SC: Parallelism

by GK Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:13 am

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argues that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.

b) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
c) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
d) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are

I picked C over D, but D is the correct answer. The correct idiom is 'not X but Y'. Can you please explain why 'are' is required after 'but' to make the comparison correct? '...are not the products of natural selection but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.' --> why is this incorrect? Is it because we need to compare a verb with another verb? Thanks.

by **Guest** Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:13 pm

I agree with GK. I would have done the same.
Please explain OA.

by **StaceyKoprince** Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:35 pm

Please cite the source of the question; if you don't, we'll have to delete it.

by GK Tue Nov 13, 2007 3:28 am

I believe that the source is www.testmagicforum.com

by **RonPurewal** Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:19 am

OK, but that isn't an actual source - that's still a FORUM, on which people post questions from other sources for discussion. We still need the original source, so that we can determine whether we're legally allowed to host the question (and answer it) here.

thanks.