Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage

Question

Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.

(A) Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 
(B) Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez actually worked construction jobs in Detroit; a legend to his fans in South Africa was unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 
(C) Rumored, and believed by most, that he committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, where he was unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 
(D) Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez is a legend to his fans in South Africa; he was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 
(E) While he was rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, Sixto Rodriguez was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.

pqhai · Accepted Answer

I picked B but A is the best.

A. Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 Correct
  
B. Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez actually worked construction jobs in Detroit; a legend to his fans in South Africa was unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 "A legend to his fans in South Africa" is only a modifier, do not consider it a subject for the second sentence.
  
C. Rumored, and believed by most, that he committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, where he was unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 "where he was unaware" is not correct 
 
D. Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage,  folk musician Sixto Rodriguez is a legend  to his fans in South Africa; he was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 Not intended meaning that author wants to convey. The author wants to compare "suicide" vs "was actually working".

E.  While he was rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage,  Sixto Rodriguez was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.
 Passive voice is not necessary.

sayantanc2k · Answer

A is correct.

A. The modifier "Rumored to have committed suicide on stage" correctly modifies "folk musician Sixto Rodriguez". Another additional information, "and believed by most" (separated by comas) has been inserted within this modifier.

D. The modifier implies that "folk Musician Sixto Rodrigues" is both " rumoured" and " believed by most to have committed suicide on stage". The participle "rumored" does not refer to "to have committed suicide on stage", but erroneously refers directly to "folk Musician Sixto Rodrigues".

BangOn · Answer

Vertical Split. 
E is incorrect because of While.
C --> incorrect use of commas. It is both rumored and believed.
D --> contrast author wants to point out s missing.
B --> Modifier error. legend to his fans is not modifying Sixto
A rules

thelosthippie · Answer

Official answer:

A.

Explanation:
Answer choice B is guilty of a reference error, as the phrase after the semicolon “a legend to his fans…” does not specific whether Rodriguez or some other person was that legend.

Answer choice C is wrong because the phrase “Rumored that he committed…” is not a proper modifier for the subject “Sixto Rodriguez.”

Answer choice D illogically uses the past tense verb “was” after the semicolon.

And answer choice E illogically modifies Rodruigez’ work by saying it happened “while he was rumored to have committed suicide”.

neha24 · Answer

D can be eliminated as follows : when ever we connect 2 independent clauses by a semicolon then those IC must have some connect .plz note that here the name Independent clause is more of a misnomer .the only logic of calling them independent is that those 2 clauses must have sub and a verb and independent meaning but in gmat SC , i have observed , that semicolon connects 2 IC which have some connect between them .this connection is missing in D .

daagh · Answer

Is this an official version? In that case, what tense should be used in the place of the simple past-was? The modifier part contains a past perfect namely, had influenced

vibhav · Answer

guys can someone elaborate on whats wrong with the usage of 'while' in option E?

avohden · Answer

IMO the use of while in answer choice E is incorrect because it's being used a coordinating conjunction. While is typically used as a noun meaning a period on time, such as "I will not return for a while" or as coordinating conjunction such as "While Mary makes breakfast, Bob reads the newspaper." Answer E uses the conjunction form but, the usage is only acceptable if its not ambiguous.

When you rearrange the sentence to say  "Sixto Rodriguez was actually working construction jobs in Detroit While he was rumored, .... , to have committed suicide on stage,"  its a bit ambiguous and implies that that the suicide was continuous, which doesn't make sense.

TooLong150 · Answer

Is there a reason why A is correct though?

sivasanjeev · Answer

Striking out the parenthetical elements (non-essential information between the commas), we have

Rumored,  and believed by most , to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez,  a legend to his fans in South Africa , was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.

which is clear with no SV, pronoun or tense errors.

apoorv601 · Answer

Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many.

A. Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many. -  Correct

B. Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez actually worked construction jobs in Detroit;  a legend to his fans in South Africa was unaware  that his music had influenced so many. -  wrong reference for subject

C. Rumored, and believed by most , that  he committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez, a legend to his fans in South Africa, was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, where he was unaware that his music had influenced so many. -  Use of that is wrong, where he was unaware is also wrong

D. Rumored and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto Rodriguez is a legend to his fans in South Africa; he  was  actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music had influenced so many. -  Verb tense error

E. While  he was rumored , and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, Sixto Rodriguez was actually working construction jobs in Detroit, unaware that his music influenced so many. -  he was rumored is incorrect

AryamaDuttaSaikia · Answer

The sentence has descriptive portions which have to be place between two commas. These are the insertible/removable phrase which when inserted does not add any value to the sentence and when removed does not affect the sentence in anyways. The two phrases are "to have...on stage" and "a legend...South Africa." Hence these have to be placed between two commas. They have been placed rightly only in one answer choice that is "A."

KrishnakumarKA1 · Answer

This looks to be a wonderful question - Needs a lot of thinking.

Here are my reasons for eliminating the other options.

A - OA

B - A semi colon is generally used if the second part of the sentence is an explanation to the first part of the sentence. Such a meaning is not established in this sentence. Hence this can be eliminated.

C - The usage of "where" in this sentence restricts the scope of the city and the sentence. Hence this can be eliminated.

D - Same as Option B - The usage of the semi colon is inappropriate.

E - "While" is generally used when you need to talk about two actions that are simultaneous to each other. This sentence doesn't establish the meaning. Hence eliminated.

Hope that helps.

All the best!

Thanks, 
Dudyala Saikiran
Byju's GMAT Expert.

AKY13 · Answer

In E, in addition to the reasoning given by you, the word "folk" is missing. It may be an important characteristic of Sixto. This detail is not covered elsewhere.

Hahahehe · Answer

VeritasKarishma ,  daagh ,
any reason why the "was" is incorrect in option D? What should be the correct verb tense?

RajdeepGM · Answer

Choice E is also lacking information

Posted from my mobile device

KarishmaB · Answer

The use of 'was' is not the problem (it is used in the correct option too).
The issues with (D) are -
1. When you split the sentence into two, you lose out on the contrast implied by 'actually'. He was rumoured to have committed suicide on stage but actually, he wasn't even aware that his music had influenced so many people. So option (A) is better.

2. In (D), the first modifier - "Rumoured and believed by most to have committed suicide on stage"
means "Rumoured folk musician Sixto..." and "believed by most to have committed suicide on stage folk musician Sixto" which doesn't make sense.

In (A), Rumoured, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto ..."
"and believed by most" is separated by commas. So "believed by most" modifies "rumoured" which is correct.
Rest of the modifier is "Rumoured... to have committed suicide on stage, folk musician Sixto ..."
which is again correct.

Westminster · Answer

can u elaborate the reason ? why does " that " in c wrong.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage

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Rumored, and believed by most, to have committed suicide on stage

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