Correct answer seems to change the meaning of the original sentence. Even am confused......

I had the same feeling....

D and B can be discounted because 'his being gifted' does mean the same as 'gifted as many of his colleagues'

E is totally wrong for a number of reasons

A is discounted as being modest and 'poetry is unpublished' is treated as two unrelated events

All are corrected in only C
Hope this explains

D & E are out clearly

B says with his poetry remaining unpublished. Awkward to me

A & C

and signals parallelism He is extremely modest and does not publish his poetry in C is correct compared to he is extremely modest and his poetry in A

But C changes the statement.
As per the orignial statement, it can refer to
"His poetry has not been published" because of reasons may or may not be in his control.
C changes the meaning by saying that voluntarily , he has not published it and also in future he will not publish which is not correct ..!
"A" seems to be correct. Can someone help to explain why a change in meaning is given more weightage than option "A"??

He will not publish his poetry because he is extremely modest.

Thats the reason you were looking for, IMO.

IMO: C

(A) Although he is as gifted as, if not more gifted than, many of his colleagues, he is extremely modest and his poetry is unpublished. - treated as 2 equal clauses but author's intent is "he will not publish as he is modest"
(B) Although he is as gifted, if not more gifted, than many of his colleagues, he is extremely modest and with his poetry remaining unpublished.- idiom as ....as not complete
(C) Although he is as gifted as, if not more gifted than, many of his colleagues, he is extremely modest and will not publish his poetry. - correct
(D) Despite his being gifted, if not more gifted than his colleagues, he is extremely modest and will not publish his poetry. - despite is preposition to be followed by noun, "despite his talent" can be correct
(E) Being a gifted as, or more gifted than, many of his colleagues, he is extremely modest and his poetry is unpublished. - being is continuos present tense of be, "being gifted" is better

Hey guys,

Phenomenal example here of a meaning-based GMAT question. The correct answer is C, and please note:

There is NOTHING special about the meaning of choice A.

Your job is NOT to protect the meaning of choice A.

If choice A has an illogical meaning, it's wrong.

If an answer choice changes the meaning of choice A, but the new meaning is perfectly logical, it is not wrong (at least not based on meaning).

Choice A has an illogical meaning. Like a few have said here, it treats "he is extremely modest" and "his poetry is unpublished" as two separate events, AND that meaning is inconsistent with the setup "Although". It's not surprising that he's extremely modest. So saying "although he's as gifted as his colleagues, he's modest" isn't a great use of "although". There's no transition/juxtaposition there.

But C uses that "although" to set up an important point. He's talented, but he's so modest that he won't publish his talent for others to see. That's what's surprising and makes use of the transition "although".

If A has an illogical meaning it's your duty to change it!