The original sentence correctly uses the simple past tense “contributed” to refer to an event that occurred in the past. Furthermore, the original sentence correctly uses “such as” to refer to specific baritone singers who made a contribution to the popularization of the “crooning” style of singing.
(A) CORRECT. As explained above, this choice uses the proper verb tense and is idiomatically correct.
(B) This choice is wordy, awkward, and redundant. Since the 1930s is a decade, there is no reason to state “of the decade.” Similarly, if baritone singers such as Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo contributed, it is unnecessary to say they “decided” to contribute. Furthermore, this choice makes two errors in idiomatic construction: the “and also” construction is unidiomatic – the word “also” should be eliminated, and “contribute in” should be “contribute to.”
(C) This choice uses the unidiomatic “like” to refer to specific baritone singers. On the GMAT, “like” means “similar to,” while “such as” refers to specific examples.
(D) Stating “the beginning of the 1930s commencement” is redundant, since “beginning” and “commencement” are synonyms. Furthermore, this choice incorrectly uses “like” instead of the idiomatic "such as" to refer to specific baritone singers. Finally, it incorrectly shifts to the past perfect “had contributed,” which would only be correct if they “had contributed” prior to some other action in the simple past tense; here there is no such simple past tense verb.
(E) In this choice, “contributed in” is unidiomatic; the proper construction is “contributed to.” Furthermore, this choice incorrectly uses the past perfect “had contributed,” which would only be correct if they “had contributed” prior to some other action in the simple past tense, such as “the 1930s commenced.” This verb tense usage reverses the intended order of events: this choice clearly indicates that they contributed “not long after” the 1930s commenced.
One question: 4meonly, do you know whether Manhattan CAT tests are considred to be more difficult than the real test?
