Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll

Apologies for digging up an old thread. For point B, could someone please comment on ",also inspired many musicians"? I had ruled out B because I assumed that this comma was unnecessary. In my mind, "Bill whose...influenced X also inspired Y" seems parallel but when you try to break it up with the comma the ",also inspired..." sounds really weird.

Hi pafrompa,

First of all it is a good practice to ask question on an existing thread. Have you noticed REQUEST EXPERT REPLY button just below the verbal questions? try them :D

Now comes to the query:

Subject + modifier inside commas + verb
Bill Monroe , whose views and style influenced generations, also inspired

so the comma just before the ALSO is necessary. otherwise it would look like "generations of bluegrass artists" inspired many musicians not Bill.

Here is the entire structure:
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe
------------------------------,whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists,
also inspired many musicians
---------------------------------,including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia
---------------------------------------------------------------------,whose music differed significantly from his own.

Hope this helps
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

(A) were influential on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from --were influential is not prefered

(B) influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from --Correct

(C) was influential to generations of bluegrass artists, was also inspirational to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music was different significantly in comparison to --SV disagreement

(D) was influential to generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, who included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, the music of whom differed significantly when compared to --Same as C

(E) were an influence on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music was significantly different from that of --were an influence on is not prefered

(A) were influential on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from - we need 'who' to refer to the musicians and not 'that'

(B) influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from - Correct.

(C) was influential to generations of bluegrass artists, was also inspirational to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music was different significantly in comparison to - subject 'repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style' is plural. We need a plural verb 'were'.

(D) was influential to generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, who included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, the music of whom differed significantly when compared to - Same as C.

(E) were an influence on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music was significantly different from that of - 'that of' is redundant.

Answer: B

Hello everyone,
This may be a very noob query, but it is bothering me a lot.
Why is the option B not eliminated straight away due to ambiguity.. Let me clarify-
The words 'also inspired' could refer to either bill monroe or his views.
There seems to be an additional error, if you assume that 'also inspired' refers to the compound subject his views, repertory, then where is the verb for the main subject bill monroe.
And if you assume that it refers to bill monroe, then what is the word 'also' doing there.. What did bill monroe do previously?
I am new to SC and please pardon me if i am missing something obvious.

Posted from my mobile device

There is no ambiguity in this case, because inspired is the main verb in option B. This is the sentence we get:

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

The also is not incorrect. It continues the idea introduced by the whose repertory... bit without being part of the same structure. For example:

Her father, who is considered one of the best CEOs ever, is also a capable cook.

Here the also continues the CEO idea, even though it is not attached to the who is... clause.
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sir i have so many doubts regarding this ", ing" in this particular question. What i learned is that ", ing" must modify whole previous clause not musicians and ", ing" modify in two ways:-
1. cause and effect of previous clause or
2. give answer of how in this question.
and i think both of them not working here

And if you look difference between noun+noun modifier and , ing modifier then ",ing" modifier must make sense with the subject and verb of previous clause. Even this function is not performed by the sentence. I think it should modify only musicians because that will give sense. Please reply as soon as possible.

Hi Rishabh, including is not your typical present participial phrase; including is actually a preposition. Hence, the general rules of participial phrases do not apply to including.

including can modify the Noun or Noun-Phrase immediately before the word including.

An officially correct sentence:

A study by the Ocean Wildlife Campaign urged states to undertake a number of remedies to reverse a decline in the shark population, including establishing size limits for shark catches, closing state waters for shark fishing during pupping season, and requiring commercial fishers to have federal shark permits.

Notice how including modifies a rather far-away noun remedies.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana has a special note on the usage of including. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

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subject-verb issues: 'x, y, and z was...' (kill C and D)
obvious differences in wordiness/efficiency:
'influenced' is clearly better than 'was influential...'
'inspired' is clearly better than 'was an inspiration' / 'was inspirational'
(this ALONE can eliminate ALL the wrong answers!!)
redundancy ('differed' + 'compared'/'comparison' (kill C and D)
'that' for people (kill A and E)
pronoun 'that of' stands for nothing (...since 'his own' already means music) (kill E)
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Although option B is correct, but as "Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe" is subject of verb influenced and also the subject of "also inspired". Isn't "And" shall be used to join two parallel clauses.
"...influenced generations of bluegrass artists AND also inspired many musicians Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe.."

Hi Lalit, influenced...and inspired... are indeed parallel constructs, since both of them are verbs.

also is just used for the purpose of emphasis.
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can someone please explain why "also" can be used to join the two parallel elements "influenced" and "inspired" here?

Hi Meisme,

A little late, but that also does not join those two elements.

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

can be read as

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe (whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists) also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.
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VeritasKarishma

Between the following phrases, can you please explain why 2nd phrase is wrong?
- music differed significantly from his own.
- music is significantly different from music of his own.

'his own' is modifying music. You cannot use it with a preposition.

You can say "his own car" not "car of his own".
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thecoronafever
Since "his own" in this context can be read as "his own music," we would have to read "that of his own" as "the music of his own music"!
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Request Expert Reply:
In correct choice B why there is a word 'also'? We use the word 'also' when someone/somebody does another job along with the recent one. If I say: 'He is also an engineer' that means he is already a 'writer' or something like that one. We can't use the word 'also' until s/he has another quality. too!
In B, 'influenced generations of bluegrass artists' is NOT the quality of Bill Monroe, rather it is 'influenced' by Bill Monroe's collective entity 'repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style'. If the subject of 'also inspired' is these 3 entities, then there should have a conjunction before 'also'. Am I missing anything, experts?
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Hi

The "also" is used to signify two things, as you rightly point out. In this sentence (specifically, option (B)), the two things being connected by although are:

i) Bill Monroe...influenced generations of bluegrass artists. In other words, these artists presumably composed/performed music similar to Bill Monroe.
ii) Bill Monroe inspired many musicians...whose music differed significantly from his own.

These are two different points being made, both being done by Bill Monroe. You are right that the sentence talks about certain qualities of Bill Monroe in the first instance, but that can reasonably be considered Bill Monroe himself influencing the "generations of bluegrass artists" as well, since those qualities are inherent in his music.

Hope this helps.
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GMATNinja apart from the redundancy of "that", isn't (D) a better parallel structure than (B)? Please help me understand where I am going wrong
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