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.

(B) is the answer IMO

A) "So much that"/"as much as" are the correct idiom..not so much as..
Also Strands are a plural subject -SV also exist with idiom issues

B) Correct choice
Idiom issue is corrected and verb is appropriately changed

C) Comparison is fine, but meaning is changed slightly as "as much as" is not same as "more than"
In the later part there is some jumbling that looks awkward - could be typo

D) As much than is wrong idiom + Parallelism issue in the second part

E) SV error in second part

sva error in strands and carries. so, A and E, out
in D not only is preceded by verb carry. parallelism error
in C "RNA that carry not only carry" error
so, left with B, which is the answer, imo

Posted from my mobile device

My answer is (B). It took me 01:26.

Note that there must be a typo in (C) because "carry" occurs twice "carry not only carry". I did not notice it when I attempted this question.

Parallelism in "not only A but also B" has to be honored. I still remember being tested about "not only A but also B" in the actual test I took. Sometimes, it got very technical and somewhat boring. We just need to be careful.

In this sentence, we already know "but also act as catalysts" must be correct. So, we need a verb after "not only". and the subject must be a plural. (The subject "strands" is indeed plural, but it has to be because of the parallelism. )

(A) "not only carries" is not parallel with "but also act "
(C) "carry not only" is not parallel with "but also act". (There might be a typo. I did not know. Upon seeing "carry not only", I eliminated (C) right away).
(D) "carry not only" is not parallel with "but also act".
(E) "not only carries" is not parallel with "but also act "

Wow, it seems to be a single issue question. But what if (C) is
C) more than did the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information

In this case, "not only carry" is parallel with "but also act".
We have to compare (B) and (C) and notice their differences.
In (C), in order to use "more than", I feel that "fewer" should be used.
Also, "more than did" should be "more than has" to be parallel with "have".
So (C) is still incorrect.

Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information – in the form of DNA – but also act as catalysts.

A) so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information
- Subject Verb Agreement (SVA) error (strands of RNA carrries )

B) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information
- CORRECT

C) more than did the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only carry genetic information
- in correct sentence "strands of RNA that" appears that has been used as noun+ noun modifier
- Sentence structure for C
strands of RNA
------that carry
not only carry genetic information
- here it is acting as IC and not properly connected with first part

D) as much than the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only genetic information
- Idiom Error ( as much than)
- Parallelism error - Not only ......X ..........but also......Y (dual marker parallelism should be strictly maintained)

E) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information
- SVA error same as A

One error that immediately strikes you is the word "carries". The "strands of RNA carry genetic information" and not the RNA itself.

So, immediately, after a quick glance at options, we can strike A and E for the above reason.

Now, out of B, C and D:

D is the most obviously incorrect as it uses wrong comparison: as much than instead of as much as

Now left are B and C

Looking carefully at C,

Let us put it this way: Few events have electrified........more than the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes has electrified.........

Awkward!
Also, there is a change in meaning as well. This sentence no longer conveys the original meaning. It simply means few events have electrified more than the 1980s discovery. Totally different meaning !

Another issue with C is parallelism: strands of RNA that carry not only carry genetic information........... but also act as catalysts

So there you have it: B is answer. B uses proper comparison and S-V agreement.

Idiom errors:
so much as ... it should be as much as Eliminate A
as much than ... it should be as much as Eliminate D

Now, in this sentence .. strands of RNA that carry .... describes ribozymes . The subject here is strands which is plural and require plural verb carry!
Answer choices that use singular verbs can be eliminated.. Eliminate E

Now we are left with B and C

Few events have ... as much as ...
Few events have ... much than did ...

Here I think the verb should be parallel while comparing!
have ... did are totally in different time frame. So Eliminate C
Still not sure.... waiting for the official answer..

We are left with B as the answer..

Posted from my mobile device

Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information – in the form of DNA – but also act as catalysts.

A) so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information -> SVA agreement issue, "strands of RNA... carries.." is incorrect, we need plural verb. Incorrect.

B) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information -> Subject verb agreement is better and as much as is better idiom also. Let's keep it.

C) more than did the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only carry genetic information -> "carry not only carry" is not parallel with "but also act...". Incorrect.

D) as much than the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only genetic information -> Parallelism error; "carry not only ..." is not parallel with "but also act...". Incorrect.

E) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information -> SVA agreement issue.

So, I think B.

Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information – in the form of DNA – but also act as catalysts.

Analysis: SVA - 'RNA ribozymes' is a plural subject and thus requires a plural verb 'carry'.
Idiom - 'so much as' is incorrect idiom usage, correct idiom is 'so much as'. Similarly, 'as much than' is incorrect, correct usage is 'as much as'

A) so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information

B) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information

C) more than did the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only carry genetic information

D) as much than the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only genetic information

E) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information

Answer should be Option B.
_________________

Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information – in the form of DNA – but also act as catalysts.

As per my understanding the sentence has two clauses:
1. Few events have electrified the origin-of-life community so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, (SV highlighted)
2. strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information – in the form of DNA – but also act as catalysts. (SV highlighted)

There are only Idiom & SV errors in this sentence.

Idiom Error in first clause: so many as instead of as many as
SV Error in second clause: If we look at the non underlined part "but also act as catalysts" we can see that the verb act is plural. So, the verb carries should also be plural, as both the verbs are referring back to THAT (referring back to the strains).

A) so much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information....SV & Idiom ERROR.

B) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carry genetic information....This option rectifies both the errors.

C) more than did the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only carry genetic information.....The idiom not only.....but also is not parallel in its structure. If we see that the verb carry precedes not only, whereas the verb act succeeds but also (i think the highlighted part is a typo).
Also, more than did..... changes the meaning of the original sentence. The original sentence conveys that the effect of both (Few events & discoveriy) was equal, where as this choice means that the effect of few events is more than the effect of discovery.

D) as much than the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that carry not only genetic information.....This option rectifies the SV error but Idiom error still exists.

E) as much as the early 1980s discovery of RNA ribozymes, strands of RNA that not only carries genetic information......This option rectifies the Idiom error but SV error still exists.

Option B is the correct answer

The official answer is here.