I think the answer is C.

A's understanding of x, y, and Z , defining his artistic style as much as his surrealist paintings.

..

Faulty Parallelism : We need another single word noun in place of that .....clause .. for the parallelism to follow.. choice A and B is out

SV error : the subject is understanding and it is singular .. Hence E is out..


Between C and D

D has meaning issue. D says .. because it defined his artistic stylist as much as his surrealist paintings.. A's understanding of X,Y, and Z was significant.. This is meaning change.. hence out ..




C correctly has the structure of both and... Also clearly conveying the intended meaning.. Its a Cause n Effect type ..
.. ,defining .. is modifying to the prev clause and making sense with the subject A's understanding ..


C is the best choice and is the answer
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Salvador Dali’s understanding of impressionism, futurism, and that of cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining his artistic style as much as his surrealist paintings.

A. that of cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining his artistic style as much as - the intended meaning of the sentence is to exemplify two key aspects that were affected by Dali's understanding (namely his artistic style and his paintings). However, (A) takes away focus from the exemplification and instead equates the effect of Dali's understanding on his artistic style with that on his paintings.

B. that of cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, and it defined his artistic style as much as - the pronoun ''it'' has several possible antecedents: cubism, artist, understanding, impressionism.

C. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style and - has no error. Hence, (C) is the right answer choice.

D. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, as it defined his artistic style as much as - has the same error as described in (B).

E. cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style in addition to - does not use the right ''Both X and Y'' idiomatic structure.

Official Explanation

Salvador Dali’s understanding of impressionism, futurism, and that of cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining his artistic style as much as his surrealist paintings.

A. that of cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining his artistic style as much as

B. that of cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, and it defined his artistic style as much as

C. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style and

D. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, as it defined his artistic style as much as

E. cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style in addition to

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:

1. was / were (subject-verb agreement)
2. that of cubism / cubism (parallelism)
3. how each option ends (wordiness/meaning)

Let’s start with #1 on our list: was vs. were. It’s an easy “either/or” split that will eliminate 2-3 optoins rather quickly. In this sentence, “knowledge” is the subject and is singular, so “was” is the correct form of the verb. Let’s see how our options stack up:

A. that of cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining his artistic style as much as

B. that of cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, and it defined his artistic style as much as

C. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style and

D. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, as it defined his artistic style as much as

E. cubism were significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style in addition to

We can eliminate options A & E because they don’t follow proper subject-verb agreement. Now that we have it narrowed down a bit, let’s move on to #2 on our list: that of cubism vs. cubism. This is a parallelism issue! Everything listed should be listed in the same format, so let’s see what the underlined portion needs to match up with:

Salvador Dali’s understanding of impressionism, futurism, and that of cubism / cubism

Let’s eliminate the options that don’t keep this list parallel:

B. that of cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, and it defined his artistic style as much as

C. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style and

D. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, as it defined his artistic style as much as

We can eliminate option B because the list isn’t written using parallel wording. Now let’s move on to #3 on our list. Something else to consider is that the sentence should always be worded as concisely and clearly as possible. Let’s take a closer look at each remaining option to decide which is the clearest and most concise:

C. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, defining both his artistic style and
This is our CORRECT option! The phrase is written concisely, the subject-verb agreement works, and it’s parallel.

D. cubism was significant in his growth as an artist, as it defined his artistic style as much as
This is INCORRECT because it’s overly wordy. The phrase “as it defined” can easily be replaced with “defining,” and the phrase “as much as” means the same thing as the much shorter “and.”

There you have it - option C is the best choice!

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Well done DasAshishAshutosh! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!
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Well done, jaisonsunny77! You cracked the code on this one! Kudos to you!
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