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

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Bill Monroe's repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists, and he also inspired many artists, many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his.

Concepts tested here: Grammatical Construction + Subject-Verb Agreement + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• When “that” is preceded by a comma, it refers to the noun before the earlier comma.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to “bluegrass artists” with “that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia”, incorrectly implying that Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia are among the musicians influenced by Bill Monroe's repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style; the intended meaning is that Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia are among the musicians inspired by Bill Monroe, himself; please remember, when “that” is preceded by a comma, it refers to the noun before the earlier comma; hence, in this sentence, “that” incorrectly refers to “musicians”. Further, Option A uses the passive voice constructions “were influential on” and “was also an inspiration to”, rendering it unnecessarily indirect and awkward.

B: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural compound noun “repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style” with the plural verb “were”. Further, Option B correctly modifies “musicians” with “including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia”, conveying the intended meaning – that Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia are among the musicians inspired by Bill Monroe. Moreover, Option B uses the phrase “differed…from his own”, conveying the intended meaning – that the music of artists such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia differed significantly from Bill Monroe's music. Additionally, Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural compound noun “repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style” with the singular verb “was”. Further, Option C incorrectly refers to “bluegrass artists” with “that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia”, incorrectly implying that Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia are among the musicians influenced by Bill Monroe's repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style; the intended meaning is that Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia are among the musicians inspired by Bill Monroe, himself; please remember, when “that” is preceded by a comma, it refers to the noun before the earlier comma; hence, in this sentence, “that” incorrectly refers to “musicians”. Additionally, Option C uses the passive voice constructions “was influential to”, “was also inspirational”, and “was different significantly in comparison to”, rendering it unnecessarily indirect and awkward.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural compound noun “repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style” with the singular verb “was”. Further, Option D uses the passive voice constructions “was influential to” and “the music of whom…compared to”, rendering it unnecessarily indirect and awkward.

E: Trap. This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “from that of his own”; here, the pronoun “that” refers to “music”; thus, the use of “that” illogically implies that the music of musicians such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia differed significantly from “that”, referring to “music” of Bill Monroe's own (music); the intended meaning is that the music of musicians such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia differed significantly from Bill Monroe's music. Further, Option E uses the passive voice constructions “were an influence on” and “was also an inspiration to”, rendering it unnecessarily indirect and awkward.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of the rare case when "That" is preceded by a comma, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Ron's explanation on MGMAT's blog:

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

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 No obvious grammatical errors but very awkward wording used: "influenced" is better than "were influential on", "also inspired" is better than "was also an inspiration" and "including" is better than "that included". I would go with this only if all other options have obvious errors. For now, eliminate.

(B) influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from Perfect ! All the mentions above are corrected and no other errors introduced.

(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 Need plural verb "were influential" to refer to multiple factors (which itself is awkward, as we have seen above), not "was influential". Also includes other awkwardly worded elements. Eliminate.

(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 SV error as in (C). Also, "the music of whom" is awkward - "whose music" is much better. Eliminate.

(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 here. Other awkwardly worded elements are there such as "also an inspiration to..." and "were an influence on...". Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

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

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.

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

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

Hello, dcoolguy. I wanted to take a moment to point out that, first and foremost, GMAT Club is a community. It does not exist to serve you. In fact, some Experts may feel put off by seeing such "list" requests that mention a string of tutors or test prep companies. Such a request can suggest that you do not particularly care which Expert replies, as long as you get your question answered. However, the particular request you made at the end of your post is, at best, disrespectful to Ashish (maybe there are others at Education Aisle, but the only posts that come to my mind are all by Ashish); at worst, it is an affront to the entire GMAT Club community. Remember, this is a public forum, not your private, on-demand access to the best minds in exam prep. If you would like your queries answered by a select few, try writing PMs, not making an open request in the thread.

I acknowledge that you are part of the GMAT Club community, and that everyone has the right to participate in a manner that person sees fit, at least within the general guidelines of the site. (No hate speech, political talk in the chat, and so on.) But I am a member, too, and I happen to enjoy reading responses by other Experts—all Experts—and I can think of no one besides Ashish who attaches pertinent sections of their book to assist another member with a query. In full disclosure, I have no affiliation with Education Aisle and have never spoken to Ashish personally. We have crossed paths only in the forum.

Please be respectful of the GMAT Club community. Just so you know, I myself would be happy to help you with a question, as long as I felt you were seeking my opinion in a sincere and respectful way.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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!)

Hi dcoolguy,

I respect your right to ask for replies from specific forum members, but as almost all threads on GMAT club are public, if you absolutely need a reply only from those members, you may be better off using the PM feature. If you'd like the answer to your question to help other forum members as well, you could always ask for the reply to be posted in the relevant thread (instead of getting a reply over PM).

Fun fact: This is not just something that I'm asking you to do. I myself sent a PM query to Ashish (EducationAisle) just a few weeks ago asking for a second opinion on something that I needed input on.

TheUltimateWinner

Hmm, to make that work we'd need an entirely different sentence. In this one, the intervening text between ARTISTS and THAT is actually part of the core of the sentence. It wouldn't make no sense to introduce a noun in a modifier, get back to the main action of the sentence, and then go back to modifying the noun from that earlier modifier. That would produce a monstrosity like this:" The couch, which is on sale at the mall, was really comfortable, that my brother used to work." Absolutely not!

However, we might get away with a sensible jump if the intervening text is an additional modifier for the same noun: "I drove a long way to pick up the load of compost, composed mainly of coffee grounds, that has made my car so fragrant." Here, THAT can reasonably modify COMPOST. But be careful with these leaps; I went out of my way to make this work, but the GMAT will more often find a way to rewrite to avoid a "modifier traffic jam."

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.