The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a

Question

The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a hundred men and women dressed in army fatigues and lying on the ground as if they had been killed in battle, represented neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement,  but rather attempted to be commenting creatively  on troubled times.

(a) but rather attempted to be commenting creatively
 (b) but attempted a rather creative comment
 (c) but rather was an attempt to comment creatively
 (d) but commented rather creatively, or at least attempted to
 (e)but commented creatively, or, rather, attempted to comment

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Good question, C is correct.

The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a hundred men and women dressed in army fatigues and lying on the ground as if they had been killed in battle, represented neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement,  but rather attempted to be commenting creatively  on troubled times.

(a) but rather attempted to be commenting  creatively 
 Wrong.  "commenting" is noun ==> It needs adjective "creative" to modify. But, "creatively" is adverb that modifies main verb "attempted" ==>  Change meaning.

(b) but attempted  a rather  creative comment
 Wrong.  "a rather" is incorrect.

(c) but rather was an attempt to comment creatively
  Correct.   Idiom:  Not X but rather Y;  "creatively" is an adverb that modifies verb "comment".

(d)  but commented rather creatively, or at least  attempted to
 Wrong.  Bad grammar structure, wrong idiom.

(e)but commented creatively,  or, rather,  attempted to comment
 Wrong.  Bad grammar structure, wrong idiom.

Hope it helps.

blueseas · Answer

hi,

no they are not redundant.

not X ,but rather Y....=>This one is a famous idiom for gmat.
HERE x and y ..must be struturally and logically parallel.

kUDOS If it helped

Postal · Answer

The subj is an art illustration
A - to be commenting - unnecessary
B - verb needed - should be attempted to comment 
C - concise and clear - the illustration was an attempt
D - wordy - or at least attempted to
E - same as with D

ans C

IvyLeague56 · Answer

are "but" and "rather" not redundant words ??

trocker · Answer

Isn't there a lack of Parallelism here between the two words marked in bold?

The art installation in Central Park , which featured over a hundred men and women dressed in army fatigues and lying on the ground as if they had been killed in battle,  represented  neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement,  but rather attempted  to be commenting creatively on troubled times.

And the correct answer is marked here as

The art installation in Central Park represented neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement but rather was an attempt to comment creatively

For me, this violates the very first rule of Parallelism. The answer should definitely contain  attempted .

Why am I wrong here?

hubahuba · Answer

Bumping the thread for the same question as above. Don't we need 'attempted' to be parallel to 'represented'? Please, can someone clarify the rule for this one. Thanks,

unuk50 · Answer

Represented is meant to introduce anti war, pro military. Can't use represent or represents for that reason.
It represented neither x nor y but rather z. As long as x,y,z are parallel, we are good

nitz19arg · Answer

Still no clarity on above issue involving parallelism.
Can someone help us out?

Udai · Answer

Still not clear how an anti war/pro military statement is parallel to was an attempt to comment creatively

GmatNirvanaSeeker · Answer

The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a hundred men and women dressed in army fatigues and lying on the ground as if they had been killed in battle, represented neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement, but rather attempted to be commenting creatively on troubled times.

Can be answered using meaning.

(a) but rather  attempted  to be commenting creatively - The art installation did not attempt, maybe the artist did.
(b) but  attempted  a rather creative comment - same as A
(c) but rather was an attempt to comment creatively
(d) but  commented  rather creatively, or at least attempted to - Same as A
(e)but  commented  creatively, or, rather, attempted to comment - Same as A

represented in the parallel structure is correct, as the art can represent something.

Hope I am right, and this provides some clarity.

daagh · Answer

The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a hundred men and women dressed in army fatigues and lying on the ground as if they had been killed in battle, represented neither an anti-war nor a pro-military statement,  but rather attempted to be commenting creatively on troubled times.
 
 The first thing to note here is that ‘rather’ means here ‘on the contrary’ adding an emphasis to the contrast conjunction ‘but’. Going forward,

(a) but rather attempted to be commenting creatively --- to be commenting creatively ---  not a quite formal writing of a past tense event.  
(b) but attempted a rather creative comment --  the attempt was for a purpose, which is best expressed by an infinitive  
(c) but rather was an attempt to comment creatively – T he concise infinitive expression of a purpose. Best  
(d) but commented rather creatively, or at least attempted to --  unconcise  
(e)but commented creatively, or, rather, attempted to comment –  unconcise.

mitrakaushi · Answer

I am not an expert. Although your argument that "x nor y but rather z...." is correct, the only issue here is that there was a 'was' in option C. Let us see 2 sentences:

1. It was neither a bird nor a plane but rather a drone.

Here was represents a state of being. The first part of the sentence takes the verb 'represented'. If we continue then the statement violates parallelism.

Here X and Y are both things that the art installation is supposed to represent, and Z here is 'was a ....'! Z is not something that the art installation represents, rather it is something that the art installation is i.e. the state of being.

Dh4035 · Answer

A B D and E all share the same issue. They break parallelism by contrasting ‘statement’ (noun) with ‘attempted’ or ‘commented’ (verbs).
 
So, C is the only correct answer.

Abhishekrao12 · Answer

Is it OK to write that an art installation attempted to do something / commented something? even though art installation is an inanimate object.  daagh

daagh · Answer

Abhishek 
I think you are being too literal .We often say -- the Bible says, Quran says and Gita says. But, when did they tell us in words? 
Somebody is artistically trying to highlight something through the installation(meaning artifact). That is about all.

The beauty of art is that one feels it, not that one has to hear it nor see it doing.

srikalivarapu · Answer

Choice B “rather creative comment “ changes the meaning of the type of comment (intelligent or dumb) than the type of attempt it is

Posted from my mobile device

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(a) but rather attempted to be commenting creatively
The tense is wrong since commenting isn't the right tense

(b) but attempted a rather creative comment
The meaning isn't right

(c) but rather was an attempt to comment creatively
This is wxactly what was meant to be commented

(d) but commented rather creatively, or at least attempted to
rather or is redundant

(e)but commented creatively, or, rather, attempted to comment
Same reasoning as D 
Hence IMO C

kadamhari825 · Answer

Hello experts  EducationAisle   AndrewN   VeritasKarishma

i just eliminated options A and B on the basis of following reasoning . is it correct?
In option A and option B connector  , but  connects two verbs  represented  and  attempted  but the subject The art installation does not make sense with attempted. The installation can not attempt something ,right?

Thanks

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  kadamhari825 . I have to agree with  daagh  on this one (in  this post ). The context of the sentence allows us to infer that an artist  through the installation  was aiming to comment on troubled times. We can eliminate answer choices (A) and (B) for other reasons, but not because they anthropomorphize the installation. Furthermore, GMAC™ is apparently okay with this sort of usage: check out  this official question  on landfills, for instance.

Choice (C) works here because it follows a parallel construct and is both idiomatically and semantically sound:  The installation represented neither  an X  nor  a Y , but rather was  a Z .  Since  an attempt  in this context requires further explanation, we see the infinitive afterwards:  an attempt   .

This is a nuanced question that would probably prove easier for a native speaker of English. It reminds me of the type of question that used to appear on the exam more frequently, at a time in which the international testing base was far lower than it is today.

I hope that helps a bit. Thank you for thinking to ask me.

- Andrew

The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a

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The art installation in Central Park, which featured over a

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