Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged in

(A) Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged -- Correct Staged is in past tense..
(B) Except for a concert performance with the composer himself staging it -- Staging ..? wrong tense.
(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself -- Besides means in addition to ..distorts meaning.
(D) Excepting a concert performance that the composer himself staged -- Excepting ..awkward..
(E) With the exception of a concert performance with the staging done by the composer himself -- passive and wordy..

agree with A here,

(B) Except for a concert performance with the composer himself staging it -- staging it in 1911？ past...
(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself -- being staged...ruled this one out for using being...sound awkward
(D) Excepting a concert performance that the composer himself staged -- Excepting..sound awkward
(E) With the exception of a concert performance with the staging done by the composer himself -- passive not as good as A

288. Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged in 1911, Scott Joplin’s ragtime opera Treemonisha was not produced until 1972, sixty-one years after its completion.

(A) Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged
(B) Except for a concert performance with the composer himself staging it
(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself
(D) Excepting a concert performance that the composer himself staged
(E) With the exception of a concert performance with the staging done by the composer himself

_________________

The OG explains that "Excepting" in D usually appears in negative constructions; it is not the correct idiom in this sentence.

Could anybody give me one example that uses "excepting" correctly?

I googled and looked up my dictionary, but I couldn't find good examples.

B) "with the" and "staging it" sounds weird and wrong. B out
C) Im not sure, but I think it might be wrong to start a sentence with "besides", also "being" sounds weird. But we keep it as a contender
D) Excepting is the wrong word. We're not excepting anything.
E) "with the staging" sounds weird, and the whole sentence is inefficient anyways. "with the exception of" should simply be "except for"

A and C are left: Starting a sentence with "except for" sounds right, whereas "besides" makes it seem that we want to say "on the side of". Besides simply distorts the intended meaning. We do not want to say what happened in contrast to the staged event, we want to say that the staged event was a one off occasion that was never repeated again. Also "that the composer staged" sounds much better than "being staged by the composer". Therefore, C gone and we pick A.

The OE for this question(for option D) says that:

"Excepting usually appears in negative constructions; it is not the correct idiom in this sentence."

Could someone please explain in which scenarios "Excepting" could or could not be used?

B IS WRONG MAINLY BECAUSE THE WORD "STAGING" MEANS THAT IT IS STILL HAPPENING, PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE. IN ADDITION B IS WORDY AT "WITH THE…IT".

C IS WRONG BECAUSE THE WORD "BESIDES" CHANGES THE MEANING OF THE SENTENCE. BESIDES MEANS "IN ADDITION TO".

D IS WRONG BECAUSE WORD "EXCEPTING" IS AWKWARD AND WEIRD, BOOOO.

E IS WRONG BECAUSE "STAGING" IS A PRESENT CONTINUOUS IMPLYING THIS ACTION IS STILL HAPPENING WHEN WE KNOW THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE A VERY LONG TIME AGO.

Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged in 1911, Scott Joplin’s ragtime opera Treemonisha was not produced until 1972, sixty-one years after its completion.

Issue: Meaning | Verb Form

Analysis:
1. The sentence is intends to say that "the performance that the composer staged in 1911" was the only one except "Treemonisha" production in 1972.

I have highlighted the issues in option below:

(A) Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged

(B) Except for a concert performance with the composer himself staging it
- Incorrect verb tense
- also "it" is redundant as it is used to refer to performance in the same clause

(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself
- use of "besides" changes the meaning
- "being staged" is not parallel to the underlined portion of the sentence. (little less certain about this one; will appreciate if someone can confirm)

(D) Excepting a concert performance that the composer himself staged
- incorrect form of the word

(E) With the exception of a concert performance with the staging done by the composer himself
- bad construction

Answer: (A)

Hi Anox,

I am no expert but here are my 2 cents about your query:

(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself
- use of "besides" changes the meaning
- "being staged" is not parallel to the underlined portion of the sentence. (little less certain about this one; will appreciate if someone can confirm)


The problem with "being staged" is not so much to do with parallelism (no parallelism is at play if you ask me!) , but with the meaning. The use of "being staged" implies an ongoing action, whereas the prompt clearly states that the action was completed in the past (in 1911). Hence using "being staged" distorts the meaning.

I hope this helps!

Best,
S

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ... /excepting

besides- it means both except / in addition to
preposition
1.
in addition to; apart from.
"I have no other family besides my parents"
synonyms: apart from, other than, aside from, but for, save for, not counting, excluding, not including, except, with the exception of, excepting, bar, barring, leaving aside, beyond; More
adverb
1.
in addition; as well.
"I'm capable of doing the work, and a lot more besides"
synonyms: as well, too, in addition, also, into the bargain, on top of that.

C) is wrong due to the use of "being" , which is not appropriate here.

Hi Everyone,
I'm not sure about the role of the phrase "Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged"... is it acting as an absolute phrase (noun + noun modifier)?

Thank you in advance!

Cheers,
R.

Hi rszarate , no, that phrase is not an absolute phrase.
It's an introductory prepositional phrase.
Except for is a preposition that means "excluding" or "not including."

The role of this introductory prepositional phrase is to modify the whole idea of the subsequent clause.
In that role, the intro phrase is an adverbial modifier. Introductory prepositional phrases are very versatile. See this footnote.*

Main clause, paraphrased: Joplin's opera was not produced until 61 years after it was completed.
Big Idea of the main clause: "Joplin's opera was not produced for 61 years"

But that main idea has one exception: the concert performance that Joplin himself staged.
The introductory phrase modifies the main idea in the main clause (which is not expressed in one discrete noun) and thus is adverbial.

Hope that helps.


*Introductory prepositional modifiers are very versatile. They are not subject to restrictions that govern five other kinds of intro phrases. I discuss the versatility of this type of intro phrase and contrast it with five other kinds of introductory phrases in this post, here
The other types of intro phrases are adjective phrases; past participle/verbED phrases; present participle/verbING phrases; [preposition + present participle] phrases; and [noun + noun modifier]/appositive phrases.

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-



Choice A: Option A maintains appropriate idiom and tense usage throughout the sentence and conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Thus, Option A is correct.
Choice B: Option B uses the present continuous verb form in the phrase "staging it". As the sentence informs us that the performance in question was staged in 1911, it is clear that the use of the present continuous tense is incorrect.
Choice C: Option C begins with the word "Besides". As "besides" means "in addition to", the use of this word is inappropriate in this context because it changes the meaning of the sentence. Thus, Option C is incorrect.
Choice D: In Option D we see a very subtle meaning-related error. The word "Excepting" carries an inherently negative connotation; whenever it is used, the exception in question is always negative in nature. As this sentence does not imply anything negative about the first staging of the opera, the use of “excepting” is inappropriate. Thus, Option D is incorrect.
Choice E: Option E repeats the tense-related error, using the present continuous tense for an event that clearly began and concluded in the past, that Option B makes. Thus, Option E is incorrect.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of “Simple Continuous Tenses on GMAT”, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

With questions where you don’t spot an error jumping out at you, it is always best to keep Option A as is.
What you can effectively do is compare the rest of the options to see if there is a better choice.

In this case, we hold on to A and compare every other option to it.

B – How is it better or different from A? It says, ‘with the composer … staging it’ - now this is not what is intended by the sentence. The use of ‘with’ and the use of the present continuous tense alters the meaning. We can eliminate this.

D – The change that ‘expecting’ brings is worth considering. The complete sentence now seems to suggest that the opera wasn’t produced 61 years later because they were ‘expecting a concert by the composer’. We can eliminate this.

C – It states that apart from a performance in 1911, the opera was not produced until 1972. This doesn’t make any logical sense. We can eliminate this.

E – the awkward use of ‘with’ twice in the sentence is a red flag. There is also the problem of ‘staging’. We can eliminate this.

Thus, A is the best option.

Hope this helps!

IDIOMATIC STRUCTURES, STYLE



(A) Except for a concert performance that the composer himself staged --------- CORRECT


(B) Except for a concert performance with the composer himself staging it --------- "with" does not do a good job at referring to the performance, as this performance is not "accompanied by" the composer. Awkward.


(C) Besides a concert performance being staged by the composer himself ---------- "Besides" has a very different meaning than "except". The former is a positive COMPARISON, while the latter is a CONTRAST.


(D) Excepting a concert performance that the composer himself staged -------- There's no need to place "excepting" in the present participle form. It leads to confusion, as it looks like a noun modifier, incorrectly modifying the noun "opera".


(E) With the exception of a concert performance with the staging done by the composer himself ---------- "with the exception" is wordy. Additionally, "with" does not do a good job at referring to the performance, as this performance is not "accompanied by" the composer. Awkward.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

If the tense "staging" in option (B) is incorrect, could you please explain how can this particular option be corrected. Which verb tense should be used to correct option B?