Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Bunuel wrote:
Dance fans knew Tamara Geva as a soloist in several Ballanchine works, a dancer who introduced his choreography to the United States, and as a star in Broadway theater.
(A) a dancer who introduced
(B) as a dancer which introduced
(C) the dancer to introduce
(D) who introduced
(E) as the dancer who introduced
Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that dance fans knew Tamara Geva as a soloist in several Ballanchine works, as the dancer who introduced his choreography to the United States, and as a star in Broadway theater.
Concepts tested here: Parallelism + Pronouns + Modifiers + Grammatical Construction• All elements in a list must be parallel.
• The pronoun “which” cannot be used to refer to human beings.
• “who/whose/whom/which/where”, when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma.
• “who” can only be used to refer to a human being.
A: Trap. This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among “as a soloist in several Ballanchine works”, “a dancer who introduced…United States”, and “as a star in Broadway theater”; please remember all elements in a list must be parallel.
B: Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the pronoun “which” to refer to “dancer”; please remember, “which” cannot be used to refer to human beings.
C: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism among “as a soloist in several Ballanchine works”, “the dancer to introduce…United States”, and “as a star in Broadway theater”; please remember all elements in a list must be parallel.
D: This answer choice incorrectly modifies “several Ballanchine works” with “who introduced his choreography to the United States”, illogically implying that several Ballanchine works introduced his choreography to the United States; the intended meaning is that Tamara Geva introduced his choreography to the United States; please remember, who/whose/whom/which/where when preceded by a comma, refer to the noun just before the comma. Further, Option D incorrectly refers to "works" with "who"; please remember, "who" can only be used to refer to human beings.
E: Correct. This answer choice maintains parallelism among "as a soloist in several Ballanchine works", "as the dancer who introduced..the United States", and "as a star in Broadway theater". Further, Option E correctly modifies “Tamara Geva” with “as the dancer who introduced…United States”, conveying the intended meaning- that Tamara Geva introduced his choreography to the United States. Additionally, Option E correctly refers to the noun “dancer” - a human being - with the pronoun “who”.
Hence, E is the best answer choice.To understand the concept of "Which/Who/Whose/Where" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
IMO, Since "who" modifies only humans, there is no issue with the usage here, since who can logically modify only Tamara Geva. The issue here is that option D slightly changes the meaning by omitting "dancer".