Benefiting from the popularity of prior entertainment genres such as

Question

Benefiting from the popularity of prior entertainment genres such as minstrelsy, animal shows, and  magic acts, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but the widespread success it enjoyed in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation  of sophisticated financial management.

A) magic acts, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but the widespread success it enjoyed in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation

B) magic acts, Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America enjoyed widespread success not only due to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also due to the incorporation

C) magicians, the widespread success of Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America is attributed not only to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also to the incorporation

D) magical shows, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also its widespread success in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation

E) magic acts, Vaudeville theater had widespread success not only because it appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also because it incorporated

PyjamaScientist · Answer

Well  Bunuel  that was some fast answer posting.

I chose (B) in 2:20 mins. I think Bunuel's analysis is sufficient. There is nothing much more to add to it.

Bunuel · Answer

Yes, sorry about that. Will remove it for now and re-post in a week so that other also post their analysis.

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Benefiting from the popularity of prior entertainment genres such as minstrelsy, animal shows, and  magic acts, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but the widespread success it enjoyed in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation  of sophisticated financial management.

A) magic acts, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but the widespread success it enjoyed in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect and illogical. In the GMAT,  not only  must normally be complemented by  but also .

Stop Sign: not only A but also B

When you identify this structure, make sure it follows these rules:

1. Both  not only  and  but also  appear. Using only one is incorrect.
2. A and B (the items of the parallelism) are the same part of speech.
3. A and B are logically parallel.

But the problem here is one of Parallelism, which also makes this answer choice illogical. The connector  but  should be used to describe a contrast between two clauses or items. However, here  but  connects two clauses which both make similar positive statements about Vaudeville theater's appeal and success.

Look for another answer choice that constructs the parallelism logically.

B) magic acts, Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America enjoyed widespread success not only due to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also due to the incorporation

This answer choice corrects the original Parallelism mistake in two ways:

1. It corrects the grammatical form by complementing  not only  with  but also .

2. By changing  but  to  but also , the corrected sentence fixes the sentence's logic (as  but also  does not imply a contrast between items). Both items in the parallelism are reasons for Vaudeville's success:  not only due to A (its appeal) but also due to B (the incorporation, etc.) .

Although the corrected sentence contains a stylistic flaw of ambiguity ( its  can refer to  the 20th century  or  to America ), it is the only answer choice that is both logical and grammatically correct.

C) magicians, the widespread success of Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America is attributed not only to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also to the incorporation

Incorrect.

This answer choice corrects the original Parallelism mistake by complementing  not only  with  but also . It also corrects the logical mistake in the original sentence, by constructing a logical parallelism of two reasons for the  success of Vaudeville theater (attributed not only to A but also to B) .

However, the corrected sentence creates a new Parallelism mistake by changing  magic acts  to  magicians . Although  magic acts  and  magicians  are grammatically parallel (both are nouns), they are not logically parallel:  a magic act  is an example of an entertainment genre, while  magicians  is not.

Stop Sign: not only A but also B

When you identify this structure, make sure it follows these rules:

1. Both  not only  and  but also  appear. Using only one is incorrect.
2. A and B (the items of the parallelism) are the same part of speech.
3. A and B are logically parallel.

In addition, by changing the subject of the sentence from  Vaudeville theater  to  the widespread success of Vaudeville theater , this answer choice creates a new logical mistake. The modifier  Benefiting from...magic acts  should logically modify  Vaudeville theater , but it is followed by the  widespread success .

What helps us identify this question as a **Dangling or Misplaced Modifier** question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

A modifier

Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase at the beginning of the sentence, and separated by a comma). The modifier should modify the noun following the comma. 
  Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase appearing in the middle to end of a sentence and preceded by a comma; the modifier should refer back to the nearest subject or clause or show the result of the previous clause. 
  Verb+ing or V3, or non participial phrase appearing in the middle to end of a sentence and NOT preceded by a comma; the modifier should modify the preceding noun or noun phrase.

Whenever you see this Stop Sign, focus on the modifier: check whether the modifier modifies what it is supposed to.

D) magical shows, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also its widespread success in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The same part of speech that follows  not only  must also follow  but also . In this answer choice,  not only  is followed by the verb  appealed .  But also , however, is followed by by a noun phrase  its widespread success .

Look for another answer choice that constructs the parallelism grammatically and logically.

E) magic acts, Vaudeville theater had widespread success not only because it appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also because it incorporated

Incorrect.

While this answer choice corrects the Parallelism mistake in the original sentence by complementing  not only  with  but also , and creating a logical parallelism between the reasons for Vaudeville's success, it is grammatically incorrect and stylistically flawed.

By changing  incorporation  to  incorporated , the corrected sentence does not fit into the original sentence - it is not grammatically correct to say because  it incorporated of . In addition, the phrase Vaudeville theater  had widespread success  is awkward. The idiom  enjoyed success  is stylistically superior.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A) magic acts, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but the widespread success it enjoyed in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation
The meaning isn't perfect therefore out

B) magic acts, Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America enjoyed widespread success not only due to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also due to the incorporation
THe meaning is perfect , the success was not only because of it's appeal over different social background but also the sophisticated financial mangement therefore let us hang on to it

C) magicians, the widespread success of Vaudeville theater in 19th and 20th century America is attributed not only to its appeal to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also to the incorporation
THe meaning is fine except for the fact that magicians are mentioned along the line of genre which is not required therefore out

D) magical shows, Vaudeville theater not only appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also its widespread success in 19th and 20th century America is attributed to the incorporation
Similar reasoning as A

E) magic acts, Vaudeville theater had widespread success not only because it appealed to audiences of diverse gender and class backgrounds, but also because it incorporated
Similar reasoning as A

THerefore IMO B

Benefiting from the popularity of prior entertainment genres such as

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Benefiting from the popularity of prior entertainment genres such as

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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