Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
The extent to which the minister's statement came under criticism (1)/ reflects not merely public dissatisfaction (2)/ but also that the media has (3)/ increasingly begun scrutinising political rhetoric. (4)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is option 3 i.e. (3).
Error concept: related to Parallelism or Correlative Conjunctions.
What is wrong: The structure following 'not merely' does not match the structure following 'but also.'
Grammatical concept: Correlative conjunctions like 'not merely... but also' (or 'not only... but also') must connect two grammatically parallel elements. If 'not merely' is followed by a noun phrase ('public dissatisfaction'), then 'but also' should also be followed by a noun phrase to maintain balance.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: In segment 2, 'not merely' is followed by the noun phrase 'public dissatisfaction.' However, in segment 3, 'but also' is followed by a clause ('that the media has...'). This creates an unbalanced and grammatically incorrect sentence structure.
How to correct: To make the parts parallel, the word 'that' should be removed or the sentence should be rephrased so both sides of the conjunction lead into a similar grammatical unit. The most direct fix is removing 'that' so 'but also' connects directly to the noun 'the media.'
Correct phrase: but also the media has
Final sentence: The extent to which the minister's statement came under criticism reflects not merely public dissatisfaction but also the media has increasingly begun scrutinising political rhetoric.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.