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Question

Difficulty: HardParallel Structure

An urban planner drafts a statement detailing a strategy to reduce municipal carbon emissions. How should the following phrases be sequenced to form a grammatically parallel and logically organized sentence?

  1. 1not only by expanding public transit networks,
  2. 2but also by transitioning municipal vehicles to electric power,
  3. 3and ultimately by upgrading building efficiency standards.

Answer

The correct sequence is: 'not only by expanding public transit networks,' followed by 'but also by transitioning municipal vehicles to electric power,' and ending with 'and ultimately by upgrading building efficiency standards.'
The correct order establishes a parallel correlative structure ('not only... but also...') followed by a final list element ('and ultimately...'). Each segment uses the parallel prepositional-gerund form ('by expanding...', 'by transitioning...', 'by upgrading...').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the correlative conjunctions and list elements.
The phrases contain the correlative conjunction pair 'not only' and 'but also', as well as the concluding conjunction 'and ultimately'.
This helps determine the logical sequence of the conjunctions, establishing that 'not only' must precede 'but also', which in turn must precede the final list element 'and ultimately'.
2
Verify the parallel grammatical form of each segment.
Each segment is structured as 'by' + gerund phrase: 'by expanding...', 'by transitioning...', and 'by upgrading...'.
Ensuring that each list item uses the exact same grammatical structure maintains parallel structure throughout the sentence.
3
Assemble the segments in the correct order.
The correct order is 'not only by expanding public transit networks,', 'but also by transitioning municipal vehicles to electric power,', and 'and ultimately by upgrading building efficiency standards.'.
This sequence satisfies both the logical order of the correlative conjunctions and the parallel grammatical structure.

Key Concept

Parallel structure with correlative conjunctions and list elements
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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