Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



THE PROMPT

The correct idiomatic expression in context of the sentence is as much as.

In addition, the idiom Not Only X But Also Y requires strict parallelism.
The X element (which comes after "not only") and the Y element (which comes after "not also") must be parallel.

In particular, in order to maintain parallel structure, whatever comes after not only must be the same part of speech that plays the same logical role as what comes after but also.
Stated differently, whatever comes attached to the X element does not automatically "carry over" to the Y element.

THE OPTIONS (in a slightly shortened sentence)

• subject verb disagreement
→ In the that-clause, the plural subject strands does not agree with the singular verb carries.

• comparative idiom error
→ The correct idiom is AS MUCH AS. You will hear "so much as" in informal speech. Don't choose it on the GMAT.
ELIMINATE A

B) Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information but also act as catalysts.
• I do not see any errors
• correct idiom is used: as much as
• parallelism is correct
→ X = not only carry
→ Y = but also act
Carry and act are both verbs. The parallel structure is intact.
KEEP


EDIT: the original post contained a typo that I just caught and that made this option easy to eliminate. I have fixed the typo.

• more than did is probably fine from a meaning perspective, but a subtle parallelism problem exists.


→ Meaning: In this context, that phrase means the same thing as, or something very similar to, the phrase as much as.
Both mean that the discovery of RNA ribozymes was one of the most exciting events in the history of a particular scientific community.

• DID parallelism?
→ Although they are both past tense verbs, did cannot substitute for have electrified because did cannot substitute for have when have is a helping verb.

Some form of the verb TO DO (did, does, do) can substitute for almost any verb in the English language, with two significant exceptions.
→ DO cannot substitute for TO BE verbs.
Wrong: I was hungry and she did, too. ["did" cannot substitute for "was."]

→ DO cannot substitute for have when have is a helping (auxiliary) verb. If have is a main verb (i.e. that means possess, own, experience), DO can substitute.
Correct: Henri has a concert ticket, and Rohan does, too [= Rohan has/owns/possesses a concert ticket].
Wrong: I had finished eating and he did, too.
Correct: I had finished eating and he had [finished eating], too.

• parallelism error
→ act (a verb) follows "not only" and is not parallel to genetic information (a noun), which follows "but also."
→ Find the parallelism marker, in this case, not only. Look to the right of that phrase.
You could also start with but also, because it's usually easier to work from right to left when you investigate parallelism.
To most native speakers, nothing sounds wrong with this sentence.
→ For the X and Y elements to be parallel, though, the verb carry should follow the words not only. Then we would have two verb phrases.
We do not.
ELIMINATE C

• idiom error
Use as much as.
NEVER use as much than. Those words don't make sense in English.
The word than must accompany comparative words such as more, great, less, fewer, taller, etc—but must never be coupled with AS in this context.

• parallelism error
→ Same problem as that in option C.
The X element = genetic information. The Y element = act. The first is a noun, whereas the second is a verb. Not parallel.
ELIMINATE D


• subject/verb agreement
The singular verb carries does not agree with the plural subject strands.
ELIMINATE E

The correct answer is B.

COMMENTS

rocky620 and animagreborn , welcome to SC Butler.

What a nice cross-section of forum members!

These answers range from very good to excellent.
I want to bump someone, but I have at least four posts—probably more—that qualify.


You've done well. Nice work.