Directions (38-42): In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence has been bold. Below are given alternatives to the bold part which may improve the sentence. Choose the correct alternative. Wherever no improvement is needed, choose ‘No replacement required’ as the answer. I had not only helped her by giving hints but also with providing her links.

Explanation

The correct substitution of the highlighted segment is (a) helped her not only by. Explanation: The phrase "not only... but also" should maintain parallel structure in the sentence. The phrase "not only by giving hints but also by providing her links" ensures parallelism. The correct sentence is: "I had helped her not only by giving hints but also by providing her links." Grammatical rule used: Parallelism Rule: When using correlative conjunctions like "not only... but also," the grammatical structure must be the same on both sides. Example: She not only sings but also dances. She not only sings but also is dancing. (Incorrect because of inconsistent structure) Why other options are incorrect? (b) helped her not by – This changes the meaning and disrupts the parallelism. (c) helped her only by – Removes the emphasis created by "not only... but also." (d) helped not only her by – The incorrect placement of "not only" makes the sentence unclear. Thus, the correct answer is "helped her not only by"