Sentence Correction Question

[RobinG925]

Dante Rossetti and his colleagues, in calling their group the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, sought a return to the classical ideals of painting that held sway before Raffaello, to what governed the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.

A.) Raffaello, to what governed the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticell
B.) Raffaello, artistic principles that would govern the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticell
C.) Raffaello who governed the work of 15th century artists like Sandro Botticell
D.) Raffaello by which the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli was governed
E.) Raffaello that had governed the work of 15th century artists like Sandro Botticelli

I came across this question on Magoosh. I understand that all the answer choices except A and D are straightaway out. Can anybody please explain why A is the right answer and D not. Thanks a lot in advance

[RobinG925]

Hi Ron, Please help.

[RonPurewal]

in terms of things actually tested on the GMAT exam, there's nothing really wrong with choice D. so, you can safely ignore this one.

what does the source say is wrong with choice D?

[RobinG925]

Here is what I found on the magoosh website:

Sentence Correction Practice Question:

Dante Rossetti and his colleagues, in calling their group the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, sought a return to the classical ideals of painting that held sway before Raffaello, to what governed the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.

(A) Raffaello, to what governed the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.
(B) Raffaello, artistic principles that were governing the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.
(C) Raffaello, governing the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.
(D) Raffaello by which the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli was governed.
(E) Raffaello that had governed the work of 15th century artists such as Sandro Botticelli.



Answer and Explanation

Here, the sentence is constructing a parallel structure between “the classical ideals of painting” and “what governed the work of 15th century artists.”

In choice (A), both of those are objects of the same preposition, “to” (the same trick used by T. S Eliot above). Here, “classical ideals” is a noun, and “what governed the work of 15th century artists” is a subordinate clause that acts like a noun, so that’s legitimate for parallelism. None of the other four answer choices execute the parallel structure correctly.

In addition, (B) has a verb with a funny awkward tense “were governing.”

(C) makes no attempt to complete the parallelism.

Choices (D) and (E), lacking the comma, suggest that Raffaello, rather than “classical ideas” is the object of reference for the clause that follows. For a variety of reasons, (A) is the best answer.

[RonPurewal]

ya, ok, that's what i thought they were going to say.

this exam DOES NOT test the presence/absence of punctuation.
so, you can ignore anything and everything that says "xxxxx because a comma is(n't) here".

[RobinG157]

Thanks Ron

Are you saying that this type of question is not asked in GMAT?

I think, If we look at the question meaning-wise, the question and its answer makes sense. This question seems OK to me according to GMAT. Am I right?

[RonPurewal]

well, sure, the "problem" with choice D involves meaning -- just as 99% of other errors involve meaning.

but, choice D only has the wrong meaning because it's not punctuated correctly. in other words, for a reason that isn't tested on this exam.