Not only do deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "rapt

Question

Not only do deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", if they descend below 200 feet, but  they also fall prey to decompression sickness, commonly known as the "bends", if they ascend too quickly.

A. Not only do deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", if they descend below 200 feet, but

B. Deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", if they descend below 200 feet, but

C. Nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", is risked by deep-sea divers if they descend below 200 feet, in addition

D. Descending below 200 feet causes deep-sea divers to risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep" and

E. Not only does a deep-sea diver risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", if they descend below 200 feet, but

dimitri92 · Answer

'not only .... but also'  ... correct idiom

E)  Not only does a deep-sea  DIVER  risk ... but  THEY  also fall

A is parallel and uses the correct idiom

PTK · Answer

do you find it OK for that idiom to be interrapted ? I mean not only ... but THEY also ?

daagh · Answer

I have two objections to consider A the right choice. First, as every one has pointed out, A woefully is faulting on the correlative conjunction llism by bringing in a pronoun after the conjunction but in the second leg , while a verb should be present there to run in tandem with the verb ‘do’. Second, the use of the pronoun ‘they’ is redundant in my opinion, because, in two part sentences, where upon the subject of the first part can stand for the subject of the second part, the use of a pronoun Is unnecessary and wrong. Consider this:

We say; ‘Not only did Tom break his leg in the accident but also fractured his arm’.

We don’t say,

‘Not only did Tom break his leg in the accident but also he fractured his arm

Can the choice A stand the rigor of GMAT?

We say; ‘Not only did Tom break his leg in the accident but also fractured his arm’.

We don’t say,

‘Not only did Tom break his leg in the accident but also he fractured his arm

Can the choice A stand the rigor of GMAT?

nov79 · Answer

+1 A for me.
 As Pkit said, A is the best of the worst. I do not find any problem with the idiom not only do "deep sea divers (they) .... but they also.

daagh · Answer

@Pkit: Is it so? Coming as it is from the stable of Kaplan, there must be some reason why Kaplan, the grandpa of Test preps, has forborne such technical incongruities; obviously the intention may not be to train people to find the best among the worst. But it is true that choice A is better than the others, as they seem to have been added just to fill up the rest of the choices. But thanks to Kaplan for the opportunity to delve into some aspects of correlative conjunctions and their llism.

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PTK · Answer

thank you guys,

daagh this SC wondered me a lot too.

There is the explanation from Kaplan.

""Not only...but also" must connect similar terms. "Deep sea divers not only risk" and "but also fall prey" are correctly paralleled in (A). (B) would work if "and" was substituted for "but." There are two problems with (C): "nitrogen narcosis... is risked" and the fact that (C) is actually two complete sentences incorrectly linked with a comma. You'd need a period after "feet," and a capital "i" in "in." In (E), "they" doesn't refer clearly and unambiguously to one specific plural noun. In (A), "they" can only mean "divers.""

As you may see in theri explanations they say not only but also. but in choice A it is not so. I think it may be poorly constructed question.

Daagh you see you left them and the quality diminishes

KapTeacherEli · Answer

Hi folks,

Sentence Correct question ask you to pick the best answer possible--which isn't the same as a perfect answer. (A) definitely sounds fishy, but it gets the idiom right while maintaining parallelism between its elements. The sentence would probably feel more natural if it were rewritten entirely as "Deep-sea divers not only risk...but also fall prey...". However, it IS okay to break up the 'not only...but also' idiom with a pronoun; since every other answer makes an error in grammatical or idiomatic construction, and (A) does not, (A) must be correct even though it grates our ears.

That said, Pkit, you have spotted an error in our explanation: we incorrectly quote the original sentence, and that could definitely cause confusion. Sorry if our mistake made things more challenging than they needed to be, and thanks for calling it to our attention. Can the OP please tell me the specific Kaplan source that this came from so I can flag it for review?

Thanks!

mun23 · Answer

Not only do deep - sea drivers risk nitrogen narcosis ,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet ,but  they also fall prey to decompression sickness,commonly known as "the bends",if they ascend too quickly.

(A)Not only do deep - sea drivers risk nitrogen narcosis ,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet ,but
(B)Deep-sea drivers risk nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet,but
\(C)Nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",is risked by deep-sea drivers if they descend below 200 feet,in addition
(D)The descending of deep-sea drivers to below 200 feet causes them risking nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",and
(E)Not only does a deep-sea driver risk nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet,but

Need every option`s explanation.

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btg9788 · Answer

Let me try to explain this -

(A)Not only do deep - sea drivers risk nitrogen narcosis ,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet ,but
This option has the correct use of "Not only ...but also ". Each usage of "they" alludes to sea divers ( or is it drivers??) only and there is no pronoun ambiguity.

(B)Deep-sea drivers risk nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet,but
Here "but they also" is not idiomatic. There is no "Not only"

(C)Nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",is risked by deep-sea drivers if they descend below 200 feet,in addition
The option here wrongly suggests that Nitrogen narcosis is risked by deep-sea drivers. "Risked" is exposing something to danger. The meaning is clearly nonsensical.

(D)The descending of deep-sea drivers to below 200 feet causes them risking nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",and
Same as C + they also is not idiomatic.

(E)Not only does a deep-sea driver risk nitrogen narcosis,often called "raptures of the deep",if they descend below 200 feet,but
Same as D.

Hope this helps!

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

A.

“Not only . . .but also” must connect similar terms. “Deep sea divers not only risk” and “but also fall prey” are correctly paralleled in (A). (B) would work if“and”was substituted for “but.”There are two prob- lems with (C): “nitrogennarcosis . . . is risked” and the fact that (C) is actually two complete sentences incorrectly linked with a comma.You’d need a period after “feet,” anda capital “i” in “in.” In(E), “they” doesn’t refer clearly and unambiguously to one spe- cific plural noun. In (A),“they” can mean only “divers.”(D) The beginning of this sentence is a bit wordy and “causes themrisking . . .” sounds awkward. The infinite “to risk” is needed in place of “risking.”

BARUAH · Answer

I read ur explanation. I have a doubt in the following sentence.
 Not only did Tom break his leg in the accident but also  fractured  his arm’.

Since we are using "did break ", "fractured" should be "fracture".

daagh , Plz help.

daagh · Answer

What is after not only? A past tense verb 'did.' So for parallelism's sake, we require another past tense verb. That is why we have to say ' fractured" rather ' fracture."

Look at this

HIDE TIMER STATISTICS
The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typically sprang to life, not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.

(A) sprang to life, not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

(B) sprang to life, not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved

(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved

(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved

This is a "not... but" correlative. The correct choice uses 'evolved' rather than 'evolve.'

BARUAH · Answer

Thanks Daagh

ProfChaos · Answer

GMATNinja 
Please help with this one. 
I narrowed it down to A and B

How to eliminate option B?

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi

Let me try to address your query. Let us examine option (B):

B.  Deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "raptures of the deep", if they descend below 200 feet,  but   they also fall prey to decompression sickness, commonly known as the "bends", if they ascend too quickly.

The problem is with the last word of the underlined portion. "But" is a contrasting transitionary word which typically indicates that the sentence is set to move in a different direction. However, there is no contrast in the non-underlined portion - both portions tell us about hazards that deep sea divers face.

In option (A), on the other hand, we have the well accepted idiom "not only...but also". Here, "but" is followed by "also" which indicates continuation of the sentence in the same direction, which is consistent with the information given in the two portions. Hence option (A) does not have the same error as option (B).

Hope this helps.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Not only do deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "rapt

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Not only do deep-sea divers risk nitrogen narcosis, often called "rapt

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