Thomas Eakins' powerful style (2nd edition verbal)

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Thomas Eakins' powerful style and his choices of subject -the advances in modern surgery, the discipline of sport, the strains of individuals in tension with society or even with themselves- was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.

A)
B) were as disturbing to his own time as they are
C) has been as disturbing in his own time as it was
D) had been as disturbing in his own time as it was
E) have been as disturbing in his own time as

Oa is b

I just didn't get the parallelism in as...as. I thought it had to be: was as disturbing... As compelling. Words can be places after signal parallelism words as is the case in the answer?
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by sana.noor » Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:32 am
Very easy one!!
Thomas Eakins Powerful Style and his Choices were as disturbing to his on time as they are compelling for ours. Two things (style and Choices) when joined by AND need plural verb (were and are).
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:34 am
Notice that, "the advances in modern surgery, the discipline of sport, the strains of individuals in tension with society or even with themselves" is a very long modifier (it modifies Eakins' choices of subject).
Since it's a modifier, we can ignore it to get: Thomas Eakins' powerful style and his choices of subject was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.
In other words, Thomas Eakins' style and choices was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.

Since "style and choices" is plural, we need the plural verbs "were" and "are"

Answer = B

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