Classical guitar was neither prestigious nor was often played in concert halls until it was revived by Andres Segovia in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity.

1. Classical guitar was neither prestigious nor was often played in concert halls until it was revived by Andres Segovia in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity.
2. Classical guitar was neither prestigious nor played often in concert halls until it was revived by Andres Segovia in the mid-twentieth century, having been won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity.
3. Classical guitar was not prestigious and was not often played in concert halls until Andres Segovia revived it in the mid-twentieth century, after he was won over by the sound despite the instrument's relative obscurity.
4.Classical guitar did not have prestige nor was it performed often in concert halls until its revival by Andres Segovia, who in the mid-twentieth century was won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity.
5.Classical guitar was neither prestigious nor was often played in concert halls until Andres Segovia revived it in the mid-twentieth century, when he was won over by the sound of the relatively obscure instrument.

In the explanation for 4, OE says "Also, the construction “not… nor…” in this context requires inversion of the second verb (“nor was it performed”). Such inversions can sound stilted. Finally, as an idiom, the expression “to have prestige” is inferior to “to be prestigious.” " Not able to understand what is the idea behind "requires inversion of the second verb (“nor was it performed”). "

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Whats the OA ?

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Can someone clarify a question here? In option A: what does the participle "having been won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity" modify? Is it always the subject of the preceding clause? Can it also modify the closest noun? Thanks.

those kinds of participial modifiers are meant to modify the subject of the main clause. ideally, they come at the beginning of the sentence, so that, as noted, they can be placed next to the subject: 'having been won over by the sound of classical guitar, andres segovia...' of course, there are no answer choices here that exhibit this pattern, so we're forced to compensate in some other way.

off the top of my head i can't actually conjure a good sentence that _ends_ with one of these adjective phrases (i.e., written in the style of choice a). for now i'll stop short of saying that such sentences don't exist, but i can't think of one at the moment. iirc, there are no correct gmat sentences that end with a comma and then a participial phrase used as an adjective.

there are plenty of sentences, of course, that end with commas and then participial modifiers - but those modifiers function strictly as ADVERBS, modifying the action of the preceding clause (as in jake ate 12 plates of spaghetti, doubling his previous record --> the phrase modifies the entire action of eating the spag).

I wanted to inquire about the idiom above...

even if we correct the "was" issue and remove it...leaving us with:

"was neither prestigious nor often played in concert halls" IS THIS CORRECT? Don't we need both sides of the NOR to be parallel?

IMO C

Options 1 and 5 ruled out because of the incorrect parallelism- was neither prestigious nor was often played
2 is incorrect because having been won over looks to modify twentieth century and not Andre.

Still a bit confused between 3 and 4.

Can someone help explain, though?

Hi Ron,

is there a rule for having been... that is it to be used only as adjective modifier..similar to resulting from ???

Also..

what is the difference in the above usage and the usage in this sentence

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by traveling west.

A.Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
B.Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.
C.Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
D.Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.
E.Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.
Source:MGMAT

OA D

is it that ... here is modifier Columbus SAILED...

then shouldn't we be able to use the same for
"was revived by Andres Segovia " -- Choice B

Please explain...really confused

That would be correct, because it is parallel: 'prestigious' and 'often played' are both adjectives.


Sure. Here they are, with splits in bold text (all unbolded text is common to both choices):

3. Classical guitar was not prestigious and was not often played in concert halls until Andres Segovia revived it in the mid-twentieth century, after he was won over by the sound despite the instrument's relative obscurity.
4.Classical guitar did not have prestige nor was it performed often in concert halls until its revival by Andres Segovia, who in the mid-twentieth century was won over by the instrument's sound despite its relative obscurity.

Parallelism: (C) has parallel 'was not X and was not Y' construction. (D) has a mismatch of the active 'did not have' with the passive 'was it performed' (akin to 'it was performed').

Voice: (C) has the active 'Andres Segovia revived it' and (D) has the passive 'its revival by Andres Segovia.' Active voice is usually more concise. The GMAT typically prefers active voice, unless active voice is wrong for some other reason.

Concision and Clarity: If you count the bolded text, you will see that (D) is slightly longer. Though the pronoun in 'its relative obscurity' at the end of (D) is not wrong, as it has the antecedent 'Classical guitar,' there is a lot of text between the two. In (C), 'the instrument's relative obscurity' is clearer.



Hi Sputnik,

The 'having been sent' phrase could be seen as modifying either the entire clause 'Christopher Columbus sailed west' (how or why he sailed) or just the subject 'Christopher Columbus' (who was sent by the king and queen).

Consider this sentence, with the phrase moved:
Christopher Columbus, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain, sailed west to see whether he could reach India.

'Having been sent' is actually another form of the past perfect tense: First, C.C. was sent. Then, he sailed west. Two past actions, one happening before the other.

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Emily Sledge
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