Like Merrill Ashley, the ballet style of Wendy Whelan is

B. Since it is the only answer that maintains parallelism between Merrill Ashley's, Wendy Whelan's ballet styles.

This is a problem of comparisons. Look at what is being compared. The subject before the comma - "Merill Ashley" and the subject after the comma, "the ballet style of Wendy Whelan" which do not agree. This incorrect comparison is the error in the sentence. We eliminate all the options that do this error. Thus eliminated A (for the reason explained above), C (comparing Merill Ashley and Wendy Whelan's ballet style) and D (comparing Merill Ashley and Wendy Whelan's ballet style).

Of B and E, in E, the comparison is not parallel in nature (Merill Ashley's vs ballet style of Wendy Whelan). To make E correct, we wouls have to make it "Similar to that of Merill Ashley, the ballet style of Wendy Whelan".

Thus B is the best choice where compared items agree in parallelism.

I received a private message asking for additional clarification about the error in E. I'm posting my response here for the group in case others need clarification too:

The problem with E as written is that it's not parallel in structure. It makes sense logically (the primary error with comparisons), but sometimes with comparisons you will be eliminating answer choices on the basis of structure.

Similar to Merrill Ashley's (ballet style), the ballet style of Wendy Whelan - the order is inverted, person/style to style/person, and you have the person in a possessive structure first than within an prepositional phrase - not parallel.

The correct answer B has both people in possessive structure with the same ordering.
B. Like Merrill Ashley's (ballet style), Wendy Whelan's ballet style - perfectly parallel

KW

Hi generis

Please highlight the underlined part and mark the OA as .

Thanks!

__________________
Done. Thank you.

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