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:


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.


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.


(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).


(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.


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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Hey guys, sorry to bring this up again but I just wanted to look at this question from a different angle:

Do this question in under 30 seconds:

RULE Relative pronouns THAT vs WHICH: one cannot use 'that' with a comma:

Hence A and C are out.

Contenders remaining: B,D,E

D: The music of whom (sounds awkward) ELIMINATED.
E: whose music was significantly different from that of : here that is redundant OR 'influential on' is an unidiomatic structure ELIMINATED.

Thus B is correct.

Note: The use of were vs was:
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were...
In this instance the use of the underlined were is correct because it refers to repertory,views on musical collaboration and vocal style and not Bill Munroe.
But as we just discussed, this sentence has other issues.
We could have eliminated D this way too...

was also an inspiration to many musicians,.......
In this part, 'was' refers to Bill Munroe and is therefore correct.

Just another was to eliminate choices....

Can someone try to explain why 'whose music was significantly different from that of his own' is wrong in E.

Hi,

The issue with choice E is that it uses an expression that is considered unidiomatic. The expression "were an influence on" in choice E is that expression.

Also, GMAT emphasizes on concise expressions and use of fewer words to effectively convey the meaning of the sentence. In choice E, we have a few very wordy expressions: "was also an inspiration to" ans "whose music was significantly different from that of". The first expression can be written as "inspired". Also active voice is preferred here because the emphasis is on the doer. The sentence talks about Bill Monroe who is the subject in the sentence. Hence it is better to keep all the actions in active voice for clarity and conciseness.

The second expression includes a contrast between the music of Bill Monroe and Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia. Notice that in choice B, this contrast reads as: "whose music differed significantly from his own (music)." The word "music" is understood after "own" as it appears already in the sentence. Hence the use of "that of" becomes wordy in choice E. These are the reasons why choice E is eliminated and choice B is the correct answer.

The detailed video solution to this OG V2 question is available to the e-gmat customers. The solution is included in our course OG V2 Solutions.

Thanks.
Shraddha


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My doubt regarding the option B is: Shouldn't there be "from that of" at the end of option B?

Lets see whether THAT is necessary. If we cut all the fluff, we get

Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia music differed significantly from his own
What does "His own" stands for? "HIS OWN" is a Possessive pronoun & They are not followed by nouns, but stand alone.
HIS OWN means HIS OWN MUSIC. Thus this use is absolutely correct.

Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia music differed significantly from THAT OF his own
THAT stands for MUSIC, so we can rewrite the above sentence as
Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia music differed significantly from MUSIC OF his own MUSIC
Now my question is- Do you think we need to repeat MUSIC by using THAT, if MUSIC is already implied through the use of HIS OWN, a possessive pronoun.
I Hope your answer would be big NO

For the same reason option B is absolutely correct.

Hi E-GMAT,

i got stuck with the sentence structure of this question could you please explained especially the "whose repertory,
views on musical collaboration, and vocal style infl uenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians," in the sentence "whose repertory and then comma" what is 'views and vocal style" is it a noun modifier?

Thanks

Dear Nitin,

These three items form a list. Next time, try the sentence structure analysis; it'll help you identify the parts of the sentence. Here's the analysis:

Clause 1: Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe,
Clause 2: whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass artists,
Clause 1 continued: was also an inspiration to many musicians,
Clause 3: that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia,
Clause 4: whose music differed significantly from his own.

I have highlighted the subjects in red and the verbs in blue.

What does this sentence mean? Its main point is to say that Monroe inspired many musicians, including people whose music was different from his own. The part you have a question about is a clause that functions as a modifier: whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass musicians. This modifier contains a list: three aspects of Monroe's music influenced other musicians. These were: (1) his repertory, (1) his views on musical collaboration, and (3) his vocal style.

I hope this helps to clarify your doubt!

Regards,
Meghna
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Thanks for the explanation. I was stuck between B & E and I picked E over B as I think B changes the meaning of the original sentence.
As per your analysis was refers to Bill Monroe, not his repertory, views and vocal style.
But in B, also inspired doesn't seem to refer to Bill Monroe, instead it is referring to his repertory, views and vocal style.

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.

Is this analysis correct.
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Dear Prasun,

Thanks for your response. Let me address both issues you've pointed out. First, Bill Monroe is indeed the subject of "also inspired". You can be sure about this by removing the modifier and checking if the sentence still makes sense:

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

When the modifier is removed, the subject still makes sense with the verb "inspired". Remember that modifiers placed between commas give additional information that can be removed without affecting the main point or the grammatical correctness of the sentence, so this is a good way to strip the sentence down to its basic elements and check whether it is correct.

Second, Monroe's repertory, views and vocal style can't be the subject of "inspired", for two reasons. 1) If so, the subject Bill Monroe no longer has a verb. 2) If the subject "repertory, views and vocal style" has two verbs, then these verbs should be joined by a connector such as "and", since they should be parallel items on a list. There is no such conjunction between "influenced" and "inspired".

I hope this helps to clarify your doubts!

Regards,
Meghna
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The first point of elimination should be the subject verb agreement.
The subject is plural here, hence we need a plural verb - were.
Eliminate C and D

When faced with a choice, always follow VAN.

Option A does not follow this rule. Plus that should not be preceded by a comma
Option B is correct as is.
Option E is in passive voice and uses were and influence, which falls below influenced in the VAN rule

Correct Option: B

Hi daagh egmat sayantanc2k

in B (the correct answer) we have ,V-ing. From my understanding: ,V-ing is used to modify the entire preceding clause, but in B , V-ing is used to modify the preceding noun musicians.

Could you please explain such contradiction in B? Many thanks for your kindly comments!
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The very purpose of using ", V-ing" is for not referring to the touching noun. If you want the 'including' to refer to the musicians, then you should remove the comma as in 'many musicians including''. Therefore, the comma plus V-ing is not referring to the musicians as I see it.
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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.

I can not figure out which phrase ,including modifies? Hi daagh, please elaborate more on modifier ,including!
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Probably the following link may be of help.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... t1118.html
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Hi leanhdung, actually the word including is not your usual V-ing modifier. In fact, it's not a modifier at all; it is actually a preposition. Hence, the usual rules of participial phrases do not apply to including.

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

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From Ron (Manhattan)

A:
- "Influential on" is bad idiomatic usage.
- "That included" can't follow a comma, and, even if you remove the comma, the meaning is absurd (the implication would be that Elvis and Jerry composed part of the anatomy of many different musicians).

C:
- "Was influential to" is at best awkward.
- See A for discussion of "that included."
- "Significantly" should come before "different."
- "In comparison to" is redundant because the sentence already says "different."

D:
- See above for "influential to."
- The wording of this choice implies that bluegrass artists aren't musicians (skeleton sentence: "BM, whose stuff influenced lots of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians.")
- "The music of whom" is wordy ("whose music" is better).
- "Differed when compared to" is redundant - and it's an incorrect interpretation (literally, it means that the music was only 'different' when someone was actively comparing it to some other music).

E:
- "That of his own" is redundant (and incorrect, because it literally means "Bill Monroe's music's music").

(remember, 'comma + including' is a modifier THAT EXISTS SPECIFICALLY TO CONVEY the idea of 'I'm naming some, but not all, members of a group'. if that's the intended meaning, then use it!)
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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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