* 73.Evolutionary psychology holds that the human mind...

[pigoogee]

73. (28457-!-item-!-188;#058&003634)

Evolutionary psychology holds that the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving specific problems human ancestors faced millions of years ago.

(A) the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving
(B) the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve
(C) the human mind, instead of a "blank slate," it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that have been developed to solve
(D) rather than it being a "blank slate," the human mind comprises specialized mental mechanisms that have been developed as a way of solving
(E) rather than the human mind's being a "blank slate," that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving


The answer is B, how to justify this parallel structure? The not...but...structure.

[RonPurewal]

is this problem actually from the GMAT PREP software? have you seen it firsthand on the software?

if so, please post a screenshot of the problem -- if this is the case, then we are going to have to update our understanding of the "not ... but" parallel structure.
if you are not able to post a screenshot of the problem, we will withhold judgment until someone can post such a screenshot (or, alternatively, until someone confirms that this problem is not actually from the software).

thanks.

[petro.kit]

hi,
yes I saw this problem in gmatprep.
answer is B.

here is an idiom .....NOT A BUT INSTEAD B - A||B.
Please refer to MGMAT SC pg 160 you will see the idiom.

[RonPurewal]

hi,
yes I saw this problem in gmatprep.
answer is B.

here is an idiom .....NOT A BUT INSTEAD B - A||B.
Please refer to MGMAT SC pg 160 you will see the idiom.

yeah, that's my point -- the constructions in (b) here are *not* parallel.
after "not" there's only a noun; after "but" there's a verb + object. that's bad parallelism.

do you have a screen shot of this problem from the actual gmatprep software?
i don't understand the weird code posted by the original poster; furthermore, the "73" strongly suggests that the problem is from some other source.

if a screenshot is not posted as proof, i'll delete this thread in the next couple of weeks.

[kevinmarmstrong]

Ron,

I can confirm that this question is actually from GMATPrep. I will figure out how to send over a screenshot!

Kevincanspain
Gmatclasses S.L.
Madrid

[mschwrtz]

We still await a screenshot....

In the meantime I will note that most accounts of Standard Written English countenance expressions of the form

X is not A but is B.
e.g. Mary is not pregnant but is trying to steal a basketball.

X is not only A but is also B.
e.g. Mary is not only pregnant but is also trying to steal a basketball.

I'm not sure that the GMAT version of Standard Written English countenances such expressions, though, so we await a screenshot....

Oh, and when the verb is something other than a form of "to be," as it is in the cited example, the sentence starts to look pretty odd by any reasonable standard. By which perhaps I mean "to me."

[kevinmarmstrong]

I took a picture of the question using my mobile phone. Can I email you the screenshots?

[mschwrtz]

OK, send it along then.

michaels@manhattangmat.com

By the way, does anyone require more than the answer given above?

[RonPurewal]

after receiving a private message on another forum, i thought about this issue for a little bit and realized what's going on.

basically, in this sentence, the parallel structure is not actually "not X but Y"; it's just "X but Y".

background:
structure 1: "not X but Y"
this construction signifies that "X" is expected, normal, or customary in the given situation but that "Y" is what is actually present / has happened / will happen.
for instance:
Restaurant X's "hamburgers" are made not of actual hamburger but of turkey.

structure 2: "X but Y"
this construction signifies some sort of general contrast between X and Y, but lacks the semantic sense that Y is a substitute for X.
for instance:
i am not a doctor but can fix your broken finger.

so, the correct answer to this problem can be understood as a case of structure #2 -- note my example above ("i am not a doctor but can fix your broken finger"), which will also appear incorrect if you try to process it as structure #1.

--

FOOTNOTE
if anybody reading this post happens to speak spanish, this distinction will be very easy to understand, because these two cases of "but" correspond to two completely different spanish words -- the "but" in structure #1 is sino in spanish, while the "but" in #2 is pero.

[dverma4830]

There has been so much talk on justifying B but how to rule out A when it clearly has better parallelism.

Is it bad idiom developed as vs developed to


(A) the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving
(B) the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve

[jnelson0612]

There has been so much talk on justifying B but how to rule out A when it clearly has better parallelism.

Is it bad idiom developed as vs developed to


(A) the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving
(B) the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve

I think A has a major problem with the "that it".

The idiom is not X but instead Y

B says "the human mind is not a blank slate but instead comprises . . mechanisms"

A similar sentence would be "The class is not singularly focused but instead comprises several topics."

Compare that to "The class is not singularly focused but instead that it comprises several topics." What is the "that it" doing there?

Remember that the GMAT's favorite way of creating wrong answer choices in sentence correction is through the use of incorrect pronouns. Any pronouns you see should be thoroughly scrutinized.

[gs.abhinav]

There has been so much talk on justifying B but how to rule out A when it clearly has better parallelism.

Is it bad idiom developed as vs developed to


(A) the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving
(B) the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve

I think A has a major problem with the "that it".

The idiom is not X but instead Y

B says "the human mind is not a blank slate but instead comprises . . mechanisms"

A similar sentence would be "The class is not singularly focused but instead comprises several topics."

Compare that to "The class is not singularly focused but instead that it comprises several topics." What is the "that it" doing there?

Remember that the GMAT's favorite way of creating wrong answer choices in sentence correction is through the use of incorrect pronouns. Any pronouns you see should be thoroughly scrutinized.

Jamie/Ron, a question about the reporting verb "holds" in this sentence. I got this wrong because I tried to put the pronoun "that" in the later half of the sentence..it sounded awkward but the rule eventually got me..

For example:
"the news reporter announced that the weather was going to be bad in the next 24 hours and that there was a high chance of a severe snow storm"

similarly

Early psychology holds that the mind is not a "blank slate" but instead that it comprises mental mechanisms.

Also, the verb clauses after "that" seemed parallel (bolded clauses). Does this fail because of the conjunction "but" in this sentence?

[RonPurewal]

the parallelism in (a) seems ok, if a bit uglier than that in (b).

the thing that's most wrong about choice (a) is the phrase "developed as a way of solving". this is not correct -- if taken literally, this phrase indicates that the development of these mechanisms -- in other words, not the mechanisms themselves -- was the way of solving problems. that's not a reasonable meaning.

[saintjingjing]

the parallelism in (a) seems ok, if a bit uglier than that in (b).

the thing that's most wrong about choice (a) is the phrase "developed as a way of solving". this is not correct -- if taken literally, this phrase indicates that the development of these mechanisms -- in other words, not the mechanisms themselves -- was the way of solving problems. that's not a reasonable meaning.

en, I am confused again, initially, ron says that not... but is not parallel, because but in A belongs to structure 2: "X but Y"
. But later, Ron says parallelism is correct. can anyone tell me in A not... but is correct or wrong? and why ? thanks

[saintjingjing]

There has been so much talk on justifying B but how to rule out A when it clearly has better parallelism.

Is it bad idiom developed as vs developed to


(A) the human mind is not a "blank slate," but instead that it comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed as a way of solving
(B) the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve

I think A has a major problem with the "that it".

The idiom is not X but instead Y

B says "the human mind is not a blank slate but instead comprises . . mechanisms"

A similar sentence would be "The class is not singularly focused but instead comprises several topics."

Compare that to "The class is not singularly focused but instead that it comprises several topics." What is the "that it" doing there?

Remember that the GMAT's favorite way of creating wrong answer choices in sentence correction is through the use of incorrect pronouns. Any pronouns you see should be thoroughly scrutinized.

so,in B the human mind is not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms that were developed to solve
"not a "blank slate" but instead comprises specialized mental mechanisms "---> is a idiom, not a parallelism structure, right? afterall, not a blank slate==>not+ noun, and but instead compirses ...==> but + verb + obejct, both structure are not parallel