Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor

Question

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor  Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it  is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he
(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it

TommyWallach · Accepted Answer

Hey All,

You guys have mostly rocked this, but I just wanted to add one quick thing about possessives.

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s
and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.

This is a comparison question (which we know because we see the word THAN). So we need to work out what the two things are we want to compare. The first one (the one we can't change), is Bela Bartok's music. Because we have a possessive, we need to parallel that.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it
ANSWER: The "music" part after Bartok is understood whenever you use possessives with an apostrophe s.

(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he
PROBLEM: Comparison is great, but "he" is wrong. Even though it may look like Bela Bartok is in this sentence, he isn't! He's just a possessive adjective modifying music. Pronouns can ONLY refer back to nouns, not adjectives!

(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it
PROBLEM: No need for the "is", but it's also the wrong tense. "Has proved" is the main verb here, so we're in the present perfect. If anything, we would want to keep that tense (i.e. Stravinsky's has). But there's no reason to have them at all. I can just say "I am stronger than you". I don't need to say "I am stronger than you are."

(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he
PROBLEM: We have no possessive here. Remeber, Bartok isn't actually in this sentence. Bartok is just an adjective. So we can't compare anything to Stravinsky and Schonberg, who are people. "He" also doesn't

(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it
PROBLEM: Same as above.

Hope that helps!

-tommy

vaibhav1221 · Answer

Should be A.

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor  Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it  is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it  Correct 
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s,  he   Béla Bartók’s music is the subject and not Béla Bartók. 
(C) Stravinsky’s  is  and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s  is , it
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he  Wrong comparison 
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it  Wrong comparison

adkikani · Answer

And we are in for a beautiful comparison again

Intended meaning: We are comparing music by BB, IS and AS. As per author, although the music by BB is less popular and less influential than by other two, the music by BB is equally important. Comparision hold good between music by all three, parallelism showing features of BB's music (less popular, less influential but not less important) is grammatically and logically parallel. It here correctly refers to BB's music. No pronoun ambiguity here. Hang on to A. The usage of HE is incorrect. The pronoun ( he ) can refer to a person, not a possessive noun e.g. Roy's chair or Roy's guitar The comparison goes off-table here, with the introduction of verb: is We cannot compare BB's music with IS and AS. We either compare music by all three artists or three artists themselves. The pronoun he is incorrect for reasons explained in (B) Again a mess of comparison as in D

Shreshtha55 · Answer

So we can clearly cut option B and D becz we are talking about Bb's music and not bb.
Now, we are left with A,C,E
E has missed 's in Stravinsky
And C has used is. Hence both are wrong.
We are now left with A
Hence, A is correct

Posted from my mobile device

warrior1991 · Answer

IMO A.

Correct piece of sentence. Béla Bartók’s music , Stravinsky’s, Schonberg’s all three refer to music and not to name of the person. Also   it   correctly refers to Béla Bartók’s music.

"He"   is incorrect here as no person is mentioned in the whole sentence. Only the person's music is highlighted. Incorrect

Awkward construction by using is after Stravinsky’s and Schonberg’s. Incorrect choice. We have a better choice A.

Comparison of Béla Bartók’s music with Person.(Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg ). Incorrect Comparison.

teaserbae · Answer

In B and D he is the error no antecedent
In E wrong comparision Béla Bartók’s music compared with Stravinsky
Left with A and C
There is the difference of is
I feel A is correct as BB' music correctly compared with S's
Why do we need that is ? hence C rejected 
A is the answer

Skywalker18 · Answer

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it - Correct
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he - Pronoun he can't refer to Béla Bartók ’s, which is possessive
(C) Stravinsky’s is and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s is, it - usage of "Arnold Schonberg’s is" is incorrect
(D) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he - Illogical comparison - music and person
(E) Stravinsky and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it - Illogical comparison - music and person

https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-she ... 08881.html

Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet. ---> “she” – a pronoun – refers to “Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, which only appears in the possessive or the adjective form. Therefore, in this question, a pronoun is referring to anything other than a noun.

1.So, can we actually confidently reject B on the basis of a pronoun trying to refer to possessive? But the transition from the comparison of music to "he is no less important" seems awkward and seems incomplete.

2. Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, he is no less important than Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg --> I think this sentence will be correct as per current GMAT standards?

3. Also, in sentence 2, if the independent clause is changed to "he is no less important than them", then will it be incorrect? (since Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schonberg is not a compound subject in the sentence and only its possessives are present.)

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasKarishma , ChiranjeevSingh , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , other experts - please enlighten

Answer A

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation: 
Choice A correctly compares the music of the three composers mentioned. In D and E, the music of Bartok is illogically compared to the other two composers themselves. The pronoun he in B and D is incorrect because the subject of the sentence the pronoun refers to is Bartok's music, not Bartok. Choice C is wordy and awkward.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

My responses in  green  above.

kapstone1996 · Answer

Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s, it is no less important.

(A) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s,  it  correct pronoun use for music, correct use of the comparison of music
(B) Stravinsky’s and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s,  he  wrong pronoun use, he seems to refer to the composer
(C) Stravinsky’s  is  and less influential than Arnold Schonberg’s  is , it - awkward
(D)  Stravinsky  and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, he - is comparing the music to the actual person. This is wrong.
(E)  Stravinsky  and not as influential as Arnold Schonberg, it - is comparing the music to the actual person. This is wrong.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:
 
This sentence draws a contrast between the degree to which one composer’s music was popular or influential and the degree to which two other composers’ music was popular or influential. The author needs to express this through logically coherent wording structures that tell clearly what is being contrasted with what. The original version of the sentence uses clear, parallel references to the elements of the contrast.
 
 Option A:  Correct. This conveys a clear, logically coherent meaning through the use of appropriately parallel structures.

Option B:  The pronoun  he  has no direct, grammatically parallel antecedent. The grammatical subject of the sentence is Bartók’s music, not Bartók himself, and the main rhetorical focus is the contrast between that music and two other composers’ music. Therefore, if the author intends to switch the focus from the composers' music to the composers themselves and to say in the second part of the sentence that Bartók himself is no less important than Stravinsky and Schönberg, it would be better to clearly signal this switch by outlining the comparison more explicitly.

Option C:   Than … is  draws an oddly nonparallel comparison with  has proved   less popular . The word sequence  than … is  would fit better if the earlier phrase were  proved to be less popular . In any case,  is  adds nothing of value and tends to obscure the meaning rather than to illuminate it.

Option D:  This compares the popularity of Bartók’s music with the popularity of Stravinsky and compares the influence of Bartók’s music with Schönberg. It is illogical to suppose that the influence of such very different types of entities as people and music could be commensurable.

Option E:  This compares the popularity of Bartók’s music with the popularity of Stravinsky and compares the influence of Bartók’s music with Schönberg. It is illogical to suppose that the influence of such very different types of entities as people and music could be commensurable.
 
The correct answer is A.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor

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Even though Béla Bartók’s music has proved less popular than Igor

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