Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing because of its unusual  structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant .

A) structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant

B) structure, although elegant by having its final movement be melodious

C) structure, and it is elegant with its melodious final movement

D) structure while having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant

E) structure yet elegant because of its melodious final movement

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)

THE PROMPT  
 
• Overview

Music critics have deemed the composition two things: on the one hand, it is confusing. On the other hand, it is melodious.
The placement and descriptions of  confusing  and  elegant  should be parallel.

This sentence contains  contrast . 
Accordingly, I have used the phrases "on the one hand" and "on the other hand," above.
The contrast is inherent in the descriptive words: the composition is both  confusing  (which is  not  a great thing) and  elegant  (which  is  a great thing).

We need a contrast word.

THE OPTIONS   (inserted into the sentence)

• not parallel
→ the word  elegant  should be placed right after the comma, so that  confusing  and  elegant  are parallel
 Correct : Critics have deemed the composition  confusing  . . ., and  elegant  . . .

→ as the option stands, "deemed the composition confusing" and "its melodious final movement makes it elegant" are not parallel.
deemed → "confusing" 
and 
deemed→ "its melodious final movement makes it elegant" are not parallel.
(I have slightly rewritten the second part of the sentence to show you what is missing or misplaced.)

• lacks a proper contrast word
→ these two characteristics are in conflict. We should not conjoin them with the word "and," which does not convey contrast.
→ we need a contrast word such as  yet  or  while

ELIMINATE A

• not parallel
→  confusing because of XYZ  and  elegant by having its final movement be ABC  are not parallel.
Parallel items do not need to be phrased identically, but "because" and "by having" do not play the same logical function in the sentence.
--  Because  gives a reason.  By having  gives a means. 
-- One explains why and one explains how, but logically, why and how don't hang together in this sentence.
If this part does not make sense to you, do not worry.
This option contains other errors.

• part of the phrasing is awkward, strange, and nonsensical 
→  elegant by having its final movement be melodious  is bizarre.
The composition does not intentionally do anything. This option suggests that the composition intentionally achieves a means to an end "by having its final movement be melodious."
(In this instance, an inanimate object is given too much agency.)

•  although  is a subordinating conjunction that typically anchors and is followed by a subordinate  clause— i.e., a subject and a verb.
→ There  are  exceptions to the guideline that  although  should be followed by a clause with a subject and a verb.
If the omitted subject and verb are obvious, on occasion  although  is used without a clause.

But in this case,  although  is trying to act like a regular (coordinating) conjunction.
--  Although  is not meant to do that sort of work in a sentence. Watch:
 Correct:   Chicago was cold but sunny. 
 Correct:   Chicago was cold yet sunny. 
 Suspect/Wrong:   Chicago was cold although sunny.

ELIMINATE B

• not parallel
→ as is the case in option A, the word  elegant,  which is parallel to  confusing,  should show up right after the comma so that parallelism is maintained.

→ the second part of the sentence ( it is elegant with its melodious final movement ) is not parallel to the first part of the sentence.
Our sentence means:  The critics deemed the composition X yet Y. 
The  confusing  phrase (X) is the object of the verb  deemed .
The "it is elegant with" phrase is not the object of the verb  deemed  but should be so. (No Y element in proper construction exists.)

• lacks a proper contrast word
→ these two characteristics are in conflict. We should not conjoin them with the word "and," which does not convey contrast.
→ we need a contrast word such as  yet  or  while

ELIMINATE C

• not parallel
→ we are looking for some phrasing along the lines of "deemed confusing .... yet elegant..."
→  having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant  is not parallel to  confusing because of its unusual structure .
Do not let the two ___ING words bamboozle you.
...  deemed confusing  is in active voice: verb + object
...  having a melodious ABC that makes it elegant  is in passive voice: adjective phrase,  not,  as it should be, the object of the verb  deemed

ELIMINATE D

• I do not see any errors.

•  confusing  and  elegant  are parallel (a Big Hint arrives with the words "because of" after each word)

• the contrasting connector  yet  properly highlights the contrast between the two characteristics of the composition.
KEEP

The best answer is E.

COMMENTS  
 
Well, this group is a very nice cross section of Butler participants!
(As always: aspirants, you have a standing invitation to post. Posting is good practice.)

These answers interest me because they approach the question from quite varied angles.

I don't think that there is a problem with the pronouns  its  and  it . 
They all refer to the composition, although I can understand how you might believe that one or both were a problem.

These answers range from good to excellent.
Nicely done.

yashikaaggarwal · Answer

There are two different tones in the statement. One saying new composition being confusing. Other stating it melodious.

Words like, although, yet, Are likely to introduce this change in tone than "and" and "while" which signifies continuation in previous tone. Eliminate ACD.

Between B and E.

Be melodious at the end of B option is kind of open ended.

E is more structured.

Answer is E

Posted from my mobile device

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (E) . It took me 50 seconds.

(A) "and" cannot connote the contrast between a negative feeling ("confusing") and a positive one (elegant")
With such understanding, I immediately eliminate (C) and (D) as well.

Between (B) and (E), The  elegant  parallelism in (E) is so compelling that I could have chosen it without taking a look at (B). 
Yet I did take a look at B. It fails to make much sense: who is “having its final movement be melodious"? "Some critics have deemed the composition" "elegant by having its final movement be melodious". But it is illogical to believe that some critics did that.

aarkay87 · Answer

POE:

A: 
1) Ambiguous pronoun: logical referent is COMPOSITION while structural referent is STRUCTURE
2) There is no point logic to present the attribute (of composition) as an independent clause.

B: No logic to have subjunctive form; E is better

C: same as A

D: Who is having a melodious final movement? It makes more sense for COMPOSITION, but not STRUCTURE

E: Correct

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A) structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant
and usage is not conveying the contrast in the meaning therefore out

B) structure, although elegant by having its final movement be melodious
movement isn't making much sense even though the parallelism and contrast is portrayed however out

C) structure, and it is elegant with its melodious final movement
Similar reasoning as A

D) structure while having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant
is the structure melodious or the entire meaning even though a subtle issue the contrast isn't displayed therefore out

E) structure yet elegant because of its melodious final movement
The meaning , parallelism and contrast is perfect therefore our answer

THerefore IMO E

100mitra · Answer

Correct Option E

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing 
because of 
  its unusual structure    , and 
  its melodious final movement makes it elegant.

Original sentence has a flaw, both the highlighted sentence are contrast to each other, in which conjuction ",and" demean the intended meaning of sentence.
As ",and" conjuction is used to give additional information in the sentence.

Additionally usegae of "It" makes pronoun error, and creates ambiguity.
Confusing adjective is comparison with pronoun  It's , here it's is correctly refered to "new composition" but another "it" is a flaw.
 Easily Eliminate A .

B) structure, although elegant by having  its  final movement be melodious
Option B, has correct parallelism  confusing  adjective with  elegant , and use of contrast conjunction "although", but pronoun error, same as in A,  having its final movement  creates flaw.

C) structure, and it is elegant with its melodious final movement
Eliminate C, for same pronoun error of  its  usage , and  wrong usage

D) structure while having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant
Eliminate D, while usage is not conjuction, while is used to describe a phrase, and  That  usage, option D has comparison and parallelism flaw, which is corrected in option E

Correct sentence 
Some critics have deemed 
 the musician’s new composition 
  confusing  because of  structure  yet 
  elegant  because of   its  melodious final movement
With correct contrast conjuction, "it" refer to new composition, confusing adjective compared with elegant, makes it a correct sentence E

Posted from my mobile device

Anuragsharma93 · Answer

IMO E

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing because of its unusual structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant.

A) structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant - And cannot be used to show contrast (And connects similar ideas)

B) structure, although elegant by having its final movement be melodious - Meaning Error.

C) structure, and it is elegant with its melodious final movement - "Its" Pronoun Antecedent Error.

D) structure while having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant - While cannot show contrast and hence the meaning is not coming out clearly. While is used to show two actions happening simultaneously or at the same time. Moreover this sentence isnt parallel.

E) structure yet elegant because of its melodious final movement - This solves the errors as stated above and is Parallel.

sivatx2 · Answer

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition  confusing  because of its  unusual structure , and its  melodious final movement  makes it  elegant .

To make the composition confusing, it can be "unusual" but cannot be "melodious" or "elegant". So definitely a contrast is necessary. Also since the later part is going to contrast, we need to see a split between the first clause and the second clause.

A) structure,  and   its  melodious final movement makes  it  elegant 
 Conjunction 'and' usage ignores the contrast, and 2 pronoun its& it causes ambiguity. Eliminate
 
 B) structure,  although  elegant by having  its  final movement be melodious
 
 Contrast is there but the possessive pronoun, 'its' ambiguity causes reference error. Eliminate
 
 C) structure,  and   it  is elegant with  its  melodious final movement
 
 2 pronouns 'it' and 'its' along with incorrect conjunction. Eliminate.

D) structure  while  having a melodious final movement that makes  it  elegant
 
 while is not contrasting here, and pronounce reference error with 'it' usage. Eliminate
 
 E) structure  yet  elegant because of  its  melodious final movement
  Yet brings change in direction(wrt contrast) and 'its' refer to the music composition correctly. E is the right answer choice.

winterschool · Answer

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing because of its unusual structure, and its melodious final movement makes it elegant.

A) structure, and  its melodious final movement  makes it elegant  Incorrect

its is not in parallel with Some critics

B) structure, although elegant  by having its final movement be melodious   Incorrect

wordy

C) structure, and  it is elegant with its  melodious final movement  Incorrect

same as A

D) structure  while having a melodious final movement that makes it elegant   Incorrect

this choice has redundancy problem and not as good as E

E)  structure yet elegant because of its melodious final movement   Correct

....................confusing because of..............yet elegant because of.........

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Some critics have deemed the musician’s new composition confusing

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

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