The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typicallysprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previousworks.
Not X But Y is the correct idiomatic usagewhere X and Y should be parallel .
(A) sprang to lifenot in a flash of inspirationbut evolved slowly
Here, not is followed by a prepositional phrase and but is followed by a verb.
(B)sprang to lifenot in a flash of inspirationbut were slowly evolved
similar error as in option
...
Not X But Y is the correct idiomatic usagewhere X and Y should be parallel .
(A) sprang to lifenot in a flash of inspirationbut evolved slowly
Here, not is followed by a prepositional phrase and but is followed by a verb.
(B)sprang to lifenot in a flash of inspirationbut were slowly evolved
similar error as in option
...
