Hi abhasjha,

This is a handy GMAT question to come across because three of the answers can be eliminated immediately. The answers to eliminate are the ones that do not include "as" at the beginning of the phrase. "As" is required because in order to be correct the passage must meet the rules of parallelism. Here is a greatly simplified version of the passage, to highlight why "as" is required:

PLW was famous as much for X as for Y.

Answers A, B and C are missing the "as," so we can eliminate them. But wait! In order for the passage to correctly meet the rules of parallelism, we also need the word "for." Here is the same greatly simplified version of the passage, to highlight why "for" is required:

PLW was famous as much for X as for Y.

D and E both have "as," but answer D is missing the "for". Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

David@GMATPrepNow wrote:Hi abhasjha,

This is a handy GMAT question to come across because three of the answers can be eliminated immediately. The answers to eliminate are the ones that do not include "as" at the beginning of the phrase. "As" is required because in order to be correct the passage must meet the rules of parallelism. Here is a greatly simplified version of the passage, to highlight why "as" is required:

PLW was famous as much for X as for Y.

Answers A, B and C are missing the "as," so we can eliminate them. But wait! In order for the passage to correctly meet the rules of parallelism, we also need the word "for." Here is the same greatly simplified version of the passage, to highlight why "for" is required:

PLW was famous as much for X as for Y.

D and E both have "as," but answer D is missing the "for". Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.

Hi David,

I have a small doubt. In option E, the adjective known is ellipsed in the second half of the sentence.
Option E is same as :

as well known for her eccentric personality as [known]for her skillful wax renderings of popular public figures.

Please let me know if my understanding is coorect.

Hi again abhasjha,

I think we're saying the same thing.

Answer E demonstrates correct parallelism in comparing X and Y. We need both the "as" and the "for" in the sentence structure to do that. Here is answer E again:

E) as well known for her eccentric personality as for her skillful wax renderings of popular public figures.

This answer is correct because PLW is as well known for X as she is well known for Y (X is her eccentric personality, and Y is her skillful wax renderings).