Warsaw began to rebuild not only with brand-new structures,

Question

Warsaw began to rebuild not only  with brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, and also painstaking reconstructions of the old ones  that had been demolished. 


A. with brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, and also painstaking reconstructions of the old ones
B. with brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, as well as painstaking reconstructions of the old ones
C. brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, but also painstaking reconstructions of the old ones
D. brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, but also painstakingly reconstructing the old ones
E. brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, but they also began painstakingly reconstructing the old ones

buzzgaurav · Answer

Straight C.

Correct construction is " not only..........but also ".
Only C and D stand.
D changes the meaning by saying "reconstructing".
The original parallelism is:
 brand-new  structures , injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, but also painstaking  reconstructions  of the old ones

goalsnr · Answer

Idiom "Not only ..but also" is required->A,B are eliminated
E-> incorect reference "they"

Answer D: for correct parallelism ( injecting ,reconstructing )

vineetgupta · Answer

Good explanation...C it is.

Hi goalsnr...the parallelism in not only...but also... is with brand-new structures not with injecting...ie adjective-noun parallelism.

dwivedys · Answer

Between C and D - I choose D because D employs a clause-reduced-to-a-phrase structure (without loss of meaning)

brand-new structures, injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, but also  painstakingly reconstructing  the  old ones  

painstakingly (adverb modifying the adjective  reconstructing ) reconstructing (adjective) = the entire phrase PAINSTAKINGLY RECONSTRUCTING modifies  old ones 

So the parallelism can be explained thus

Warsaw began to rebuild 

not only 

 brand-new structures,  

injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy, 

but also 

  painstakingly reconstructing  the old ones  

that had been demolished.

vineetgupta · Answer

Hi dwivedys,I chose C because it makes more sense:

Warsaw began to build not only brand-new structures...but also painstaking reconstructions...

Whereas D says:
Warsaw began to build not only brand-new structures...but also painstakingly reconstructing...how can warsaw rebuild painstackingly reconstructions??...any thoughts??...Am I going wrong somewhere??

aurobindo · Answer

I think "brand-new structures" and "painstaking reconstructions" are parallel. We need same form of words after not only and but also. No?

AimHigher · Answer

new structures and old ones are parallel 

NOT

new structures and reconstructions 



painstaking reconstructions of the old ones 

and

painstakingly reconstructing the old ones 

both convey different meaning

aurobindo · Answer

I prefer to disagree with u. 

New structures are being built. And reconstructions of old ones are being built. 

Old ones are not the ones which are built. Obviously, they can't be built two times.

Hence, I would say new structures and reconstructions are parallel.

buzzgaurav · Answer

Exactly.
Look at the || construction:

Warsaw  began to rebuild   not only   brand-new structures , injecting a much-needed boost to the local economy,  but also   painstaking reconstructions  of the old ones that had been demolished.

querio · Answer

(C)

A-incorrect use of idiom "not only... but also"
B-incorrect use of idiom "not only... but also"
C-correct; idiom "not only ADJ+NOUN....but also ADJ+NOUN
D-the elements of the idiom are not grammatically parallel
 "...not only ADJ+NOUN.... but also ADVERB+VERB" 
E-incorrect use of idiom "not only... but also" (the pronoun 'they' should be removed)

Juaz · Answer

C. ..began to rebuild ....... painstaking reconstructions  of the old ones  
D. ..began to rebuild ....... painstakingly reconstructring  the old ones  

Chose D.

querio · Answer

'began to rebuild' is affecting BOTH 'brand-new structures' and 'painstaking reconstructions', so the parallel structures should be the above mentioned...

if you look at the structure of the sentence, you will find something like this:
'...began to rebuild NOT ONLY X...BUT ALSO Y..'

catgmat · Answer

....and the winner is:  OA is C  for the reasons mentined by many of you, i.e. parallelism: 
Warsaw  began to rebuild not only   brand-new structures , blablablabla,  but also   painstaking reconstructions  of blablablabla. 
thumbs up for the discussion and cheers!

balajinaik · Answer

I chose D, coz the word "Began" indicates and event that happened in the past and still continuing. which means the painstaking effort is stillcontinuing. hence chose the ing form in reconstructuing.

can someone clarify this.

dwivedys · Answer

Are you saying BEGAN implies a present-perfect tense? If that's the case then it's not correct. For present perfect you need HAS/HAVE + past participle..

 Has Begun  will indicate an action that BEGAN in the past and is continuing into the present.

THis question by the way blew the living lights out of me.

Warsaw began to rebuild not only with brand-new structures,

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