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GATE 2020 EC GA Q.2: solution and answer

GATE 2020 · ECGA Q.2 · 1 mark · MCQ

He was not only accused of theft______of conspiracy.

  1. (A)

    rather

  2. (B)

    but also

  3. (C)

    but even

  4. (D)

    rather than

See the question in the paper
GATE 2020 EC GA question 2Tap to open full size

Answer and solution

ANSWER

(B) but also: "He was not only accused of theft but also of conspiracy."

Official answer: BSource: Official answer key, GATE 2020 EC (IIT Delhi)

  1. The sentence already contains "not only", which opens a correlative conjunction. "Not only" is completed by its fixed partner, "but also".

  2. The correlative pair "not only X but also Y" adds Y to X. Here X = "of theft" and Y = "of conspiracy", so the second accusation is added to the first.

  3. Options (A) "rather" and (D) "rather than" express preference or replacement: "X rather than Y" means X and not Y. That contradicts "not only", which says both accusations apply.

  4. Option (C) "but even" is not the standard partner of "not only". "Even" marks the second item as more surprising or extreme than the first, and nothing in the sentence supports that.

  5. Filling in (B) gives "He was not only accused of theft but also of conspiracy." The pair is complete and both charges are kept. Answer: (B).

KEY IDEA

Correlative conjunctions come in fixed pairs. Once "not only" appears, the blank must hold its partner "but also", which adds the second item to the first.

WATCH OUT FOR

Choosing "rather than" because it also links two items. It replaces the first item with the second, and that clashes with "not only", which keeps both. Some candidates also pick "but even" because it sounds emphatic, but it is not the standard pair and it implies a surprise the sentence does not suggest.

From the GATE 2020 EC paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 32 Grammar & vocabulary questions, with notes

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