Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain

Question

Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note.

a. Of the millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, many professional songwriters can't play a note. 
 b. Many professional songwriters, out of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, can't play a note 
 c. professional songwriters are among millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today who can't play a note 
 d. Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note. 
 e. Of the millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note.

patedhav · Answer

IMO B).

1) many can't play (unidiomatic, many players "many itself cannot be used as subject noun). - D, E wrong.
2) C invalid -sentence does not make sense.
3) A invalid - because it does not convey message that "many songwriters out of the million can't play a note.

pleonasm · Answer

I'll go with E

'The millions' is the correct construction.

Economist · Answer

Musicians are playing notes , not song writers.
So A, D, E left.
A>> Doesnt convey that songwriters are a part of the larger group.
Between D and E...of the millions is correct...so E.

marshpa · Answer

To be honest, this sentence does not make sense to me. What author is trying to say?? Can you post the source of the question. If this question is coming from decent source, we should dig further else..may be not.

bandit · Answer

E. Between D and E, D has the million which limits the scope. therefore may be incorrect. Am I correct?

Minheequang · Answer

Such a hard question ...
However, IMO  A

Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note.

a. Of the millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, many professional songwriters can't play a note -->  Precise meaning, correct use of  millions of con.... today  -->the best .  The intended meaning of the sentence is that millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today include many musicians who can't play a note, and among such musicians who can't play a note, suprisingly, there are many professional ones 
 b. Many professional songwriters, out of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, can't play a note -->  this illogically indicates that  many professional songwriters  are only musicians who can't play a note while the rest of  millions of contemporary ... britain today  can. The use of  out of , meaning a  particular selection of a group , changes the intended meaning to a wrong meaning of the sentence 
 c. Professional songwriters are among millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today who can't play a note -->  this choice changes the original meaning of the sentence to a ridiculous meaning 
 d. Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note -->   among them  seems redundant with  of millions ... today  
 e. Of the millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today, professional songwriters among them, many can't play a note -->  same error as (D)

shkusira · Answer

E sounds the best:

'Of the millions is required' + As Economist rightly mentioned, you it is the musicians that play note.

OA?

bigfernhead · Answer

Rampuria, you also posted your question here, but failed to post the OA: sc-songwriters-77419.html?highlight=Of+millions+of+contemporary+musicians+playing+in+Britain+today

lahoosaher · Answer

Nice explanation Minheequang.
IMO A

priyankurml · Answer

IMO A. same reasoning stated above. BTW, option A should imitate the question itself. But here A is different ......probably few did not read choice A ....

bigtreezl · Answer

didnt notice this before, but this post has major typos...

the sentence and choice a are not the same. The original sentence looks just like choice D, except choice d has " of the millions of"

trainspotting · Answer

B is the one with no modifier error...I'll go for B....

seofah · Answer

Why is everyone keeping to answer the question that is not even posted correctly? :lol:

gmatprep09 · Answer

I would go for B with this question. What's the OA?

bigtreezl · Answer

for those who picked B, I found this on the net

Many professional songwriters , out of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today,  can’t play a note  . Read only the bold portion, does it make sense? This is called the 2/3rd split of a sentence.

Now read option E in the same manner.

Of the millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain today , professional songwriters among them,  many can't play a note .

bigfernhead · Answer

OK, so both of the bold part sounds good to me. :-)

bigtreezl · Answer

In statement B, "cant play a note" is too far away from what it is supposed to modify, which is "many professional songwriters". In statement B "many professional songwriters" is now the subject of the sentence, which shouldnt be because it changes the intention of the sentence

snatekar · Answer

Isn't option A supposed to be the same as the original sentence ? Since that is true, why does "the" appear in option A after "Of" while it is absent in the original statement ? Please explain the source of the sentence.

Of millions of contemporary musicians playing in Britain

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