Some 200 world-famous physicists recently attended a conference whose purpose not only was to consider the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics but also assessing the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type, which took place 50 years earlier.
Meaning Analysis
- Some 200 world-famous physicists recently attendeda conference
- whose purpose
- not only was to consider the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics
- whose purpose
The sentence starts by saying that many world-renowned physicists attended a conference. It further mentions the purpose of the conference. The phrase not only indicates that there were two purposes of this conference. Let’s read the first one. The first purpose was to evaluate the possibilities of research in the field of physics for the coming 5 decades. Let’s continue reading:
- but also assessing the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type,
- which took place 50 years earlier.
As predicted, in this portion of the sentence, we find out the second purpose of the conference, which was to determine the correctness of the predictions that were made in a similar meeting last time, which happened 50 years ago.
To sum up, the sentence presents two purposes of a conference that was attended by many well-known physicists. The two purposes are as follows:
- to evaluate the possibilities of research in the field of physics for the coming 5 decades.
- to determine the correctness of the predictions that were made in a similar meeting held 50 years ago.
Error Analysis
Parallelism Error
The sentence uses the idiom not only X but also Y in which X and Y should be parallel. Per the original sentence:
X = was to consider… → verb phrase.
Y = assessing the accuracy… → noun phrase
X and Y in the idiom used are not grammatically parallel.
The error can be corrected in two ways. We can say
…whose purpose
- not only was to consider the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics
- but also was to assess the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type,…
OR
…whose purpose was
- not only to consider the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics
- but also to assess the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type,…
POE
Choice A
Incorrect
This choice has the error pointed out in the error analysis.
Choice B
Incorrect
1. Parallelism Error
This choice repeats the parallelism error of Choice A. In this choice, X = was considering… is a verb phrase while Y = assessing the accuracy… is a noun phrase and therefore, they are not grammatically parallel.
2. SV Make Sense Error
In this choice, to consider has been changed to considering. With this change, the choice seems to suggest that the purpose itself was considering something (an action). But the original sentence says that the purpose was to consider something (an intent). So, the intended purpose of the sentence is lost in this choice.
3. Parallelism Error leading to Meaning Error
With the usage of and, we see a forced parallel list in the sentence. This list distorts the meaning of the sentence. The two which clauses are made parallel in this choice. According to this forced list, the predictions were made in a similar meeting, and the predictions took place 50 years ago. The information given by the second entity in the parallel list is incorrect because from the original sentence we know that the conference of this kind took place 50 years ago, not the predictions.
Choice C
Incorrect
1. Parallelism Error
This choice too repeats the parallelism error of Choice A. This time X = considering the prospects… is a noun phrase and Y = to assess the accuracy… is a ‘to verb’ phrase.
2. SV Make Sense Error
This choice has the same SV make sense error present in choice B
3. Parallelism Errorleading to Meaning Error
This choice also repeats the parallelism error of Choice B. The verb-ed modifier made is made parallel with the relative pronoun clause which took….
Choice D
Correct
This choice indeed is the correct answer choice as it corrects the parallelism error of Choice A. Per this choice, both X = to consider… and Y = to assess… are ‘to verb’ phrases.
Choice E
Incorrect
1. Parallelism Error
Grammatically, the prospects… is not parallel to …assessing the accuracy… because the former is a conventional noun presenting a place, a person or a thing. But the verb-ing form noun entity …assessing the accuracy… denotes an action. Hence, although both the phrase are noun phrase, they are not grammatically parallel.
2. Meaning Error
Per this choice, the parallel list is as follows: whose purpose was to consider
- not only the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics
- but also assessing the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type
Basically, this choice says that the two purposes of the conference were to consider
- the prospects for the next 50 years of research in physics and
- assessing the accuracy of the predictions made at the last meeting of this type
This list does not change the first purpose as it correctly says that purpose was to consider something. However, the second element in the list to consider assessing… distorts the meaning because one of the purposes was to assess the accuracy of predictions and not to consider the assessment of the same.
