As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship..

Question

As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although  many of his colleagues disagreed with his methodology.

A. As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

B. A physicist, astronomer, and professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, and

C. A physicist, astronomer, professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, and scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, and

D. As a physicist, astronomer, professor – but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian - and scientist, he educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

E. A physicist, an astronomer, and a professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientists educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

daagh · Accepted Answer

As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although  many of his colleagues disagreed with his methodology.

A. As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although --- -This is the best of the lot. 
 
B. A physicist, astronomer, and professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions and -- the conjunction ' and 'misses the all-important tenor of the contrast. In addition, the list is unparallel without the 'and' before the last arm of the list. 
 
C. A physicist, astronomer, professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, and scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, and ---  same as in B .

D. As a physicist, astronomer, professor – but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian - and scientist, he educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, although --  sentence fouls parallelism by missing the conjunction 'and' before the last item of the second list.

E. A physicist, an astronomer, and a professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientists educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although --- -The plural 'scientists' may be a grammar error or a typo; the plural does not tally with the singular pronoun 'his' in the later part. In any case, 'with' is wrong since the prepositional modifier, as 'with' seems to modify the professor alone rather than physicist, astronomer, since it is not set off.

nailin16 · Answer

I believe it's D...i m not sure though
Band C could be eliminated coz 'Many of his colleagues disagreed with his methodology' is preceded by 'and' which is incorrect as the underlined and non underlined portion pose contrast features about both..so it sud be 'although'
E says there are different physicist,astronomer n professor because an article is prefixed before each each such profession
A IS INCORRECT coz 'As a ...'
This construction is correct coz as a physicist means the subject acted as/played the role of each mentioned profession...whch is impossible

So D.. and the subject here is 'he'

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askul2389 · Answer

D distorts the meaning and connects wrong lists with AND. 
I think it's E. Physicist, Astronomer and professor are adjectives used for the scientist

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aishwarya4391 · Answer

Meaning Analysis :-  
1)The scientist caters to the roles of a physicist, astronomer, and professor simultaneously. He caters to all these roles simultaneously but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian
2)The scientist educates the masses, challenges the politicians, and debunks longstanding misconceptions, although many of his colleagues disagreed with his methodology.

Therefore, it is very clear that the  physicist, astronomer, and professor are used to modify the scientist; Also, -but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian-  talks about the qualities of the scientist. Therefore it should act as a modifier.

Only option A fits the category.

In case of option D, there is a flawed list which incorporates scientist together with physicist, astronomer, professor.

AR15J · Answer

For this question, the original sentence is correct, but I could not understand the structure well.

As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated

As a teacher, she is very strict-- correct "as" is showing the role of her for which she is strict.

How is below usage correct before scientist? Is it a modifier? Please help !

but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian

sayantanc2k · Answer

There are two opening prepositional phrase modifiers referring to the subject "the scientist ". These two modifiers are:
1. As a physicist, astronomer, and professor
2. With the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian
These two modifiers are joined by the conjunction "but".

brs1cob · Answer

Is the option D wrong because of missing 'AND'? can someone elaborate various mistakes in option D? Thanks in advance

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, missing "and" before "debunked" is one reason. Another is breaking the list "physicist, astronomer, professor and scientist" with "- but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian - ". This phrase should have ideally come after the list ends.

BillyZ · Answer

OFFICIAL SOLUTION

A key to solving this problem lies in your ability to determine which elements belong in each list, as the testmaker has created a problem with a massive number of commas separating lists and transitions.

One big signal to you should be the difference in the last word of each answer choice: three use " although " and two use " and ." Note that the list preceding that last word is of three actions:  the scientist educated...challenged...debunked . The subject of all three actions is "the scientist" and that is a complete list, because in the non-underlined portion a new subject ("many of his colleagues") for that final verb of the sentence, "disagreed." Therefore "and" cannot work; the word "and" must come before "debunked" to complete that list, and then the transition "although" is appropriate to show one final transition. Given that, you can eliminate B and C.

For essentially the same reason, you can eliminate D, which fails to connect the three verbs in the list (of things the scientist did) with the word "and."

Then between A and E, notice the difference, which is evident in the first list and again in the word "scientist" vs. "scientists." In choice E, the list of occupations is treated as a list of three separate people, whereas in A (and B/C/D) it's treated as  three ways to describe one scientist . Here you can look outside the underline to see the singular pronoun "his," signalling that you need one person and therefore the structure of choice A. Therefore, choice A is correct.

kivalo · Answer

Two consecutive modifiers at the beginning of the sentence - I thought GMAT considers it an example of bad sentence organization? (Usually the correct answer places one modifier before and one after the subject).
Is it ok here because:
A - Other answers are wrong, but in general sentence structure can be improved
B - It is perfectly fine because modifiers are joined by the conjuction "but"?

When I think of it, it seems that B is true and thatI the length of the modifiers confused me (As a physicist, astronomer, and professor is one modifier).

shekyonline · Answer

As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although many of his colleagues disagreed with his methodology.
 
'and' is not suitable here.
B, C out here.
D- illogical comparison of 'he' with 'professor', 'astronomer','scientist'
OUT.
E- 'the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian' modifies 'professor' not 'scientist'
Also use of 'As' missing. 
out.

A- best of the options.

A. As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

B. A physicist, astronomer, and professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, and

C. A physicist, astronomer, professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, and scientist educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, and

D. As a physicist, astronomer, professor – but with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian - and scientist, he educated the masses, challenged politicians, debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

E. A physicist, an astronomer, and a professor with the showmanship of a Broadway star and the wit of a comedian, the scientists educated the masses, challenged politicians, and debunked longstanding misconceptions, although

sayantanc2k · Answer

Yes, your understanding (point B) is correct. Two consecutive modifiers are in most cases considered wrong in GMAT (though there are exceptions), whether at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence. However in this case there is a conjunction between the modifiers and such usage is absolutely alright. Without the conjunction, the sentence would be definitely wrong (but with the conjunction, it is definitely correct).

varun202sp · Answer

How can but with be a correct usage in option A). There is no prepositional phrase parallel to "but with the showmanship..."

VerbalBot · Answer

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As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship..

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As a physicist, astronomer, and professor, but with the showmanship..

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