Question

Difficulty: MediumParallel Structure

The passage below is from an essay about ancient Roman engineering. Which form of the verb 'remove' completes the passage so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Answer:In his analysis of ancient Roman infrastructure, historian Marcus Vance argues that aqueducts were designed not only to transport freshwater to growing cities but also to 【remove】 waste from public baths. These stone channels represented a major leap in civil engineering, vastly transforming urban sanitation and improving public health across the empire.

Answer

remove
The sentence employs the correlative conjunction 'not only... but also...' to connect two actions. The first action is expressed using the infinitive construction 'to transport'. To maintain parallel structure, the second action must also use an infinitive construction. Because the word 'to' precedes the blank in the sentence ('but also to {{blank_1}}'), the blank must be filled with the base verb 'remove' to form the parallel infinitive 'to remove'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the grammatical construction linking the elements in the sentence.
The sentence uses the correlative conjunction 'not only... but also...' to link two parallel actions.
Correlative conjunctions require the phrases they connect to be grammatically parallel.
2
Determine the grammatical form of the first element in the parallel construction.
The first element is the infinitive phrase 'to transport freshwater'.
This establishes that the second element must also use an infinitive verb form.
3
Select the form of the verb 'remove' that completes the second infinitive phrase parallel to 'to transport'.
Since the preposition 'to' is already present before the blank ('but also to {{blank_1}}'), the blank must be completed with the base form of the verb: 'remove'.
This creates the parallel construction 'not only to transport... but also to remove...'.

Key Concept

Parallel Structure with Correlative Conjunctions
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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