Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement as

Question

Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement as for their being practical work clothes.

A. Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement as for their being practical work clothes. 
B. Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement but for their being practical work clothes. 
C. Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement but for being practical work clothes 
D. Denim jeans were originally worn not as a fashion statement as for them being practical work clothes. 
E. Denim jeans were originally worn not as a fashion statement but as for them being practical work clothes.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Accepted Answer

We have two choices of structure here: "not so much X as Y" or "not X but Y."

B-D mix these two structures together: "not so much X but Y" or "not X as Y."

A and E are both miserable and awkward, and as a writer, I wouldn't want to sign my name to either of them. BUT . . . A has two advantages over E:

First, the parallelism makes more sense. A compares "as a fashion statement" with "for their being practical work clothes." These are both modifiers, and they can be parallel, even if the second one is terrible. E compares "as a fashion statement" with "as for them being practical." This doesn't make sense: they're worn  as  for   their being practical? (Note that this is different from A, in which the "as" is part of the comparison structure: "not so much X as Y."

Second, there's a difference between the use of "their" and "them." In A, the possessive pronoun "their" modifies "being practical." In E, we have the regular pronoun "them." This isn't a modifier, so it doesn't work to convey the desired meaning. This is a common grammar trick that contrasts with how we often speak in real life. You might say "Do you object to me leaving early?" but we should really say "Do you object to my leaving early?" It's the leaving early, not you, that they should be objecting to.

Abhishek009 · Answer

Good one campus1995 , Got it wrong hence googled and found that actually it is testing an Idiom - not so much A as B Here is something from Magoosh - https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-idiom ... junctions/

rukna · Answer

I narrowed to A because of Idiom, Not so much X as Y
although all choices seem bit weird. It could be written much more clearly.

What is the source of this ?

bluetrain · Answer

It`s really well made question

Structure of the sentence is as follows

A - Denim jeans were originally worn not so much "as a fashion statement" as "for their being practical work clothes"

Denim jeans were originally worn as a fashion statement
Denim jeans were originally worn for their being practical work clothes.

faltan · Answer

this is extreme to catch by bare eyes:)

push12345 · Answer

I found C to be more appropriate as not so much as is already covered in first half of sentence 
but just for sake of parallelism and reason by  DmitryFarber  , i would agree with A .
Overall i would say this is not a good question

UrsaMajor · Answer

Why not C? As it is following the logic of "not so much X but Y"?

Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement as

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Denim jeans were originally worn not so much as a fashion statement as

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

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