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605-655 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Modifiers|   Pronouns|   Subject Verb Agreement|                                    
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 14 May 2021, 14:07
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Quote:
(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
If you’ve seen our videos on pronouns or comparisons, you’ve heard me talk about the phrase “that of” (also discussed in this article). In this case, “that” is a singular pronoun, which seems to refer to “music.”

Trouble is, when you re-read that part of the sentence with “music” replacing “that”, it doesn’t really make sense: “…including Elvis and Jerry, whose music was significantly different from the music of his own.” Huh? The phrase “…different from the music of his own” makes no sense. Why not just say “different from his own” instead?

Plus, (E) also features some crappy stuff again: “were an influence” isn’t as sharp as “were influential”, and “was an inspiration” is a lousier version of “inspired”. Those things aren’t WRONG, but they’re definitely not great.

So (E) is out, and (B) is our best bet.

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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(D) has a nice juicy concrete error. Take another look:

Quote:
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style 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
his own.
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The items in red serve as the subject for the verb in blue. We can write that x, y, and z were influential, but using "was" creates a subject-verb disagreement. Soon as we see that, we can kill (D). No need to consider its parallelism.

Notice, also, that the only parallel marker in the underlined portion of (B) is "and." The phrase "Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia" is perfectly parallel, so no issue there.

(One source of confusion is the use of the word "also," which is not a parallel marker, though test-takers sometimes mistake it for one. "Tim is tired; he is also hungry" is perfectly fine. There's no parallel construction here, and there doesn't need to be.)

I hope that clears things up!
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Sep 2021, 10:09
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I am not sure whether “views on…….” modify repertory or be a main subject ?

I though that it were a verb but it’s not.

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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Sep 2021, 10:14
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I am not sure whether “views on…….” modify repertory or be a main subject ?

I though that it were a verb but it’s not.
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Hi Tanchat,

Views is a noun here, part of the list repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style.

1. ... whose {repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style} influenced generations of bluegrass artists... ← The subject of the dependent clause is repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style, and the verb is influenced.
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Sep 2021, 11:22
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I am not sure whether “views on…….” modify repertory or be a main subject ?

I though that it were a verb but it’s not.
Hi Tanchat,

Views is a noun here, part of the list repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style.

1. ... whose {repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style} influenced generations of bluegrass artists... ← The subject of the dependent clause is repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style, and the verb is influenced.
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Thank you for your response.

Then, I have another question.
What about Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe ?

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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Sep 2021, 21:21
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Tanchat
Thank you for your response.

Then, I have another question.
What about Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe ?
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Hi Tanchat,

That's the main subject of the sentence.

1. Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose X influenced bluegrass artists, also inspired many {non-bluegrass} musicians... ← The core of the sentence is "Bill Monroe inspired many musicians" (inspired is a verb here).
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Nov 2021, 04:44
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(E) In this case, “that” is a singular pronoun, which seems to refer to “music.”

Trouble is, when you re-read that part of the sentence with “music” replacing “that”, it doesn’t really make sense: “…including Elvis and Jerry, whose music was significantly different from the music of his own.” Huh? The phrase “…different from the music of his own” makes no sense. Why not just say “different from his own” instead?
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GMATNinja EducationAisle please could you help me understand why "that", by referring to "music", makes the sentence incorrect? Isn't the comparison made clear? By using the word "that" we are essentially comparing music of Elvis and Jerry with the music of Bill Monroe
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 23 Nov 2021, 06:23
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Quote:
(E) In this case, “that” is a singular pronoun, which seems to refer to “music.”

Trouble is, when you re-read that part of the sentence with “music” replacing “that”, it doesn’t really make sense: “…including Elvis and Jerry, whose music was significantly different from the music of his own.” Huh? The phrase “…different from the music of his own” makes no sense. Why not just say “different from his own” instead?

GMATNinja EducationAisle please could you help me understand why "that", by referring to "music", makes the sentence incorrect? Isn't the comparison made clear? By using the word "that" we are essentially comparing music of Elvis and Jerry with the music of Bill Monroe
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Hello Hoozan,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

If we take "that" to refer to music, the relevant phrase becomes "whose music was significantly different from the music of his own (music)"; "own" here refers to Bill Monroe's music, so Option E illogically implies that Bill Monroe's music has its own music.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 24 Nov 2021, 01:10
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GMATNinja EducationAisle please could you help me understand why "that", by referring to "music", makes the sentence incorrect? Isn't the comparison made clear? By using the word "that" we are essentially comparing music of Elvis and Jerry with the music of Bill Monroe
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Hi Hoozan, E erroneously uses (what's called) Double possessive.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses "Double possessives”. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.
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Double Possessive.pdf [12.78 KiB]
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 25 Nov 2021, 04:49
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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

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

(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

(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

(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

Hi GMATNinja, VeritasKarishma,

Please help me with the below doubt about option choice B-

Isn't "inspired many musicians" parallel to "influenced generations of bluegrass artists" ? And doesn't this somewhat changes the intended meaning ? If "influenced" is parallel to "inspired" then it seems "Bill Monroe's repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style inspired many musicians" instead of "Bill Monroe himself being an inspiration to many musicians" (which, as per my understanding, is the intended meaning of option choice A)

In option choice A "whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass artists" looks like a non-essential modifier and "was also an inspiration" seems to modify "Bill Monroe". So the crux of the sentence- "Bill Monroe was an inspiration to many musicians.. ".
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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

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

(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

(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

(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

Hi GMATNinja, VeritasKarishma,

Please help me with the below doubt about option choice B-

Isn't "inspired many musicians" parallel to "influenced generations of bluegrass artists" ? And doesn't this somewhat changes the intended meaning ? If "influenced" is parallel to "inspired" then it seems "Bill Monroe's repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style inspired many musicians" instead of "Bill Monroe himself being an inspiration to many musicians" (which, as per my understanding, is the intended meaning of option choice A)

In option choice A "whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass artists" looks like a non-essential modifier and "was also an inspiration" seems to modify "Bill Monroe". So the crux of the sentence- "Bill Monroe was an inspiration to many musicians.. ".
Show more

tt147

This is the crux of (B):

Bill, whose A, B and C influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians ...
- A, B and C of Bill influenced bluegrass artists
- Bill also inspired many musicians
All good with this.

Intended meaning of option (A) has no relevance since (A) is no better than any other option.
Also, from what I gather, meaning of (A) is the same as that of (B), though (A) has many problems.

"A influenced B" is correct.
"A is influential on B" isn't really. We don't use "influential" like this. "influential" is an adjective.
e.g. He is an influential man. He influenced me.
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 01 Mar 2022, 21:25
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GMATNinja
The hard thing about this question is the fact that there’s some crappy stuff in some answer choices, but that stuff isn’t necessarily WRONG. I like it better when things are WRONG, and I can eliminate them with confidence.

But… well, there’s enough crappy stuff to allow us to get to the right answer without too much pain:

Quote:
(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
In (A), there’s a lot of crappiness. The phrase “were influential” is a crappy, indirect way to say “influenced” – but it’s not WRONG, exactly. The phrase “was also an inspiration” is a crappy, indirect way to say “also inspire.” And “that included Elvis and Jerry” is a lousy way to say “including Elvis and Jerry.”

Honestly, my reaction to (A) would be “this is a crappy sentence, but I can’t really eliminate it yet.” So I’d keep it, and look for something better. But I’ll spoil the surprise: there are better options coming in a moment.

Quote:
(B) influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from
Well… isn’t this magical? (B) gives us better versions of EVERYTHING I whined about in (A): “influenced” instead of “were influential”; “inspired” instead of “was an inspiration”; and “including” instead of “that included.”

(B) is looking relatively nice. Let’s keep it.

Quote:
(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
(C) has a pretty severe subject-verb error: “repertory, views… and vocal style…” needs a plural verb, “were influential”, not “was influential.”

(C) also has some of the same “crappy stuff” we saw in (A): “was inspirational” is a crappy way to say “inspired”, “that included” is a poopy version of “including”, and “was different significantly in comparison” is a tragically bad way to say “differed significantly.”

So we have lots of reasons to ditch (C).

Quote:
(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
(D) has exactly the same subject-verb error as (C): “repertory, views… and vocal style…” needs a plural verb, so “was influential” is wrong.

And again: there's lots of crappy stuff here. The phrase “music of whom” is a ridiculous way to say “whose music”, and “differed significantly when compared to” is a really inefficient way to say “different significantly from.”

So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(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
If you’ve seen our videos on pronouns or comparisons, you’ve heard me talk about the phrase “that of” (also discussed in this article). In this case, “that” is a singular pronoun, which seems to refer to “music.”

Trouble is, when you re-read that part of the sentence with “music” replacing “that”, it doesn’t really make sense: “…including Elvis and Jerry, whose music was significantly different from the music of his own.” Huh? The phrase “…different from the music of his own” makes no sense. Why not just say “different from his own” instead?

Plus, (E) also features some crappy stuff again: “were an influence” isn’t as sharp as “were influential”, and “was an inspiration” is a lousier version of “inspired”. Those things aren’t WRONG, but they’re definitely not great.

So (E) is out, and (B) is our best bet.
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Thanks for the explanation GMATNinja - you have the best explanations ever! I was down to B and E. I picked B because I thought it was a "cleaner" sentence, though admittedly I didn't think of the usage of the word "That" in Option E to be problematic. Besides that, I thought that there was also a meaning difference: In B, I think the sentence means that the Bill Monroe's reportery, collaboration and style influenced the other artists. Comparatively, in Option E, I think the sentence means that Bill Monroe himself influenced the other artists. I thought the meaning in option B was the intended meaning of the sentence and therefore picked B for meaning differences as well. Am I on the right track about meaning difference between E and B? Thank you
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 01 Mar 2022, 21:48
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Besides that, I thought that there was also a meaning difference: In B, I think the sentence means that the Bill Monroe's reportery, collaboration and style influenced the other artists. Comparatively, in Option E, I think the sentence means that Bill Monroe himself influenced the other artists. I thought the meaning in option B was the intended meaning of the sentence and therefore picked B for meaning differences as well. Am I on the right track about meaning difference between E and B? Thank you
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Hi UserMaple5,

This is option B:
1. ... Bill Monroe, whose X, Y, and Z influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians...

And this is E:
2. ... Bill Monroe, whose X, Y, and Z were an influence on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians...

X, Y, and Z were an influence on generations of bluegrass artists isn't as good as X, Y, and Z influenced generations of bluegrass artists, but both those structures connect X, Y, and Z to influence.
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 08 Mar 2022, 09:16
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Thank you for your reply gmatninja, but i have small doubt which is eating up my brain.

So for the "was" v/s "were"

I was under impression that it should be "was" because the nouns around "and" are both plural and singular in the sentence, and hence the noun preceding the verb is to be looked at. Could you please clarify this for me

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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 14 Mar 2022, 11:40
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balaganesh98
Thank you for your reply gmatninja, but i have small doubt which is eating up my brain.

So for the "was" v/s "were"

I was under impression that it should be "was" because the nouns around "and" are both plural and singular in the sentence, and hence the noun preceding the verb is to be looked at. Could you please clarify this for me

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You're thinking of the rule for determining the subject when we see "or." In that case, we use the noun closest to the verb to determine whether the verb is singular or plural. For example: "Either pancakes or a waffle is great." vs. "Either a waffle or pancakes are great."

If a subject involves two elements connected by "and," that subject will almost always be accompanied by a plural verb. (An extremely rare exception is when the elements are considered a single entity: "Crime and Punishment is Tim's third favorite novel, after Horton Hears a Hoo, and Finnegan's Wake." But seriously: don't worry about that exception for the GMAT -- you're extremely unlikely to see it.)

I hope that helps!
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Thank you for your reply gmatninja, but i have small doubt which is eating up my brain.

So for the "was" v/s "were"

I was under impression that it should be "was" because the nouns around "and" are both plural and singular in the sentence, and hence the noun preceding the verb is to be looked at. Could you please clarify this for me

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Hello balaganesh98,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the plural verb is correct in this context because any elements, plural or singular, joined by "and" come together to form one plural noun phrase.

To understand the concept of "And" Versus Other Conjunctions on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 11 Apr 2022, 20:22
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Does B have a comma splice issue? It just jumps directly to "also..." but I would've though an "and" would be included to connect the two?
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 11 Apr 2022, 21:38
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Does B have a comma splice issue? It just jumps directly to "also..." but I would've though an "and" would be included to connect the two?
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B is not a comma splice.

With B, the sentence is:

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.

At a broader level, following are the clauses:

i) Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians....
- Independent clause

ii) whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists
- Dependent clause

So basically, there is only one Independent clause in this sentence. "Comma splice" occurs when two Independent clauses are connected by just a comma.

You can watch our video on Independent and Dependent Clauses.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Independent and Dependent Clauses, their application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 12 Apr 2022, 04:39
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thesip2323
Does B have a comma splice issue? It just jumps directly to "also..." but I would've though an "and" would be included to connect the two?
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Hello thesip2323,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option B does not contain a comma splice error, as it only contains one independent clause - "Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe...also inspired many musicians"; every other clause in this sentence is a dependent one.

Remember, a comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by a comma rather than a semicolon or the "comma + conjunction" construction.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll Updated on: 13 Apr 2022, 21:57
Originally posted by Dinesh654 on 12 Apr 2022, 05:45.
Last edited by Dinesh654 on 13 Apr 2022, 21:57, edited 1 time in total.
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hello experts, @martytargetprep mgmat GMATNinja egmat

I almost marked B, but the took some more time and marked A,

I might be overthinking but inspired can be a verb for views, views influenced... and inspired... -leaving no verb for Bill. hence i eliminated it!

**second, How can ,ing modify musicians? it's modifying Bill and the action of bill- inspired. I've seen it many times ,ing modifies nearest noun, it makes sense if verb is missing but how can it modify noun when verb is there in previous clause!
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Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical coll 12 Apr 2022, 06:08
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dcoolguy
hello experts, @martytargetprep mgmat GMATNinja egmat

I almost marked B, but the took some more time and marked A,

I might be overthinking but inspired can be a verb for views, views influenced... and inspired... -leaving no verb for Bill. hence i eliminated it!
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Here's the entire (B) version.

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.

Notice that the relative clause beginning with "whose" logically ends at "artists." After all, "also" is not used to connect verbs in a list. So, "also" does not create a list of verbs composed of "influenced" and "inspired" within the relative clause. Rather, the only verb of the relative clause is "influenced," and "inspired" is outside the relative clause.

Thus, we can see that "inspired" pairs logically with "Bill Monroe" as the verb and subject of the main clause of the sentence.

Quote:
**second, How can ,ing modify musicians? it's modifying Bill and the action of bill- inspired. I've seen it many times ,ing modifies nearest noun, it makes sense if verb is missing but how can it modify noun when verb is there in previous clause!
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"Including" is different from other present participles. "Including" can be use similarly to how "such as" is used. So, when we see ", including ...," we read that similarly to how we read ", such as ..." rather than how we normally read a present participial phrase that follows a comma.

Examples:

Bill has worked with some fantastic musicians, such as Joe and Mary.

Bill has worked with some fantastic musicians, including Joe and Mary.
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