Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
That several administrations' resorting to outdated statutes (1)/ to suppress dissent do not only reflects legal opportunism (2)/ but also raises serious concerns about democratic accountability (3)/ that these laws were originally intended to safeguard. (4)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. (2).
Error is related to / concept: Subject–verb agreement + incorrect use of “do not”.
What is wrong: In part (2), the verb phrase “do not only reflects” is incorrect. Here, the subject of the clause is “resorting… to suppress dissent”, which is a gerund phrase, and gerunds take singular verbs.
Grammatical concept: When a gerund or gerund phrase acts as the subject, the verb must be singular.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: “Resorting to outdated statutes … does not reflect”, not “do not reflect,” since the subject is singular in meaning.
How to correct:
- “Do not” changes to “does not” and the position of “only” should be corrected.
- Correct placement is: does not reflect only or not only reflects (depending on structure). Here, the sentence uses not only… but also, so the correct form is “does not only reflect”.
Correct phrase/ correction: “… does not only reflect legal opportunism…”
Final sentence: That several administrations' resorting to outdated statutes to suppress dissent does not only reflect legal opportunism but also raises serious concerns about democratic accountability that these laws were originally intended to safeguard.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.