Opening with tributes to jazz-age divas like Bessie Smith and closing

Question

Opening with tributes to jazz-age divas like Bessie Smith and closing with Koko Taylor’s electrified gravel-and-thunder songs,  the program will trace  the blues’ vigorous matriarchal line over more than 50 years.

(A) the program will trace 
(B) the program shall trace 
(C) there will be a program tracing 
(D) it is a program that traces 
(E) it will be a program tracing

surendrasaini1 · Accepted Answer

Opening with tributes to jazz-age divas like Bessie Smith and closing with Koko Taylor’s electrified gravel-and-thunder songs,  the program will trace  the blues’ vigorous matriarchal line over more than 50 years.

(A) the program will trace 
(B) the program shall trace 
(C) there will be a program tracing 
(D) it is a program that traces 
(E) it will be a program tracing

Present participle will modify the program, and in option A & B,the program is the subject of the clause.

Will is preferred than shall.shall is generally used for first person pronouns.
 
In option C,D & E, the entity being modified is not placed near to the modifier.

So, I will go with choice A

Thanks

adkikani · Answer

Hi  generis   AjiteshArun   VeritasKarishma   GMATNinja

Being a non-native speaker, I can't trust myself to recall first/third person pronoun under stressed condition
for correctly using shall/ will.
Can I take help of level of certainty or intended meaning to choose between will/shall?

I was able to discard C,D and E easily since opening modifier should modify preceding noun after coma, ie, the program

AjiteshArun · Answer

I really don't think the GMAT will ask you to choose between  will  and  shall  these days. I've seen  shall  itself in just a few questions, all old.

push12345 · Answer

What I can gather from this sentence is

The description of how the program will go is described in the sentence
"The program "need to come after comma to make

b/W A and B
as program description is there So "will" is used as there is certainity about how program goes 
Using "shall" would suggest may be /may not be scenario

daagh · Answer

Will or shall, I doubt whether a review or report of a program is ever done in a future tense. One may see that it is chronicle covering half a century. 
A, B, C, and E can be discarded. D is perhaps the best among the lot, although, the subject, the program, could have been immediately introduced after the modifier rather than through an expletive 'it is a program. '

I am unable to decipher the intent of GMAC in those days in this question.

dave13 · Answer

I will go with D option

because using future tense is illogical in my opinion here, cause future tense changes the meaning and it is not correct , "over more than 50 years" it means the program iincludes elements that were used for the last 50 years. So opening with X and closing with Y it is the program that features vigorous matriarchal line over more than 50 years. D

teaserbae · Answer

C,D and E modifier problem
Now left with A and B
shall is used with first person
So A is left

teaserbae · Answer

Can you please brief why future tense it illogical in A and B
Moreover in D there is modifier error ?

BillyZ · Answer

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/06/29/111793477.html?pageNumber=297

dave13 · Answer

I dont get how B can be a correct answer and why D cant be correct answer

Here is a similar example: Starting in Sao Paulo and finishing in Kuala Lumpur, it is a journey that features unique experiences for a traveller What wrong`s with my sentence ?

teaserbae · Answer

What is starting and finishing ? A journey
We don't need it is a journey

dave13 · Answer

I also agree with  daagh  s statement that " I doubt whether a review or report of a program is ever done in a future tense "

dave13 · Answer

thanks for your efforts to explain but i dont really get your explanation

sudarshan22 · Answer

Official Explanation: 
 Choice A  is best because will/ is appropriate for simple future tense. 
In  B , shall implies intent or determination on the part of the program. 
In addition to being needlessly wordy,  C, D  and  E  create problems in modification because the verb phrase Opening. . . seems to describe there or it rather than
program; for the modification to be clear and logical, program must be the first noun and grammatical subject of the main clause.

DarleneTran · Answer

Opening with tributes to jazz-age divas like Bessie Smith and closing with Koko Taylor’s electrified gravel-and-thunder songs, the program will trace the blues’ vigorous matriarchal line over more than 50 years.

(A) the program will trace 
(B) the program shall trace 
(C) there will be a program tracing 
(D) it is a program that traces 
(E) it will be a program tracing
-------------
The sentence starts with V-ing, so its modifier has to be after a comma "," and it should be in active form. Because of this signal, C, D & E are out.
We have A & B left. B conveys the meaning incorrectly, so the answer is A.

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