Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory

[vinversa]

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style were influential on generations of bluegrass artists, was also an inspiration to many musicians, that included Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from his own.

GMAT Prep Answer = B
SENTENCE re-written with answer B

B - answer
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style - influenced generations of bluegrass artists, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, whose music differed significantly from - his own.

*********************
Here are parts between commas of SENTENCE

Part (1) = Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe
Part (2) = whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists
Part (3) = also inspired many musicians

Manhattan GMAT - Stacey, Ron, et al, question for you guys....

Question 1: IF I were to connect Part 1 and 3. IS it supposed to form one coherent sentence without grammatical mistakes,......?

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians


Question 2: Can part (3) use "and" instead of "also"
Part (3) = "and" inspired many musicians

Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and inspired many musicians

[RonPurewal]

i'll answer this post, but, from now on, i will not answer any of your posts that violate the forum rules.
THE FORUM RULES INCLUDE:
* POST THE PROBLEM WITH ALL FIVE ANSWER CHOICES

thanks.

Question 1: IF I were to connect Part 1 and 3. IS it supposed to form one coherent sentence without grammatical mistakes,......?

yes.

Question 2: Can part (3) use "and" instead of "also"

no. "also" is an adverb, while "and" is a conjunction. these words don't have the same function.

[akhp77]

B is ok.

Lets me try to understand the structure of the sentence.

Is this the main clause?
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, X, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, Y.

X = whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists
Y = whose music differed significantly from his own
his = Bill Monroe
his own = Bill Monroe's music

Is it correct?

Ron, Stacey; please help

[RonPurewal]

B is ok.

Lets me try to understand the structure of the sentence.

Is this the main clause?
Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, X, also inspired many musicians, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Garcia, Y.

well, technically, the main clause ends at "musicians." the parts that come afterward are all modifiers.
but you are correct in excluding X and Y from your analysis; you just didn't notice that you can actually exclude even more than that.

X = whose repertory, views on musical collaboration, and vocal style influenced generations of bluegrass artists
Y = whose music differed significantly from his own
his = Bill Monroe
his own = Bill Monroe's music

Is it correct?

yes.

in fact, bill monroe is the only possible antecedent for "he" (and the corresponding possessive for "his").
since "elvis presley AND jerry garcia" is structured as a compound noun, you are NOT able to use the pronoun "he" to stand for 1/2 of that compound noun. i.e., "he" cannot stand for elvis presley or jerry garcia.

the best way to remember the foregoing principle is to think of "X and Y" as a single word. if you think of "elvis presley and jerry garcia" as a single word, it should become clear at once that the only pronoun that would be ok is "they/their".
i.e., you can't refer to just the X in "X and Y" with a pronoun, any more than you could use a pronoun to refer to the first four letters of an eight-letter word.

[HanzZ]

Hello,

I know one should never question the correct answer, but I am just wondering, in (B) why there is an 'also' before 'inspired' (I know every answer has it so my question might be irrelevant,but..) If you drop the modifier, the sentence reads like "Blueegrass Musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians...". Doesn't it make you wonder who else insipired musicians or what else did he do?

Please ignore if this is a waste of your time.

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

Hello,

I know one should never question the correct answer, but I am just wondering, in (B) why there is an 'also' before 'inspired' (I know every answer has it so my question might be irrelevant,but..) If you drop the modifier, the sentence reads like "Blueegrass Musician Bill Monroe also inspired many musicians...". Doesn't it make you wonder who else insipired musicians or what else did he do?

Please ignore if this is a waste of your time.

Thanks!

i don't understand what you are asking here.
the other things that monroe did are in the modifier... so, if you "drop the modifier", then also doesn't make sense anymore.
...but the modifier is there, so it's fine.

here's a simpler version:
Ron, one of the most prolific posters on the MGMAT forum, is also a GMAT course instructor.
--> again, if you were to remove the modifier, you would also have to remove "also".

[HanzZ]

Thanks Ron. It makes more sense now.

[RonPurewal]

Thanks Ron. It makes more sense now.

you're welcome

[manhhiep2509]

A:
- "That included" can't follow a comma, and, even if you remove the comma, the meaning is absurd (the implication would be that Elvis and Jerry composed part of the anatomy of many different musicians).

Hello Ron.

I eliminate choice because "that include" cannot modifies musicians, i.e. musicians are humans whereas "that" can only refer to things or animals.

Is my interpretation correct?

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Hello Ron.

Hello.

I eliminate choice because "that include" cannot modifies musicians, i.e. musicians are humans whereas "that" can only refer to things or animals.

Is my interpretation correct?

Thank you.

Yes. Nicely done.

[umesh2413]

Hi Ron,
As you said, in post previously
"was influential to" is at best awkward.
"influential" on is awkward.

If I knew this, I would have eliminated all incorrect choices except B.

My questions is.. what is an correct usage that can be formed with 'influential X' ?

[RonPurewal]

My questions is.. what is an correct usage that can be formed with 'influential X' ?

I don't really understand this question. It seems you're just asking for some uses of the word "influential".
If that's the case, then your best bet is to do one (or both) of the following:
* Look up "influential" on a dictionary site, and read the example sentences.
* Google "influential", together with some other random words (economy, Obama, wildlife, fish... whatever) in order to make sure you're not just getting dictionary pages. If you do this, you should see lots of examples of "influential" in common usage.

If this is not what you're asking, please clarify. Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

By the way, you can use "wordiness" as a criterion here.
"Wordiness" is not technically an error, but the correct answers will not contain unnecessary wordiness. So, by judging the compactness of choices RELATIVE to each other"”i.e., NOT judging "wordiness" in individual choices, but only by comparison"”you can make some eliminations.

Here, influenced is clearly superior to were/was influential to/on, regardless of idiomatic conventions.

[HansenZ727]

Sorry i don't understand this part:

how is "whose music was significantly different from that of his own" incorrect? since that refers to other musicians' music and creates a new copy.

for example:

Fred's car is more expensive than that of my own. Is this not correct? How else would I convey this idea?

[RonPurewal]

"his own" is already the music; "my own" is already my car.