If a song is played on the radio often, a practice favored by popular

The meaning leans in favor of a song that is played often that increases the chance; In D, the sentence without the modifier is complete while in C a practice without the accompanying song being repeated isn't full-fledged. if C were to say-- A practice favored by popular radio stations of playing a song on the radio often-, that would be correct.

I think (A) is correct. The thing is, even if you remove the words between the two commas, you'll still need to keep ONE comma because of the "if". That's what we do even in normal situations with "if" and we shouldn't just mechanically remove both commas. If the preceeding sentence structure so requires, we should keep one comma.

(b) is incorrect because of "and" - we are not joining two independent clauses, nor are we creating a list
(c) is incorrect because of the comma at the end which makes it an incomplete sentence. Also, it distorts the meaning in the original - the frequent playing makes the artists popular, not the favoured practice or the song itself.
(d) invalid because a song is not a practice. you can't use one to describe the other in the appositive
(e) invalid for the same reason as (b)

Hi,

If we think "played on radio often" as the modifier then The Song becomes the subject and after masking all the modifiers, the core sentence becomes something like this, which I am not sure if conveys the correct meaning. Please advice.

A song played on the radio often, a practice favored by popular radio stations, increases the chance that the singer will become famous.

I don't believe "a song" is the subject. "If" introduces a scenario and so the entire scenario becomes the subject. Hence, "it" refers to the entire first clause.

If [a scenario occurs] it increase the chances that [cause from scenario]. D introduces no condition and changes the meaning. Plus it is very awkward.

A song can increase smth - this is illogical.
the practice of playing the song often - increases the chance of the artist to become famous.
I say C is better worded, but only the first part...

well well well...after 1year+, i solved it in the same way...clearly it is a bad question for practice for the above mentioned reasons.

please can some expert confirm if OA is indeed correct.

I agree with daagh above -- this question is pretty suspect, and really doesn't sound like an official GMAT question to me. So unless somebody can confirm that this is a legit, official question, I wouldn't recommend spending any more of your time and energy on this one.

And just another friendly reminder: please please please always include the question source when you post in the verbal forum!

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

B changes the meaning. The sentence as written refers to the practice being favored, not the song being favored. Eliminate B. C incorrectly implies that a song is a practice favored by stations. D has the same mistake. E incorrectly has the word ‘and’. The subject of this option is therefore plural, but the verb ‘increases’ is singular. The correct choice is A.

admin, please remove such questions. It doesn't seem to have a single correct choice.
People end up wasting time and add to confusion

Posted from my mobile device

If a song is played on the radio often, a practice favored by popular radio stations,it increases the chance that the singer will become famous.

(A) If a song is played on the radio often, a practice favored by popular radio stations, it - the second clause is a modifier clause that modifies the action of 'playing the song frequently' on the radio. So, if you remove this modifier clause, you are left with "If a song is played...often, it increases the chances that the singer will become famous". (A) has no error in it. Hence, (A) is the right answer choice.

(B) If a song is played on the radio often, and favored by popular radio stations, it - here, the actions of 'played' and 'favored' are placed in parallel; this indicates that these two actions are two individual actions that must occur together. However, the action 'favored' occurs as a direct consequence of the action 'played' and hence cannot be treated as two independent events. Hence, we can eliminate (B).

(C) A practice favored by popular radio stations, a song played on the radio often, - Here, the intended meaning of the sentence changes. Now, it is the favored 'practice' that is expected to help the singer become famous, and not the actual act of 'playing' the singers song frequently (which is the intended meaning of the sentence). Hence, eliminate (C).

(D) A song played on the radio often, a practice favored by popular radio stations, - Has the same error as described in (C). Hence, eliminate (D).

(E) The playing of a song on the radio often, and a practice favored by popular radio stations, - with (E), the sentence now becomes "The playing....., and a practice....., increases the chance that the singer will become famous.". There is a parallelism error here - the verb 'playing' is placed in parallel with the noun 'practice'. Hence, eliminate (E).

If you find this explanation helpful, please give it a kudos

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.