Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician, created painti

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



HIGHLIGHTS

• Do not get bamboozled by the structure of option A.
The correct answer may not contain the same kind of phrasing as that in (A).

• BOTH
-- is not a necessary word. The word "and" can conjoin two things.
-- In English, we use "both" to emphasize that a statement applies to two items in the much-used idiom BOTH X and Y

Jean-Michel Basquiat started out as a graffiti artist in Manhattan.
About 18 months ago, one of his paintings sold at Sotheby's for a little over $110 million dollars—the record for a painting by an American artist.

THE PROMPT



THE OPTIONS


• in the idiom BOTH X and Y, X and Y must be parallel.
X = based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol (adjective phrase - "based" is a past particple
Y = Robert Rauschenberg (proper noun, a person)
Eliminate A


• the X and Y elements are not parallel
X = on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol (prepositional phrase)
Y = Robert Rauschenberg (noun)
Eliminate B


• the first clause is not a full sentence.
• that is, the first clause is a fragment because the relative pronoun WHO "eats up" the only verb, created—and Basquiat is now a subject without a verb
-- GMAC tests this error often. I discuss the setup briefly in "Notes."
Eliminate C


• I see no errors, and the absence of the word "both" is fine. The sentence is grammatical and logical
KEEP
E) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat created paintings based both on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, yet he rejected pop-art’s promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work.
• again, X and Y are not parallel. The elements are the same as those in (incorrect) option B.
• "Painter and musician" is an appositive phrase that describes Jean-Michel Basquiat. Moving the description of him around does not fix the error.
Eliminate E

The answer is D

NOTES

• BOTH? If we really wanted to use "both," we could do so.
Correct: Basquiat created paintings based on the pop-art work of both Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.

• The "relative pronoun ate the verb" trap. GMAC tests this error frequently.
Whenever a subject is followed by a relative clause (a which-clause, who-clause, or that-clause), remember that the pronoun (which, who, that) "eats" one verb.
Be sure that the subject of a full clause has its own verb, in order to avoid incomplete sentences such as the one in option (C).

COMMENTS

Again, these answers are very good.

And again, I am pleased to see both veterans of and relative newcomers to Butler.
Happy kudos.

This question is testing parallelism.

After checking the first part of option, there isn't much to decide upon, however the end part is where the question is testing your parallelism knowledge.

A) Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician, created paintings both based

both based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg,

Based on needs to be on both sides of "and",
Correct version would be "both based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and based on Robert Rauschenberg"


B) Jean-Michel Basquiat, the painter and musician, created paintings that were based both

Because of usage of "on" after both, "on" needs to written on both sides.
Correct version would be "Jean-Michel Basquiat, the painter and musician, created paintings that were based both on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and on Robert Rauschenberg"

C) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat, who created paintings based

"who creates a run-on", No verb for - Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat.

D) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat created paintings that were based

It is very important to know that parallelism is tested from Y to X, now in this version "Both" is not used.
we can compare "Rauschenberg" A Noun (Y) with "Andy Warhol" (X), this is correct.

E) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat created paintings based both

Again both usage creates problem.
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Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician, created paintings both based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, yet he rejected pop-art’s promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work.

the idiom is both X and Y , in which X and Y have to be structurally parallel. It is not the case in the sentence ("based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol" is not parallel to "Robert Rauschenberg"), so any option with "both" won't work.

incorrect as discussed above

- error similar to the one in A

- sentence fragment: "Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat" lacks a verb

- correct
- "both" does not work as discussed for A

MEANING
JB created paintings that were based on X and Y, yet he rejected consumerism and embraced politics.

A) "both based on works of X and Y" not parallel;
B) "both on works of X and Y" not parallel;
C) "JB… yet he" nonsense;
E) "based both on works of X and Y" not parallel;

Ans (D)

Hi,
IMO D.
Both gives it away. Both means there are two separate entities based on which paintings were created.




This choice changes most of the part of the sentence into a modifier and then we see a conjunction,yet, making it incorrect. it changes the meaning as well.
Correct.
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You can argue "Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician" is not better than "Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat" but that should not be your decision point.

I see a both at the end of the sentence. So I am looking for Both X and Y kind of a structure but there is no actual usage of both. "created paintings both based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg" The paintings were created based on the pop-art works of 2 names. Those are not 2 different types. It is just one. So you should figure out we don't need a both here. Changing it's placement wont help because the second half, which tells us we don't need both, is non underlined. So that wont change.

So we can get rid of A,B and E in one go.



D is a more direct. I agree. But C only has one major problem "who". Why would you say who when you have the noun just next to it. And even if you ignore that, this is how the sentence looks once you strike the middleman.

C) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat, who created paintings based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, yet he rejected pop-art’s promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work. - It's not an Independent Clause.

So we pick D over C.
Always look for a more convincing reason to pick one choice over the other. If it's a high quality question (specially official question), chances are you will find more than one reason to eliminate an answer choice.

Meaning: Jean-Michel Basquiat the painter and musician created paintings based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. He rejected pop-art's promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work.


Both is a parallelism marker for two entities X and Y which must be parallel. X: based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol, a participial phrase, Y: Robert Rauschenberg, a noun. X and Y are not parallel. A relative clause is not as concise as an appositive. Eliminate A.


Both signals parallelism of two entities. X: on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol, a prepositional phrase, and Y: Robert Rauschenberg, a noun. X and Y are not parallel. Eliminate B.


This is not a complete sentence. I can't see any main clause. The sentence is composed of a noun and an essential appositive, followed by a relative clause, and a subordinate clause. Eliminate C.


The parallelism is set off by and, so we expect to see X and Y. X: Andy Warhol, a noun, and Y: Robert Rauschenberg, a noun. X and Y are parallel. The essential appositive Painter and musician is more concise than a relative clause. Keep D.


Both signals parallelims of two entities. X: on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol, a prepositional phrase, and Y: Robert Rauschenberg, a noun. X and Y are not parallel. Eliminate E.

The answer is option D.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician, created paintings both based on the pop-art works of Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, yet he rejected pop-art’s promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work.

Let's remove the non-essential part. JMB,..., created paintings both based on works of A and B....

A) Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was a painter and a musician, created paintings both based - Incorrect usage of both distorts the meaning.

B) Jean-Michel Basquiat, the painter and musician, created paintings that were based both - Same error as A

C) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat, who created paintings based - There is no verb for the subject.

D) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat created paintings that were based - Seems weird because of usage of relative pronoun, that. Still hold it.

E) Painter and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat created paintings based both - Same error as A

Based on POE, correct answer is D.

Imo. D.

It took me 1 minute and 28 seconds to decide on answer (D).

Firstly, (A)(B)(E) really cannot use "both" and expect to write a properly constructed sentence with parallelism.

Secondly, (C) is not a proper sentence. When we remove the subordinate clause, we get: Jean-Michel Basquiat yet he rejected pop-art’s promotion of consumerism and embraced overtly political themes in his work.

(D) is therefore the winner.

The official explanation is here.

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