Employing many different techniques throughout his career, Michelangel

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
Concepts tested here: Comparisons + Parallelism + Idioms

• “ranging from A to B” (where A and B must be similar entities) is the correct, idiomatic usage.
• Elements linked by a conjunction (“for example” and “such as” in this case) must be parallel.
• “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “including A (“paintings”) to B (“sculpture”)”; remember, “ranging from A to B” (where A and B must be similar entities) is the correct, idiomatic usage. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the prepositional phrase “in the Sistine Chapel”; remember, two elements linked by a conjunction (“for example” in this case) must be parallel.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “including A (“paintings”) to B (“sculpture”)”; remember, “ranging from A to B” (where A and B must be similar entities) is the correct, idiomatic usage. Further, Option B incorrectly uses “like” to introduce the example of “the statue of David”; remember, “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples. Additionally, Option B fails to maintain parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the prepositional phrase “in the Sistine Chapel”; remember, two elements linked by a conjunction (“for example” in this case) must be parallel.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses “as” to introduce the example of “the statue of David”; remember, “like” is used for comparing nouns, “as” is used for comparing actions/clauses, and “such as” is used for giving examples.

D: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the idiomatic construction “ranging from A (“paintings”) to B (“sculpture”)”. Further, Option D correctly uses “such as” to introduce the example of “the statue of David”. Additionally, Option D maintains parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the pronoun phrase “those in the Sistine Chapel”.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “ranging from A (“paintings”) and B (“sculpture”)”; remember, “ranging from A to B” (where A and B must be similar entities) is the correct, idiomatic usage. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the prepositional phrase “in the Sistine Chapel”; remember, two elements linked by a conjunction (“such as” in this case) must be parallel.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Like" vs "As" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Employing many different techniques throughout his career, Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works, including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example, the statue of David.
A. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example,-paintings in the Sistine Chapel is incorrect – those is needed to refer to them ; usage of including to describe the variety of works is incorrect
B. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, like – usage of like to give examples is incorrect ; usage of including to describe the variety of works is incorrect
C. including paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, as - usage of as to give examples is incorrect ; usage of including to describe the variety of works is incorrect
D. ranging from paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, such as - Correct
E. ranging from paintings, such as in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, such as – idiom From X to Y

Answer D

Hi Experts,
Any difference between usage of including and ranging?
How is such as and as different?
I think as can be used to show examples as in (C)

Hello Everyone!

Here is another great example of a Sentence Correction question you might find on the GMAT! Let’s take a closer look at it, and narrow down the answers to find the right one! To get started, here is the original question, with major differences between each option hightlighted in orange:

Employing many different techniques throughout his career, Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works, including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example, the statue of David.

A. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example,
B. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, like
C. including paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, as
D. ranging from paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, such as
E. ranging from paintings, such as in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, such as

After a quick glance over all the options, a few major issues jump out right away:

1. Using “including” versus “ranging from”
2. Proper use of showing examples: for example / such as / like / as
3. Proper use of the idiomatic structure “from X to Y”

Let’s start with #1 on our list because it will knock out either 2 or 3 answers right away. The differences in meaning between these two phrases is slight, but important:

including = Michelangelo used a wide variety of techniques to make only paintings and sculptures
ranging from = Michelangelo used a wide variety of techniques to make a variety of artworks that include paintings and sculptures and other things as well

Since saying “ranging from” conveys a more specific meaning, let’s eliminate options A, B, and C because the word “including” isn’t clear enough for this sentence.

If you chose to start with #2 on the list (proper use of showing examples), you would still eliminate options A, B, and C! Here is why:

A. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example,

Option A is INCORRECT because the words “for example” should be followed by an independent clause. If what comes after it couldn’t stand alone as a complete sentence, use “such as” instead.

B. including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, like

Option B is INCORRECT because the GMAT strongly opposes using “like” to give examples because it’s too informal for professional or graduate-level writing. The GMAT says the use of “like” should only be used to show how two things or people are alike:

Ellison is a great public speaker like his older brother was in prep school. = YES
Anne has several different scarves, like plaid, polka dots, and stripes. = NO (use “such as” instead)

C. including paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, as

Option C is INCORRECT because it uses the word “as” to give an example, which is wrong. The word “as” should only be used to show how to things or people are similar – not to give examples.

Okay, so now that we’ve narrowed down our options to D & E, let’s look more closely at #3 on our list: the idiomatic structure “from X to Y.”

D. ranging from paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, such as

Option D is the CORRECT answer! It uses the phrase “ranging from” to clearly convey meaning, and properly uses the idiomatic structure “from X to Y.”

E. ranging from paintings, such as in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, such as

Option E is INCORRECT because it says “from X and Y,” which is not the right idiomatic structure. It should be “from D to Y.”

There you go – option D is the correct answer!


Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

pls, help
ranging in D works as a preposition or work as a participle/ a kind of verb.
i am confused

thanks.

If it is a preposition then a noun should follow. Since only another preposition(from) follows it, 'ranging' is not a preposition but only a participle.

This is a good question that tests idioms and parallel structure.

The idiomatic expression when referring to a spectrum is ‘from… to…' We are familiar with this.

Once you pinpoint this, you realise that ‘ranging’ is the better option here. ‘Including’ does not work with the idiom ‘from X… to Y…’

Based on this you can eliminate Options A, B, C and E.

You are left with Option D which correctly uses ‘ranging’ with the idiomatic structure ‘from… to…’

D is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

In Option D, is those required for referring to paintings?

Within A and B, is the "including" and "for example" redundant at all?

Yes, exactly! We want to say, "... such as [the paintings] in the Sistine Chapel..." Since "the paintings" is plural, we need to use the plural pronoun "those" (as opposed to the singular pronoun "that").

The "for example" is certainly confusing, but I don't think I'd get rid of (A) and (B) just because of a potential redundancy issue.

Consider this example: "Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works, including paintings and sculptures: for example, Doni Tondo and David." Here, "including" introduces examples of the "art works", while "for example" introduces examples of paintings and sculptures.

Using "for example" after "including" isn't necessarily redundant. And could you come up with a correct example that uses "including" followed by a "for example" for both "paintings" and "sculptures"? Perhaps... but the the punctuation would get ugly, and we'd have something that is, at best, confusing and hard to read.

Regardless, (A) and (B) have much bigger problems. If we wanted to use "including", we'd want "... including paintings AND sculptures," not "... including paintings TO sculpture."

Also, "those in the Sistine Chapel" is better than just "in the Sistine Chapel." The "those" makes it clear that we are talking about paintings in the Sistine Chapel (examples of Michelangelo's paintings).

Lastly, the "like" is wrong in (B). We want to use "such as" when introducing examples.

Without worrying about potential redundancy issues, we can see that (D) is the best choice.

I hope that helps!

Hi, Daagh/CrackVerbalGMAT/GMATNinja/eGmat
I thankyou guys so much for saving our lives. I have been learning through your older posts and it was just amazing!!

Please help me out between Opt. D and E in the below OG question.
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Question. Employing many different techniques throughout his career, Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works, including paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, for example, the statue of David.

D. ranging from paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, such as
OG Explanation: Correct. The examples of art are in parallel form, each introduced with the words such as.

E. ranging from paintings, such as in the Sistine Chapel, and sculpture, such as
OG Explanation: Although the examples of art are both introduced by such as, the form is not parallel since the first is a prepositional phrase (in the Sistine Chapel) and the second is a noun phrase (the statue of David).
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OG explanation says that, since option E has //ism problem: prepositional phrase (in the Sistine Chapel) and the noun phrase (the statue of David), hence it is incorrect. But is it not the case with Option D, it too got prep. phrase and noun phrase?

In general, as explained in this post, you want to take OG explanations with a grain of salt. But in this case the explanation looks okay.

The key is the word "those" in choice (D). "Those" is a pronoun that refers to "paintings": "...ranging from paintings, such as [the paintings] in the Sistine Chapel, to sculpture, such as the statue of David.

Notice that "the paintings in the Sistine Chapel" (aka "those in the Sistine Chapel") is indeed a noun phrase -- "in the Sistine Chapel" simply modifies the noun (well, a pronoun in this case -- "those").

So (D) does in fact gives us, "... paintings, such as [noun thingy 1], and sculpture, such as [noun thingy 2]."

I hope that helps!

avigutman GMATNinja
Is here the word "ranging" act as "verb-ing modifer? If it does then it should be modifying the whole clause "Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works" not just " art works".
Then how come "ranging" is correct in the correct choice?
Is it due to D is the best among the given choices, and all the other choices have grammar error?

Hi taha1234. verb-ing modifier can serve one of two roles:
1) describe / elaborate on the action of the preceding clause: how the subject did the verb (e.g. the dog ran through the field, barking the whole way)
2) describe an unintended outcome caused by the action of the preceding clause (e.g. the dog ran through the field, trampling the flowers along the way)
Answer choice D is correct because "ranging" describes the action of the preceding clause: Michelangelo produced a great variety of art works. "Ranging" isn't just describing the art works themselves - it's elaborating on the great variety produced by Michelangelo.

ExpertsGlobal5
Thank you for your helpful explanation. I am a bit confused on what you mean by "Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the prepositional phrase “in the Sistine Chapel”; remember, two elements linked by a conjunction (“for example” in this case) must be parallel."
If you were to say "paintings, for example, the Sistine Chapel" that seems very strange? Would you say "in paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel" then? Thank you again!

Hello woohoo921,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the two construction you have suggested are grammatically parallel, but neither makes logical sense.

"paintings, for example, the Sistine Chapel" implies that the Sistine Chapel is a painting, which it obviously is not.

"in paintings, for example, in the Sistine Chapel" is incoherent, as we cannot have an example of "in someplace".

Option D makes the parallel and logical construction "paintings, such as those in the Sistine Chapel" - here, "paintings" is parallel to "those in the Sistine Chapel", and the phrase logically conveys that "those (paintings) in the Sistine Chapel are examples of paintings.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

To clarify, I am still a bit confused on what you mean by "Option A fails to maintain parallelism between the noun phrase “paintings” and the prepositional phrase “in the Sistine Chapel”; remember, two elements linked by a conjunction (“for example” in this case) must be parallel." In Choice D there still is "paintings" and then "in the Sistine Chapel"...
is it the "those" that builds the parallelism that was missing in choice A? --->replacing "paintings" with "those" --> paintings, such as [paintings] in the Sistine Chapel". Thank you again.