Few composers have been celebrated.........Veritas question

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Mo2men: Legendary Member; Posts: 712; Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 14 times

by Mo2men » Sat Aug 26, 2017 7:03 pm

Few composers have been celebrated for their lyric writing as much as the lyrics of Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling.

A. Few composers have been celebrated for their lyric writing as much as the lyrics of Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling.

B. Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing as few composers have.

C. Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing more than few composers have.

D. Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing as few composers has been.

E. Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling have been celebrated for lyric writing as few composers have.

OA: B

what choice C wrong? what does it mean when compared to OA?

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat Aug 26, 2017 7:03 pm

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ErikaPrepScholar: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:03 amFollowed by: 15 members; Thanked: 86 times; GMAT Score:770

by ErikaPrepScholar » Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:08 am

The correct answer, B, uses the phrase "celebrated ... as few composers". This tells us tells us that only a few composers have been celebrated as much as John Dowling has been-in other words, Dowling is one of the most celebrated composers. Super positive meaning.

C, on the other hand, uses the phrase "celebrated ... more than few composers". This tells us that John Dowling has only been celebrated more than a few composers-meaning that Dowling isn't one of the least celebrated composers ... but he's right above them. So a pretty negative meaning.

When dealing with issues of meaning on Sentence Correction questions, we want the correct answer to capture the meaning intended by the original sentence. Ignoring the parallelism issues in the first sentence (comparing "composers" to "lyrics"), we can see that the sentence is meant to be positive-Dowling and his lyrics are celebrated a lot. So C changes the intended meaning of the sentence, and B is correct.

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Few composers have been celebrated.........Veritas question

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Aug 31, 2017 6:22 am

Mo2men wrote:what choice Cwrong? what does it mean when compared to OA?

I received a PM requesting that I comment.

Let few composers = only two composers.

OA: Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing as few composers have [been celebrated].
The words in brackets are omitted but implied.
Conveyed meaning:
Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing as only two composers have [been celebrated].
Here, only three composers have received such a high level of celebration: John Dowling and the two composers in blue.
In other words, these three composers are the MOST celebrated.

C: Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing more than few composers have [been celebrated].
The words in brackets are omitted but implied.
Conveyed meaning:
Elizabethan composer and lutenist John Dowling has been celebrated for his lyric writing more than only two composers have [been celebrated].
Here, John Dowling is celebrated more than the two composers in blue, but the vast majority of composers might be MORE CELEBRATED THAN JOHN DOWLING.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning of the OA is that John Dowling is one of the MOST celebrated composers.
Eliminate C.

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