The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America did it not at Plymouth but along the shore of the James River west of Chesapeake Bay.

(A) it not at Plymouth but
(B) so not at Plymouth but
(C) not at Plymouth but instead
(D) not at Plymouth but did so
(E) it not at Plymouth but rather

I reject A and E as 'it' as no pronoun referent. We want 'it' to point to the act of building the settlement, but I'm not so sure if 'it' is the correct pronoun to do that.

C and D are out as 'not as Plymouth' does not connect smoothly with 'did' in the non-underlined part of the sentence.

I'll go with B. 'did so' refers to the act of building the settlement and 'but' performs the comparison.

B it is.

I guess you posted it at the same time as I did - to hedge any further contradictions - I agree with anyone who chooses B for this question

In fact, this question is of those types where you can judge just by seeing at the first word of the underlined portion.

All choices apart from choice that starts with 'so' is wrong, you need not see the choices for further problems unless there is more than one choice with 'so'.

Any agreements/disagreements?

In A, 'it' refers to the act of establishing a permanent colony.
However, 'IT' must always refer to a noun, not to an action.
Since in A 'it' refers to an action, it's a wrong sentence.
In B, 'so' correctly refers to establishing a permanent colony.

Not sure why 'A' is wrong. Isn't 'it' refers to 'colony' in option A? Any explanation will be really appreciated!!

A.it not at Plymouth but
what does it refer to? no referent.

B.so not at Plymouth but
yes "so" is used to present the action. gmat likes the usage of "do so".

C.not at Plymouth but instead
but and instead are redundant. we should use only one contrast word.

D.not at Plymouth but did so
not x but y. here x and y are not parallel.

E.it not at Plymouth but rather
"it" is wrong. not x but rather y is not idiomatic.
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