Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers an examination not only of

Question

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers  an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but  also a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.

(A) an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
(B) an examination not only about the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
(C) not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
(D) not only an examination about the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
(E) not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but

NEW question from GMAT® Official Guide 2019 
(SC01470)

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Accepted Answer

Hello Everyone!

Here is another great example of a question that focuses on two major concepts found in several GMAT Sentence Correction questions: parallel structure and idiomatic structure. Let’s start with idiomatic structure, and narrow our answers down to only a few options.

The idiomatic structure used here should be  “not only X, but also Y.”  Right away, we can rule out answers B and C because they use “not only X,  and  also Y,” which is  INCORRECT .

This leaves us with answers A, D, and E. To find the right answer, let’s now look at parallel structure. The correct answer will use parallel structure for both the X and Y parts of the idiom:

A. an examination not only  of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form,  but also  a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism

This is  NOT PARALLEL  because the phrase “an examination” needs to come after “not only” for this to be parallel. Therefore, this is  INCORRECT .

D. not only  an examination  about  the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form,  but also  a skillfully navigated exploration  of  the major concerns of modernism 
 
This one is tricky, but it is also  NOT PARALLEL  because the phrases “an examination about” and “a skillfully navigated exploration of” are not parallel – they both need to say “about” or “of” to work. Therefore, this is also  INCORRECT .

E. not only  an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form , but also  a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism
 
This answer is  PARALLEL  in structure on both sides! It is the  CORRECT  answer!

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

arun6765 · Answer

E SHOULD BE CORRECT.

E rectify the unidiomatic usgae of not only ..... but also as in A, B, C

Between D & E subtle difference in meaning makes E more preferable contender.

Bunuel  I think you forgot to underline this SC, if you could please underline will be helpful.

Bunuel · Answer

______________
Edited. Thank you.

sudarshan22 · Answer

+1 for  E .

A. an examination not only  of how difficult it is to reconcile reason,  will, and passion together in any art form, but

B. an examination not only  about   the difficulty of  reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and

C. not only an examination  of how difficult it is to reconcile reason , will, and passion in any art form,  and

D. not only an examination  about   the difficulty with  reconciling reason, will, and passion  together  in any art form, but

E. not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but -->   Correct,  Not only X, but also Y

GyMrAT · Answer

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers  an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but  also a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.

A. an examination not only  of how difficult it  is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
B. an examination not only  about the difficulty  of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
C. not only an examination  of how difficult  it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
D. not only an examination  about the difficulty  with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
E. not only an examination  of the difficulty  of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but

Answer E use correct parallelism, not only an examination of the......but also a skillfully navigated exploration of the...

Thanks,
GyM

SSM700plus · Answer

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers  an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but  also a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.

A. an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
B. an examination not only about the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
C. not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form, and
 
D. not only an examination about the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 
E. not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but

It uses idiom - not only X but also Y. And X & Y should be parallel.

And to solve this question we need to pay attention to non-underlined part of the question. It starts with a noun - a skillfully navigated exploration

So X should also start with a noun.

Y - a skillfully navigated exploration

X - an examination.........

Hence eliminate A & B.

Please notice the "and" at the end of choice. Eliminate C.

D is wordy. the use - about the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form - is incorrect.
Also x,y and z together. It is an redundancy in play. Eliminate D.
 
Hence E is best of all.

Nightmare007 · Answer

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers an examination  not only  of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form,  but also  a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.

A. an examination  not only of how difficult  it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form,  but ALSO A SKILLFULLY NAVIGATED EXPLORATION  - Parallelism error

B. an examination  not only about the difficulty  of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and also   IDIOM : NOT ONLY.... BUT ALSO.... & parallelism error

C. not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form, and ---  IDIOM ERROR: NOT ONLY.... BUT ALSO....

D. not only an  examination about the difficulty with reconciling  reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but
 examination about the difficulty with reconciling... WRONG.

E. not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but = CORRECTED ALL ABOVE STATED ERRORS. CORRECT ANSWER

chetan2u · Answer

Two errors that can get you to Correct answer..

1)idiom is NOT ONLY..... BUT ALSO...
C can be eliminated..
2) not only X ..... but also Y...
X and Y have to be PARALLEL..
Y here is non underlined portion and is a noun phrase, so X should also be a NOUN phrase..

Only E left

XYZABCABC · Answer

Is the usage of both "reconcile" and "together" redundant in a sentence?

kashhtu · Answer

Hi Can you help with the correct proposition used with the word examination?
Do we use examination of/about both?

thangvietnam · Answer

in choice D, reconcile can not go with "together". reconcile somethings, reconcile somthing to something. we do not have reconcile together.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers  an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but  also a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.
 
ALWAYS SAVE TIME BY ELIMINATING FIRST

Elimination 1
Since there is a clear "a" after also in non underlined portion, we cannot have a construction as in A and B.

Elimination 2
Idiomatic usage dictates "not only...... but also", Unlike that in C.

ELIMINATION 3
This gets tricky
Usually people pick E because of clarity and concision
BUT
Logically it follows that it is an examination of something, not an exam about something with something else (as in D)

A. an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but (ELIMINATION 1)
 
B. an examination not only about the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, and(ELIMINATION 1)
 
C. not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form, and (ELIMINATION 2)
 
D. not only an examination about the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but (ELIMINATION 3)
 
E. not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but (ELIMINATION 3)

adkikani · Answer

generis

Thanks for your awesome explanations regarding NOT ONLY, BUT ALSO  here

Does it make sense to edit point (2) as:
prepositions, verbs,  noun phrases  and split verbs create the most problems.
 
is a big noun phrase in options C/D.
Also is GMAC very particular in COPYING the same preposition after/ before not only and but also ?
In this official q, the preposition ABOUT is not consistent with OF. And that's why one rejects D. 
Also do you think  together  does not go too well with  and  in D?Is my approach correct?

NeverEverGiveUp11 · Answer

I think that the deterministic error In D is redundancy. "Reconciling" and "together" in this context mean the same. I don't think that GMAT is particular about prepositions given that both are noun phrases. 
Correct me if I am wrong  generis   hazelnut

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

The  idiom  under consideration here is ‘ not only X… but also Y ’

There is also the issue of  parallelism . We can see that in Option A, it says ‘an examination not only of…’. 
The correct placement of ‘not only’ is before the words ‘an examination’.

The correct option should read –  not only an examination of…

Let’s scan the options now:

(A) an examination  not only of how difficult it  is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but

(B) an examination  not only about the difficulty  of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and

(C) not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and

(D) not only an examination  about the difficulty  with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but

(E)  not only an examination of  the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form,  but

Eliminate Options A, B, C and D 
 
 Option E  is the best option.

Hope this helps!

LoneSurvivor · Answer

Confusion is around D and E

Look at the non underlined part "exploration  of " , E is parallel

thangvietnam · Answer

the terrible mistake in choice D is "reconcile together". we dont need "together " to go with "reconcile".

CEdward · Answer

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but also a skillfully navigated exploration of the major concerns of modernism.

(A) an examination not only of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but

The correct idiom is "not only ...but also", which this choice captures. It errs, however, because of the prepositional phrase that follows not only: 'of how difficult it is to reconcile' is not parallel with the noun that follows the 'but' in the idom: 'skillfully navigated exploration'

(B) an examination not only about the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and  X

Violates the proper idiom usage "not only...but also"

(C) not only an examination of how difficult it is to reconcile reason, will, and passion in any art form,  and

Violates the proper idiom usage "not only...but also"

(D) not only an examination  about  the difficulty  with  reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but

-"examination of' is idiomatic
-'of' is preferred over 'with' in 'difficulty with'

(E) not only an examination of the difficulty of reconciling reason, will, and passion in any art form, but 
Correct

Abhishek2901 · Answer

(D) not only an examination about the difficulty with reconciling reason, will, and passion together in any art form, but

One of the word 'reconciling' or 'together' is redundant. So D is not correct

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers an examination not only of

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus offers an examination not only of

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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