Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
The decision to delay the launch (1)/ was made so quickly that (2)/ it surprised not only the staff (3)/ but also to the stakeholders. (4)/
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The correct answer is option 4 i.e. (4).
Error Concept: Faulty parallelism with the correlative conjunction 'not only... but also.'
What is wrong: The structures following 'not only' and 'but also' must be parallel (meaning they should be the same part of speech or grammatical form).
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After 'not only,' we have a direct object: 'the staff.'
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After 'but also,' we have a prepositional phrase: 'to the stakeholders.'
The addition of the preposition 'to' in part 4 breaks this balance. Since the verb 'surprised' acts directly on the objects, no preposition is needed for either noun.
Grammatical Rule:
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Correct Pattern: Not only + [Noun] + but also + [Noun]
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Incorrect Pattern: Not only + [Noun] + but also + [Preposition] + [Noun]
How to correct: Remove the word 'to' from part 4 so that 'the stakeholders' directly follows 'but also,' matching the structure of 'the staff.'
Corrected Sentence: The decision to delay the launch was made so quickly that it surprised not only the staff but also the stakeholders.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.