saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
C. saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured
D. save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
E. save water, but also the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured

The answer here is just APPAULING!


//
Kyle i have seen answers with not only and but. Do you think We can use this argument here ?



Great question. In the case of this sentence, answer choices A & C (missing 'also') have a grammatical error with the singular verb 'saves', so the question don't really make us choose between 'but also' or 'but'. It's probably best to say that 'not only X, but also Y' is preferred but 'not only X, but Y' is acceptable. When in doubt, look back to rock solid grammar rules like subject/verb agreement.

KW
User avatar
blueseas
Current Student
Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 580
Own Kudos [?]: 4324 [1]
Given Kudos: 197
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Operations
Schools: PGDM (GM) '15 (A)
GMAT 1: 700 Q50 V34
GPA: 3.6
Send PM
GMAT ToolKit User
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   15 Aug 2013, 03:13
1
Kudos
daisyhill1 wrote:
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.

a) saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn
b) saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
c) saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured
d) save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
e) save water, but also the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured

In tha above Doesnt the correct ans seem awkward? Somehow "saves water but helps" sounds better? Can any expert explain this ans..


SOME THEORIES:
1) If two nouns are connected by AND then the resultant subject is compounded hence plural and thats why it needs a plural verb.
2)correct idiom is NOT ONLY X,...BUT ALSO Y...==>X AND Y SHOULD BE PARALLEL.

In this question two nouns PHRASE i.e
1)irrigation system well and 2) watering your grass wisely
they are connected by AND hence needs a plural verb.

basing this we can eliminate option A/B/C ..because they contain singular verbs SAVES

now between D AND E
IN E SAVE WATER....is not parallel to the success of.....

hence correct option D

HOPE IT HELPS
User avatar
BeckyRobinsonTPR
Princeton Review Representative
Joined: 17 Jun 2013
Posts: 147
Own Kudos [?]: 940 [1]
Given Kudos: 0
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   15 Aug 2013, 09:36
1
Kudos
This question relies on the conjunction not only ... but also. The construction is awkward but grammatically correct and is often tested because of this fact. Once you Eliminate A and C for an incorrect conjunction then you need parallelism to surround that conjunction - save and help must be in the same form - they must be either saves and helps or save and help
daisyhill1 wrote:
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.

a) saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn
b) saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
c) saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured
d) save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn
e) save water, but also [color=#ff0000]the success [/color]of your lawn is more helpfully ensured

In tha above Doesnt the correct ans seem awkward? Somehow "saves water but helps" sounds better? Can any expert explain this ans..
avatar
G
abuc0112
Manager
Manager
Joined: 18 Jun 2010
Posts: 96
Own Kudos [?]: 83 [0]
Given Kudos: 28
Send PM
GMAT ToolKit User
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   14 Sep 2021, 09:31
My attempt
Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely not only saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn.

The subject is: Managing your irrigation And watering your grass wisely > the and makes the subject plural, so we need a plural verb.
we can eliminate choices A, B, C
We are left with D, E

A. saves water, but helps to ensure the success of your lawn s/v error

B. saves water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn s/v error

C. saves water, but the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured s/v error

D. save water, but also help to ensure the success of your lawn this is my answer

E. save water, but also the success of your lawn is more helpfully ensured lacks parallelism. what come before the not only is not parallel to what comes after but also
avatar
B
shalin23
Intern
Intern
Joined: 27 Aug 2021
Posts: 11
Own Kudos [?]: 0 [0]
Given Kudos: 27
Location: India
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   23 Sep 2021, 23:57
I have a doubt:

I thought the subject as: singular AND singular, since irrigation system and grass are singular in nature.

Thats why I choose option B. can someone explain this to me?
User avatar
VerbalBot
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Posts: 17216
Own Kudos [?]: 848 [0]
Given Kudos: 0
Send PM
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink] New post   18 Sep 2023, 09:56
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
GMAT Club Bot
gmatclubot
Re: Managing your irrigation system well and watering your grass wisely no [#permalink]
18 Sep 2023, 09:56
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
6920 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
238 posts

Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group | Emoji artwork provided by EmojiOne
Main navigation
GMAT Resources
Partners
MBA Resources
www.gmac.com|www.mba.com | | GMAT Club Rules | Terms and Conditions