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Question

Difficulty: MediumParallel Structure

During the excavation of the ancient Roman villa, archaeologists focused not only on uncovering intact mosaics but also on the documentation of the site's structural foundations.

Which of the following choices best maintains parallel structure in the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. on documentingAnswer
  3. C
    to document
  4. D
    documented

Answer

on documenting
The correct choice is 'on documenting' because it establishes parallel structure with the first part of the correlative construction. The phrase 'not only on uncovering' uses the preposition 'on' followed by a gerund ('uncovering'). To maintain parallelism, the phrase following 'but also' must use the same structure: the preposition 'on' followed by the gerund 'documenting'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the correlative conjunction and the grammatical structure of the first element.
The sentence uses the correlative conjunction 'not only... but also'. The phrase immediately following 'not only' is 'on uncovering intact mosaics', which is a prepositional phrase containing the gerund 'uncovering'.
Parallel structure requires that elements joined by correlative conjunctions share the same grammatical form.
2
Analyze the underlined portion following 'but also' to check for parallel structure.
The underlined phrase 'on the documentation of' is a prepositional phrase containing the noun 'documentation', which is not parallel to the gerund 'uncovering'.
To maintain parallelism, the second element must also be a prepositional phrase with the preposition 'on' followed by a gerund.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that uses a gerund phrase beginning with the preposition 'on'.
The phrase 'on documenting' matches 'on uncovering' in both preposition and gerund form.
This maintains grammatical balance and clarity across the sentence.

Key Concept

Parallel Structure with Correlative Conjunctions
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Topics

Parallel Structure

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