Over the past ten years cultivated sunflowers

[PrashantS209]

OG 2020: 806

Official explanation for option B says that it is ambiguous because it can modify either what comes before or what comes after the word ‘only’. If that is true, why don’t we consider the possibility that ‘only’ could as well modify ‘second’ in option A? This could make option A incorrect like option B.

Could you please explain the meaning difference between ‘A is second only to B ‘ and ‘A is only second to B’?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Remember not to trust the official explanations too much: they are often imprecise and inconsistent. For that reason we wrote our own explanations in the GMAT Navigator (https://www.manhattanprep.com/atlas/resource/58). Interestingly, the author of that explanation focuses on the words 'in importance' in answer B.

Dealing with the issue around the placement of 'only', I would say that the problem isn't that answer B is ambiguous, but that it suggests a different, illogical meaning. Consider the meaning of these sentences:
1. I'm second only to you in my Science exam.
2. I'm second to you only in my Science exam.
Sentence 1 means that, in the Science exam, you got the highest score, and I was second. Sentence 2 means that you're better than me at Science, but I'm better than you at other subjects. Try to apply the same analysis to the answer choices in the problem.