847. The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typically sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.
(A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved
(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved
Solution:
OG Solution:
C, the best choice, places not and but in such a way that the distinction between springing to life in a flash of inspiration and evolving slowly is logically and idiomatically expressed. A and B are faulty because, for grammatical parallelism, not in a flash... must be followed by but in..., not by a conjugated form of the verb. Moreover, were slowly evolved is incorrect in B because evolve, in this sense of the word, cannot be made passive. Choices C, D, and E all correctly place not before spring. D, however, contains inconsistent verb tenses; E contains the faulty passive and an intrusive they
Sentence Correction - 1000 Questions with Solution:
(A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved
(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved
Solution:
OG Solution:
C, the best choice, places not and but in such a way that the distinction between springing to life in a flash of inspiration and evolving slowly is logically and idiomatically expressed. A and B are faulty because, for grammatical parallelism, not in a flash... must be followed by but in..., not by a conjugated form of the verb. Moreover, were slowly evolved is incorrect in B because evolve, in this sense of the word, cannot be made passive. Choices C, D, and E all correctly place not before spring. D, however, contains inconsistent verb tenses; E contains the faulty passive and an intrusive they
Sentence Correction - 1000 Questions with Solution: