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:
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(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.
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(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.
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(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).
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(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.
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(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.
- 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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22 Sep 2020, 05:50
