Saudi Arabian oil revenues indicate that, in the last 50 years, the ki

Question

Saudi Arabian oil revenues indicate that, in the last 50 years, the kingdom's oil reserves  grew not in a steady manner but were amassed quickly  , most likely because of the discovery of new drilling sites.

A. grew not in a steady manner but were amassed quickly 
B. grew not steadily but were amassed quickly 
C. did not grow in a steady manner but quickly 
D. were amassed not steadily but had grown quickly
E. were amassed not steadily but quickly

sanch93 · Answer

Option A: Too wordy and does not have parallel structure with idiom 'Not...but...'
Option B: Same as A
Option C: Manner vs Quickly- This does not follow parallel structure
Option D: Reserves grown?! 'Grown' seem to be used inappropriately.
Option E: Is not wordy, does not have parallelism issue and terms used appropriately.

Harsh9676 · Answer

Saudi Arabian oil revenues indicate that, in the last 50 years, the kingdom's oil reserves  grew not in a steady manner but were amassed quickly  , most likely because of the discovery of new drilling sites.

It is testing Parallel Construction.

Marker : Not X but Y

Error: The Verb "Grew" is before the marker Not so it should carry over to the other marker "But". However, the second marker Not has another verb "Were Amassed", so Option A is incorrect.

A.  grew not in a steady manner but were amassed quickly 
B.  grew not steadily but were amassed quickly  >> same error as in Option A
C. did not grow in a steady manner but quickly >> Parallel Construction Error (In a steady manner vs Quickly >> Prep. Phrase vs Adverb)
D. were amassed not steadily but had grown quickly >> Same as Option A 
E. were amassed not steadily but quickly >> Correct Answer.

akadiyan · Answer

Analysis :
Not X but Y parallelism 
Grew -
 - not in a steady manner
 - but were amassed quickly

The word Grew is outside, so according to Once outside rule, the term 'Grew' also applies to 'amassed quickly' which is not the case in the underlined statement.

Lets see the answer choices

A. grew not in a steady manner but were amassed quickly -  Incorrect 
Based on our analysis, the verb grew is outside the parallelism marker, so the statement is not maintaining the parallelism structure.

B. grew not steadily but were amassed quickly -  Incorrect 
Same as in option A

C. did not grow in a steady manner but quickly -  Incorrect 
Removes the parallelism marker and introductes new error , did not grow in a steady manner but quickly, the adverb after but does not match with the prepositional phrase that comes before but.

D. were amassed not steadily but had grown quickly -  Incorrect 
Incorrect structure, the right wording is not steadily but quickly. The Not x but Y structure is not retained.

E. were amassed not steadily but quickly -  Correct 
This option conveys correct meaning, the verb is once outside and the correct parallelism structure Not x but Y is used correctly

Ans:  E

VerbalBot · Answer

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Saudi Arabian oil revenues indicate that, in the last 50 years, the ki

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Saudi Arabian oil revenues indicate that, in the last 50 years, the ki

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