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Joachim Raff and Giacomo Meyerbeer

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Joachim Raff and Giacomo Meyerbeer

by rx_11 » Wed Nov 17, 2010 6:11 am
Joachim Raff and Giacomo Meyerbeer are examples of the kind of composer who receives popular acclaim while living, often goes into decline after death, and never regains popularity again.

(A) often goes into decline after death, and never regains popularity again
(B) whose reputation declines after death and never regains its status again
(C) but whose reputation declines after death and never regains its former status
(D) who declines in reputation after death and who never regained popularity again
(E) then has declined in reputation after death and never regained popularity


OA is C

Hi, all, I do not choose the correct answer because I think the "its" is ambiguous in C. Can any experts clarify why "its" is not ambiguous? And what does it refer to?
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by sanabk » Wed Nov 17, 2010 9:51 am
regain...again...redundant (A, B and D are out).

Answer choice C is correct as it got "but" to show the contrast that Joachim Raff and Giacomo Meyerbeer received popularity while living but their reputation declines after death.
Last edited by sanabk on Mon Nov 29, 2010 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:27 am
Hey rx,

Good question - and a great start to focus on the pronoun "its" as a major decision point.

"Its" in C refers back to "reputation", which is set up as the subject of its own clause by the word "but" - another big decision point when you're asked to determine whether a transition is needed. Here, it is:

X is true, BUT Y has a problem with ITS...

B tries to do the same thing, but if you'll look "whose" is used to lead the post-comma portion without any type of transition. In this case, if "whose" isn't used as part of a new subject, it must then modify the word immediately next to it, which here it doesn't (while living, whose...).

A is incorrect because it is illogical. The composer doesn't "often decline" after death - that would mean that the composer himself frequently declines.

D and E use improper verb tenses: "declines" and "never regained" in D don't present an accurate timeline, nor do "has declined" and "never regained" in E.
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by rx_11 » Wed Nov 17, 2010 10:30 pm
Hi, Brian,

Tons of thanks for your explanations. But another two questions suddenly come into my mind. (Sorry about bothering your time. )

1. You've said the "whose clause" is ambiguous because it may illogically refer to living, however, what if we want to deliver three or more elements by using relative clause?

For example, "Joachim Raff and Giacomo Meyerbeer are examples of the kind of composer who receives popular acclaim while living, who.......... AND who............ ", (I fabricate this sentense.)

Are the second and the third "who....." clause ambiguously refer to living?

2. In the original choice C, is the comparison between who.... and whose..... parallel? I mean I've remembered that we should always make the relative pronoun the same.

For example,
Wrong: I want to retire to a place where I can relax and that has low taxes.
Right: I want to retire to a place where I can relax and where the taxes are low

Could you plz help me understand that?

Hope your reply.

rx.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Nov 18, 2010 2:55 pm
Hey Rx,

Good questions and in your hypotheticals those will work...but mainly because they're perfectly parallel and they're linked directly to the initial subject and verb. If it's a parallel clause:

Raff and Meyerbeer are examples of the kind of composer who X, who Y, and who Z

Then that works.

But the way that B was phrased, "whose" was an initial modifier that wasn't parallel to a proper modifier. Had they followed it with something like:

examples of the kind of composer who receives popular acclaim while living, whose reputation then declines after death, and who fades into obscurity thereafter


Then you may be onto something because the "who" and "whose" clauses are more parallel. I still don't know that that would be 100% right - I'd look for something even more parallel with who-who-who and not switching who with "whose". But at least that's closer. B doesn't have the parallel connection from "whose" to "composer" the way that your examples did, so that's why it simply doesn't work.

Does that help? Great examples - I like the way you're thinking here!
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