Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
What renders the draft legislation particularly contentious is not its proposed realignment of fiscal powers per se, (1)/ but that it presumes, without empirical substantiation, (2)/ a fiscal equivalence among states whose developmental baselines are (3)/ incommensurable by any normative metric. (4)
- AOption (a)
(1)
- BOption (b)
(2)
- COption (c)
(3)
- DOption (d)
(4)
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Correct answer
(2)
Why this answer is correct
The correct answer is Option 2.

Key Points
- The error is located in part (2) of the sentence due to a lack of parallel structure (parallelism).
- The sentence uses the correlative construction "is not [A] but [B]." For grammatical precision, both [A] and [B] should belong to the same grammatical category.
- In part (1), [A] is a noun phrase ("its proposed realignment..."). In part (2), [B] is a noun clause ("that it presumes...").
- To correct this, [B] should be changed to a noun phrase to match [A], such as "its presumption... of a fiscal equivalence."
- Thus, the error is found in part (2).
Therefore, the correct answer is 2.
Correct Sentence: "What renders the draft legislation particularly contentious is not its proposed realignment of fiscal powers per se, but its presumption, without empirical substantiation, of a fiscal equivalence among states whose developmental baselines are incommensurable by any normative metric."

Additional Information
- (1): "What renders the draft legislation particularly contentious is not its proposed realignment..." – This part correctly uses a free relative clause ("What renders...") as the subject and establishes the first half of the contrast.
- (3): "a fiscal equivalence among states whose developmental baselines are" – This is grammatically correct; "among" is appropriate for a group of states, and the plural verb "are" agrees with "baselines."
- (4): "incommensurable by any normative metric." – This part is correct. "Incommensurable" means lacking a basis of comparison, and "by" is the correct preposition when referring to the standard or metric of measurement.