Question
Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work both rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington, yet in many ways he stood apart from the mainstream jazz repertory.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
The sentence essentially presents a contrast between two things about Thelonious Monk (TM). TM produced a body of work rooted in some piano tradition, but he stood apart from the mainstream jazz.
There is one error in the sentence. “Both…and” present a list, and therefore, the elements enclosed in the structure need to be parallel. However, in the given sentence “rooted in..” (a verb-ed modifier) is not parallel to “Duke Ellington”. Logically, Willie Smith is parallel to Duke Ellington, both of which appear in the non-underlined part. Therefore, there is no scope of using “both” in the sentence.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the error described above.
(B) Incorrect. Lack of parallelism in the “both…and” structure.
(C) Incorrect. No verb for the main subject TM.
(D) Correct. This option eliminates ‘both’ and thus eliminates the only error in the original sentence.
(E) Incorrect. Lack of parallelism in the “both…and” structure.
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Hello Sir,
I selected B for this question, although I could see that the parallelism was not making any sense.
In D…the phrase ” Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk” caught me offguard. It looked as if by using ‘and’ the two entities are different. Now that I think I guess they would be different when I use “The Jazz pianist and the composer Thelonious Monk”. Am I correct?
Also, Could you ps give some more examples of a similar compound modifier at the start of a sentence/clause, which is not separated by a comma?
In D…the phrase ” Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk” caught me offguard. It looked as if by using ‘and’ the two entities are different. Now that I think I guess they would be different when I use “The Jazz pianist and the composer Thelonious Monk”. Am I correct? – You are right. If we put the article “the”, then we’d have two different persons here.
Also, Could you ps give some more examples of a similar compound modifier at the start of a sentence/clause, which is not separated by a comma? – Nothing comes to mind right away! 🙁
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