Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor

And we are in for a beautiful comparison again

Intended meaning:
We are comparing music by BB, IS and AS.
As per author, although the music by BB is less popular and less influential
than by other two, the music by BB is equally important.


Comparision hold good between music by all three, parallelism showing features of BB's music
(less popular, less influential but not less important) is grammatically and logically parallel.
It here correctly refers to BB's music. No pronoun ambiguity here. Hang on to A.


The usage of HE is incorrect. The pronoun (he) can refer to a person, not a possessive noun
e.g. Roy's chair or Roy's guitar


The comparison goes off-table here, with the introduction of verb: is


We cannot compare BB's music with IS and AS. We either compare music by all three artists
or three artists themselves. The pronoun he is incorrect for reasons explained in (B)


Again a mess of comparison as in D

So we can clearly cut option B and D becz we are talking about Bb's music and not bb.
Now, we are left with A,C,E
E has missed 's in Stravinsky
And C has used is. Hence both are wrong.
We are now left with A
Hence, A is correct

[size=80][b][i]Posted from my mobile device[/i][/b][/size]

IMO A.




Correct piece of sentence. Béla Bartók’s music , Stravinsky’s, Schonberg’s all three refer to music and not to name of the person. Also it correctly refers to Béla Bartók’s music.


"He" is incorrect here as no person is mentioned in the whole sentence. Only the person's music is highlighted. Incorrect


Awkward construction by using is after Stravinsky’s and Schonberg’s. Incorrect choice. We have a better choice A.


Comparison of Béla Bartók’s music with Person.(Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg ). Incorrect Comparison.


Comparison of Béla Bartók’s music with Person.(Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg ). Incorrect Comparison.

In B and D he is the error no antecedent
In E wrong comparision Béla Bartók’s music compared with Stravinsky
Left with A and C
There is the difference of is
I feel A is correct as BB' music correctly compared with S's
Why do we need that is ? hence C rejected
A is the answer

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it - Correct
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he - Pronoun he can't refer to Béla Bartók ’s, which is possessive
(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it - usage of "Arnold Schonberg’s is" is incorrect
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he - Illogical comparison - music and person
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it - Illogical comparison - music and person


https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-she ... 08881.html

Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet. ---> “she” – a pronoun – refers to “Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, which only appears in the possessive or the adjective form. Therefore, in this question, a pronoun is referring to anything other than a noun.

1.So, can we actually confidently reject B on the basis of a pronoun trying to refer to possessive? But the transition from the comparison of music to "he is no less important" seems awkward and seems incomplete.

2. Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he is no less important than Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg --> I think this sentence will be correct as per current GMAT standards?

3. Also, in sentence 2, if the independent clause is changed to "he is no less important than them", then will it be incorrect? (since Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg is not a compound subject in the sentence and only its possessives are present.)

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , ChiranjeevSingh , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , other experts - please enlighten

Answer A

Official Explanation:

Choice A correctly compares the music of the three composers mentioned. In D and E, the music of Bartok is illogically compared to the other two composers themselves. The pro­noun he in B and D is incorrect because the subject of the sentence the pronoun refers to is Bartok's music, not Bartok. Choice C is wordy and awkward.

My responses in green above.

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it correct pronoun use for music, correct use of the comparison of music
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he wrong pronoun use, he seems to refer to the composer
(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it - awkward
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he - is comparing the music to the actual person. This is wrong.
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it - is comparing the music to the actual person. This is wrong.

Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

This sentence draws a contrast between the degree to which one composer’s music was popular or influential and the degree to which two other composers’ music was popular or influential. The author needs to express this through logically coherent wording structures that tell clearly what is being contrasted with what. The original version of the sentence uses clear, parallel references to the elements of the contrast.

Option A: Correct. This conveys a clear, logically coherent meaning through the use of appropriately parallel structures.

Option B: The pronoun he has no direct, grammatically parallel antecedent. The grammatical subject of the sentence is Bartók’s music, not Bartók himself, and the main rhetorical focus is the contrast between that music and two other composers’ music. Therefore, if the author intends to switch the focus from the composers' music to the composers themselves and to say in the second part of the sentence that Bartók himself is no less important than Stravinsky and Schönberg, it would be better to clearly signal this switch by outlining the comparison more explicitly.

Option C: Than … is draws an oddly nonparallel comparison with has proved less popular. The word sequence than … is would fit better if the earlier phrase were proved to be less popular. In any case, is adds nothing of value and tends to obscure the meaning rather than to illuminate it.

Option D: This compares the popularity of Bartók’s music with the popularity of Stravinsky and compares the influence of Bartók’s music with Schönberg. It is illogical to suppose that the influence of such very different types of entities as people and music could be commensurable.

Option E: This compares the popularity of Bartók’s music with the popularity of Stravinsky and compares the influence of Bartók’s music with Schönberg. It is illogical to suppose that the influence of such very different types of entities as people and music could be commensurable.

The correct answer is A.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

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