Read the sentence to find if there is any grammatical error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence:
The task force's proposals, notable for their scope and precision, (1)/ generated concern not only among the agencies affected (2)/ but also from the auditors who claim they (3)/ had been denied access to vital documents. (4)
Correct Answer :
(3)
Solution :
The correct answer is (3).
Detailed Explanation:
This question tests the rule of parallel construction when using correlative conjunctions, specifically the pair "not only ... but also".
When using correlative conjunctions, the grammatical elements following each part of the conjunction pair must be parallel in structure. This means if a specific preposition is used after "not only", the same preposition (or parallel structural form) should follow "but also" to maintain sentence symmetry.
Let's break down the sentence structure:
- Part (1): "The task force's proposals, notable for their scope and precision," — Grammatically correct subject and modifier.
- Part (2): "generated concern not only among the agencies affected" — Introduces the correlative conjunction "not only" followed by the preposition "among".
- Part (3): "but also from the auditors who claim they" — Contains a grammatical error. The preposition "from" disrupts the parallel structure established by "among" in part (2).
- Part (4): "had been denied access to vital documents." — Grammatically correct clause.
To fix the error in part (3), "from" should be replaced with "among" so that both phrases after the correlative conjunctions share identical prepositional framing (not only among... but also among...).
Corrected Sentence:
"The task force's proposals, notable for their scope and precision, generated concern not only among the agencies affected but also among the auditors who claim they had been denied access to vital documents."
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