Question: The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typically sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.

(A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved
(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly
(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved
(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved

Correct Answer: C
Explanation: The following arguments could be used to defend the suggested language change:

• Parallelism
• Considering two separate truths
• Modifiers

The construction is not....but shows a contrast. The words following not must be parallel in construction to the words following but. In the original sentence not is followed by a prepositional phrase (in a flash of inspiration); but is followed by a verb (evolved). To make the two contrasting elements parallel, not should be followed by a verb rather than a phrase. This question tests parallelism. Most of the wrong answers can be eliminated simply because of lack of parallelism.

did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly- Correct. This answer choice maintains parallelism between "spring to life in a flash of inspiration" and evolved slowly from previous works". Further, it correctly uses the simple past tense verb "evolved" to refer to an event that concluded in the past. Additionally, Option C is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Let’s take a look at other options.

Option A
sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly- Incorrect. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "in a flash of inspiration" and "evolved slowly from previous works"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel.

Option B
sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved- Incorrect. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "in a flash of inspiration" and "were slowly evolved from previous works"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("but" in this sentence) must be parallel. Further, Option B uses the passive voice construction "were slowly evolved", rendering it awkward and needlessly wordy.

Option D
did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved- Incorrect. This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had evolved" to refer to an event that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".

Option E
did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved- Incorrect. This answer choice incorrectly uses conjunction ("but" in this sentence) to join the independent clauses "his inventions did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration" and "they were slowly evolved from previous works"; please remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses. Further, Option E uses the passive voice construction "they were slowly evolved", rendering it awkward and needlessly wordy.

“The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. These sorts of questions come up with grammatical errors in the underlined part of the sentence. The candidates need to select the correct statement given in the options. The GMAT sentence correction section demands good skills in grammar since the candidate has to identify common grammatical errors. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

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