The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America : Sentence Correction (SC)

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The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America

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Director

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The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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30 May 2005, 20:39

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Difficulty:

15% (low)

Question Stats:

71% (00:55) correct

29% (01:08) wrong

based on 436 sessions

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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

Spoiler: OA

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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29 Apr 2016, 11:33

badboson wrote:

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

When it is required to refer to an entire action rather than a single noun, we must use do so rather than do it.

Here the entire action "establish a permanent colony" is required to be referred to , not just "colony". Hence usage of "it" is wrong.

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CEO

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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30 May 2005, 20:47

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.

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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30 May 2005, 20:53

I agree with ywilfred on B

I wonder why i marked it as C in my test :wall

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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30 May 2005, 21:05

HIMALAYA wrote:

Vithal wrote:

I agree with ywilfred on B. I wonder why i marked it as C in my test :wall

don't you agree with me.

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

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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31 May 2005, 03:36

It's B.

A) 'it' is trying to replace action of 'establishing colony' (pronoun)
C) & D) both cause problem since 'not' comes directly after 'did'
E) same as 'A'

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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31 May 2005, 03:43

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?

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2005, 18:12

why cant "it" refer to establishing colony? I feel like you need it or else the sentence does not make sense.

What does "did so" refer to? How are you making the leap that "did so" refers to establishing colony?

Manager

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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05 Jun 2005, 01:51

gmataquaguy wrote:

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.

Manager

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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05 Jun 2005, 10:24

It is so clearly "B" that I didn't care to read other choices after "B".
which might be very hazardous if I continue doing this

Intern

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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27 Apr 2016, 12:05

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

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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30 Apr 2016, 17:07

sayantanc2k wrote:

badboson wrote:

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

Thanks Sayantanc2k. Appreciate the help!!

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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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21 Aug 2016, 07:58

Vithal wrote:

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
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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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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31 Aug 2016, 22:03

did so...not in..but along. The only option that addresses all necessary parallelism is B.
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Re: The first English settlers to establish a permanent colony in America [#permalink]

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22 Sep 2019, 22:36

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