When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marce

Question

When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marcel Duchamp were met with sharp criticism from artists who claimed that these works upturned traditional practice by challenging the idea of art as aesthetic and  made a mockery of the concept of an artwork as an original creation.

A. made a mockery of the concept of an artwork as an original creation

B. making the concept of an artwork as an original creation a mockery

C. made the concept of an artwork as an original creation a mockery

D. mocking the concept of an artwork as an original creation

E. mocked the concept of an artwork as an original creation

generis · Accepted Answer

The word  and  is a parallelism marker:  X and Y,  in which X and Y must be parallel

This question is a good example of a case in which we should  start from the right side  
of the word AND.
Then we look to the left side of AND for guidance.

Stop  moving to the left at the word that initiates the  X AND Y  construction.
That word is  by :  BY X and Y  (describes the two ways in which Duchamp's readymades upturned traditional practice)

That is, on the left side of AND is the phrase  challenging the idea of art as an aesthetic. 
The phrase is preceded by the preposition BY.
The construction is  BY X AND Y

What should Y be?

The original sentence joins 
-- challenging the idea of art as aesthetic
AND
-- made a mockery of the concept of an artwork as an original creation

challenging  and  made  are not parallel
--  do not be tempted to make simple past tense  made  parallel to  upturned  or  claimed  
The left side, not the right side, of a parallel construction determines the verb or noun form (if one exists) in the phrases that must be parallel.

We stop at the word BY. The phrase "challenging . . ." is the direct object of the preposition  by . We need another direct object phrase.

The left side of the comparison determines the verb or noun form.
-- the word BY introduces or initiates the two elements that must be parallel
-- the readymades upturned traditional practice  BY Xing and Ying 
-- the practice was upturned in  two  ways

Finally, in constructions such as  X and Y,  the preposition will distribute.
 Correct :  I bought the wine for Samuel and Christopher.  ("for" carries over to "Christopher")

• Split #1:  challenging  sets the form and must be matched

The present participle (verbING) sets the structure for Y.
We need another ___ING word.

Options A and C incorrectly use  made , which is in simple past tense and not in ____ ING form.

Option E incorrectly uses  mocked , which is also not in ___ING form.

Eliminate A, C, and E

• Split #2 - match the structure of the "challenging" phrase

challenging the idea of art as aesthetic 
 ___ING the NOUN of "NOUN as ABC"

B) making the concept of an artwork as an original creation a mockery
___ING the NOUN of a NOUN as a NOUN "a noun"

Typically, we "make a mockery of" something or "mock something."
It is okay to put the object in between  making  and  mockery  on occasion,
but compare B to D in terms of concision and clarity. 
D says what B says but with fewer words and with more clarity. 
 
D) mocking the concept of an artwork as an original creation
 ____ING the NOUN of a "NOUN as an ABC"

. . .  by challenging the idea of art as aesthetic  AND  mocking the concept of an artwork as an original creation 
Those prepositional object phrases are parallel.

Eliminate B, which is not as parallel or as concise as D is.

Answer D

jinwshin · Answer

Hi,

I always get confused to find out which verb or noun should I make parallel...
Actually, I made the mistake you had pointed out.

-- do not be tempted to make simple past tense made parallel to upturned or claimed

I thought "made" was parallel to upturned..

So, should I always follow the meaning to find out which to parallel?
or are there some rules I can use?(e.g. stop when you see "by")

As a non-native speaker, some rules would be really helpful!

Thanks!

generis · Answer

jinwshin  , parallelism is a challenge, true.
A post on "some rules about parallelism" is a bit general (and too long!) for this thread.

I list some resources below.

The principle of parallelism is simply that comparable sentence parts must be similar in structure (nouns, verbs, noun phrases, etc.) and in logic.

• Example: Three items in a list  
In a list of three items, the first item determines the structure and the other two must follow.

WRONG : People at the border seeking asylum had walked hundreds or thousands of miles, endured violence and hardship, and were severely dehydrated.

The root phrase (the thing that begins the list of items A, B, and C is
People at the border seeking asylum  HAD 
 walked  hundreds of miles
 endured  violence and hardship
and
 were  severely dehydrated.

There is no such verb phrase as  HAD WERE.  
The bad structure is past participle + modifiers, past participle + modifiers, AND  simple past tense verb 
The third item should be a participial phrase (past participle phrase).

Change one word. Change WERE to BECOME.
People at the border seeking asylum  had walked  hundreds or thousands of miles,  endured  violence and hardship, and  BECOME  severely dehydrated.

Those three items are parallel.

• Parallelism - this question

In this question, we see AND, a parallelism marker.
We look to the right side of AND. 
Even if that part is incorrectly written, the content should give us a good idea of what we need.

If need be, strip the sentence to understand what we are trying to make parallel.
Yes, meaning is key: in this case, we need to understand that Duchamp's readymades allegedly 
upturned traditional practice in two ways.

When they were first introduced to the world,   
the readymades of Marcel Duchamp were met with sharp criticism from artists who claimed that  these works upturned traditional practice  
BY
--- challenging the idea of art as aesthetic 
  and   
---  made a mockery of the concept of an artwork as an original creation.

In a list and in most constructions such as  X AND Y,  the first item controls the structure.
The content in A on the right side indicates that the readymades " made a mockery of the concept of an artwork as an original creation ."

Okay, readymades allegedly did one bad thing.
What is the other? There must be more than one. We have the word AND.
In the non-underlined portion, as we move left, we are looking for another thing that the readymades did.

We see a participial phrase (verbING):  challenging the idea of art as aesthetic. 
That's a thing. That's a bad thing. Aha. 
That's the  other  bad thing that Duchamp's readymades allegedly did.

What precedes that first item? The word BY.
We know that we have one preposition attached to two direct objects.
Both direct objects must contain similar parts of speech.

The first item—on the left side of the word AND— controls the structure. 
LHS of AND:  challenging the idea of art as aesthetic. 
-- Structure: ________ING the Noun of "Noun as ABC"
-- The right side must match that structure.
-- We can't have the past tense verb MADE.
-- We need an ____ING word. I discussed the structure more fully in my post above.

Why do we stop at BY? because there are two ways in which Duchamp's readymades allegedly upturned traditional art, 
and both of those ways are described after the word BY. 
Your instinct to use meaning is spot on.

• Resources  
Parallelism is challenging but doable.

Resources to start 
 GMATNinja  has an excellent video series,  HERE  (and see the link embedded in the first post for Series 2).

You can also ask him anything on this thread: 
Ask Me Anything About GMAT SC and Grammar, which is  HERE .
(He's a foodie. A true gourmand. And one of the funniest people on this forum. )

HERE  is the work of another expert.

Finally, practice parallelism questions. 
You can find them on the SC Directory Thread,  HERE . Parallel Structure is a subject all its own. Parallel structure is #12.
Questions 
Read the topic threads on GMAT Club. You'll find lots of rules discussed.
I would make flashcards from the rules you hear about in the videos
and the rules you read about on those threads.

I hope that helps.

krishnabalu · Answer

Can someone help me out on this question. Why can't we say that:
When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marcel Duchamp were met with sharp criticism from artists who claimed that these works:
1) upturned traditional practice by challenging the idea of art as aesthetic 
AND
2)mocked the concept of an artwork as an original creation

NoMatterWhat · Answer

It may sound grammatically right, but it is not the intended meaning.

Acc. to you: artists claimed that these works upturned ...and mocked...

But the sentence would make much more sense if we put this way

artists claimed that these works upturned traditional practice by challenging and mocking...

thanks = KUDOS

richirish · Answer

Challenging, mocking..easy money.

Quant heads - Always remember to check the meaning, don't blindly apply the rules.

Pranjal3107 · Answer

Can someone enlist some similar questions for practice

amit28akp · Answer

I want to understand why made is not correct and parallel to upturned from both meaning and grammatical perspective.

Sahil2208 · Answer

GMATNinja 
Can you help me with this question? Why can't I say that:
When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marcel Duchamp were met with sharp criticism from artists who claimed that these works:
- upturned traditional practice by challenging the idea of art as aesthetic
AND
- mocked the concept of an artwork as an original creation

sarvaanjan · Answer

This is a poor quality question and I donot agree with the explanation.

When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marce

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When they were first introduced to the world, the readymades of Marce

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