Based on the analysis of musicologists who focused on his early manusc

MAGOOSH OE:

Split #1: What exactly is "based on the analysis of musicologists"? What is based on this analysis, it is most certainly not Beethoven himself. The man was not based on academic analysis of any kind. In both (A) & (B), the "based on" clause modifies "Beethoven," and this construction is logically incorrect. Both (A) and (B) are incorrect.

Split #2: the idea expressed is that Beethoven made "significant revisions" to "musical motifs." The preposition "to" or "in" is idiomatically required in this context. The structure

"… musical motifs that he would frequently make significant revisions …"

is incorrect because it lacks one of these prepositions. (A) and (C) make this mistake. The correct structure is

"… musical motifs to which he would frequently make significant revisions …"

These two splits narrow things down to a choice of (D) & (E). In the formal language of the GMAT, there is a strong preference for retaining the word "that" at the beginning of a clause following a cognitive verb (know, say, argue, etc.) Here, the cognitive verb is "indicate," and the clause following must retain the word "that." Choice (E) drops the word "that," a quite colloquial and informal move. Choice (E) also has the unnecessary past perfect verb "had … created"; this is awkward, as the main verb is in the present tense. For these reasons, we can eliminate choice (E).

Choice (D) is the best answer.
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Split 1: "based on" is wrong. There is an OG question that indicates that "a person based on a thing" is grammatically wrong. Eliminate A and B.

Split 2: The non-underlined has "and that". This is a hint for parallel structure. Thus, C and E are wrong.

D is the correct answer
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A. Based on the analysis of musicologists who focused on his early manuscripts, Beethoven often created sketches of musical motifs that

"Beethoven" was not based on the analysis but "sketches of musical motifs were". INCORRECT

B. Based on the analysis of musicologists who focused on Beethoven’s early manuscripts, he had often created sketches of musical motifs to which

"Beethoven" was not based on the analysis but "sketches of musical motifs were". INCORRECT

C. According to the analysis of musicologists who focused on his early manuscripts, Beethoven often created sketches of musical motifs that

"Beethoven" was not according on the analysis but "creation of sketches of musical motifs were". INCORRECT

D. The analysis of musicologists focusing on the early manuscripts of Beethoven indicates that the composer would often create sketches of musical motifs to which

Correct

E. The analysis of musicologists who focused on the early manuscripts of Beethoven indicates the composer had often created sketches of musical motifs to which

"The analysis" did not indicate "the composer". We need "that" after indicates.
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I rejected option D because would can only be used in 2 cases. 1. when we have a past conditional sentence and 2. when we refer from the past into the future. Here it seems to me that none of this 2 cases is satisfied.

GMATNinja carcass

can you shed some light on this one?

The question tests the concept of Modifiers and Pronoun usage.

Options A and B contain a modifier “Based on the analysis of musicologists…”. Option A has the noun “Beethoven” after the modifier and Option B has the pronoun “he” after the modifier, making them the subject of the modifier in the respective options. The question that arises is what is based on the analysis of musicologists. Since neither Beethoven nor the pronoun ‘he’ can be based on the analysis of musicologists, these two options can be eliminated.
Another error in Option A, which is also present in Option C is the missing preposition ‘to’.
The clause towards the end of Options A and C is “Beethoven often created sketches of musical motifs that he would frequently make significant revisions weeks or even months later”. If we look at the underlined portion here, we see that the clause beginning with the relative pronoun ‘that’ modifies the noun “musical motifs”. The intended meaning of this clause is that Beethoven would frequently make revisions to the musical motifs. However, because the preposition ‘to’ is missing in these options, the meaning is distorted. The more appropriate way of phrasing it would have been “Beethoven often created sketches of musical motifs that he would frequently make significant revisions to weeks or even months later”.
So, Option C can also be eliminated.

Options D and E are similar in structure but there is a difference in meaning:
D) The analysis of musicologists focusing on the early manuscripts of Beethoven
E) The analysis of musicologists who focused on the early manuscripts of Beethoven

In Option D, the participle phrase “focusing on the early manuscripts” describes the analysis. But in Option E, the clause “who focused on the early manuscripts” describes “musicologists” as the relative pronoun refers to that noun. Since the sentence is about the analysis of the musicologists, Option D is more logical.

Another difference between the two options is the difference in tense:
D) “indicates that the composer would often create sketches of musical motifs to which he would frequently make significant revisions weeks or even months later”

E) “indicates the composer had often created sketches of musical motifs to which he would frequently make significant revisions weeks or even months later”

Since the verb ‘would’ is used later on in the sentence, the same verb “would” indicating probability is better than the past perfect tense (had created). The verb ‘would’ serves the purpose of making a prediction in the past as it is also the past form of the verb ‘will’. So, Option E can also be eliminated.
D is therefore the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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A-Beethiven doe not based on incorrect
B-same as A
C-correct
D-distorted meaning
E-incorrect tense indicates

Sent from my SM-J210F using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

D is the correct answer. Even on first go C looks to be lucrative but its wrong because of "that" which can act as subject of following clause or as connector.

Now coming down to D which looks to have changed the meaning in first go but if you will take a closer look then you will find that its "the composer would often create sketches ". So "The" here refers to specific composer and that is Beethoven.

B is incorrect because of it do have no possessive pronoun antecedent referring to "Beethoven's"

Hope this helps !

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