Question 50·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
Naturalist Wangari Maathai not only founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya—an organization that promotes tree-planting and women’s empowerment—but also ____ global awareness of the links among poverty, deforestation, and social justice.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For questions testing verb tense and parallel structure, first locate any pairing words like “not only … but also,” “both … and,” or “either … or.” Make sure the words or phrases on each side of the pair match in grammatical form (both verbs, both nouns, etc.). Then check the surrounding verbs to determine the main tense of the sentence (past, present, or perfect) and choose the option that matches that tense and fits as a complete, correctly structured part of the sentence.
Hints
Notice the pairing words
Focus on the structure “not only … but also ….” The words or phrases after each part of this pair should match in grammar.
Check the tense around the blank
Look at the verb “founded” earlier in the sentence. Ask: is it present, past, or another tense? The verb in the blank should be consistent with it.
Decide what kind of word is missing
After “but also,” the sentence needs a main verb that tells what Wangari Maathai did to global awareness. Which option works as a main verb and matches “founded”?
Compare the forms of the answer choices
Pay attention to how each choice is formed: base verb, -ing form, simple past, or a two-word tense. Which one best fits a past narrative and keeps the sentence parallel?
Step-by-step Explanation
Understand the sentence structure
The sentence uses the correlative conjunction pair “not only … but also …”. This structure is used to connect two parallel ideas or actions that should match in grammatical form.
Here, the first action is “not only founded the Green Belt Movement…,” and the second action comes after “but also” and needs to be another action Wangari Maathai did.
Match the verb form and tense
The first verb in the pair is “founded,” which is in the simple past tense. To keep the structure parallel, the verb after “but also” should also be a simple past tense verb that directly follows “but also” and describes what she did.
So we are looking for a verb form that:
- Describes a completed action in the past, and
- Matches “founded” in tense and structure (another simple past verb).
Eliminate options that break tense or structure
Check each answer choice to see whether it matches the simple past tense and fits as a main verb:
- A) raise – base form; would not match the past-tense narration.
- C) raising – an -ing form; would create a fragment here because it would not be a main verb parallel to “founded.”
- D) has raised – present perfect; does not match the simple past “founded” and breaks parallelism.
Only one choice is a simple past tense verb that can stand parallel to “founded.”
Choose the verb that fits best
Because the sentence needs a simple past verb parallel to “founded,” the correct choice is B) raised, giving: “not only founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya … but also raised global awareness ….”