Only a few figures in the history of music, and only a

A. performers had a rich and complex reputation beyond ---- Looks OK in spite of the past tense.

B. Performers, have had rich and complex reputations beyond ---- the comma after the subject is unacceptable. One cannot separate the verb from its subject with a comma.

C. performers that have had as rich and complex a reputation outside of --- a plain fragment, with a subordinate clause without a main clause.

D. performers who had as rich and complex a reputation outside of--- same as D

E. performers, have had as rich and complex a reputation outside— same problem as in B, the comma between the subject and the verb.

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I picked A and I highlighted the errors. Please correct me if I am wrong

A looks correct
B - reputations
C - that have had awkward . Outside changes the meaning
D - outside changes the meaning
E - outside changes the meaning.

gmatbull, can you post OA & OE?

Is it B?
Explaination after the OA.

Edit: Dint notice it earlier. Only A is possible all other choices make a fragment.

Daagh, I need to clear one doubt.
Since we are talking about "performers" in plural, does'nt the "reputation" needed to be in plural. I feel handful of performers need to have a plural form of reputation.
Am I missing something?

Hi Marcab

Not so, as reputation is an abstract noun and all abstract nouns are taken to be singular. We don’t say performers have appetites, jealousies, thirsts and so on. We only measure reputation in terms of its quality, say whether good or bad; Do we say, I have 14 good reputations and 12 bad reputations?
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Daagh.
That indeed helped.
And the point about the singularity of abstract noun has been firmly noted.

I dont agree with A; it does not express a right comparison.

X earned 5 dollars as a waiter. (make sense)
X earned 5 dollars as Glenn Gould ( no does not make sense ellipse not allowed)

Inverted the sentence for more clarity.
The Canadian pianist, composer, and intellectual, Glenn Gould as Only a few figures in the history of music, and only a handful of performers (now verb is going with Glenn Gould, but not a big difference) had a rich and complex reputation beyond the musical world.

Lets see :
I will jump like a clown ( in clownish manner i will jump)
I will jump as a clown ( means in a clown's dress, with proper make up and in a clownish manner)

I will jump as a clown does ( verb is necessary; we can not make second half an ellipse)

Few figures and performers are not Glenn Gould, but A conveys that meaning.

This question is posted only on GMAT club I googled and did not find any other forum.

IMO this question is wrong, no answer choice is correct.

Answer should be E . We need " have had " . We just can't say " had " and also correct idiom is " as.... as ".
That leaves us with choice C and E . Choice C is a fragment . so correct answer is E.

Yes E looks fine :

We have as many apple as you (correct)

X, and Y, have had as [ rich and complex a reputation outside the musical world ] as Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist, composer, and intellectual.

but comma is not expected before verb, any idea?

If B does not have comma after performers and reputations would become reputation, would the Option B correct?

This question is not well constructed; I think we should ignore brainstorming on this, and Gmat wont ask such erroneous question.

I'm with E too for the same reasons. Would any expert would like to elaborate a bit on this awesome question?

Cheers!
J

We need comma.
Only a few figures in the history of music have had rich and complex reputations beyond.

and only a handful of performers :- there is a comma before (non underlined part) and so there should be a comma after only a handful of performers.

otherwise construction will be: X, and Y verb__________ (Not correct)
X, and Y, verb____________
I also feel that there should not be comma in X, and Y. It should be X and Y

E is missing AS.
A - for past tense, we need a marker that denotes that this was the case earlier. I don't think past tense is right here.

B is correct as present perfect tense seems ok here.

can we reopen the debate on whether A or B is correct? CDE are clearly wrong, happy to explain if someone needs an explanation

I don't think option A using the correct comparison structure. Option A is making the comparison of Glenn Gould with the the others with 'as' construction which is wrong. In that case it should have used like instead. Correct me if I am wrong

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Is the answer E?
Only a few ..... have had as rich a reputation as __