Marconi’s Conception of the Radio was as a Substitute for the Telephone, A Tool for Private Conversation; Instead, It is Precisely the Opposite, A Tool for Communicating with a Large, Public Audience.

Question: Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is
(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is
(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become
(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,

“Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.” - is a GMAT sentence correction question. These types of questions contain grammatical errors in the underlined sentence and we have to choose the correct statement from the options. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

Answer: C

Explanation:

The given sentence correction question is tested by the given-below rules:

• Parallelism
• Comparison of two elements
• Modifiers

Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

(A) This is INCORRECT because it slightly changes the intended meaning. This sentence says that the conception of the radio could be a substitute for the telephone, not the radio itself. Since this is not as clear as stating that Marconi created the radio, let's rule it out.
(B) This is INCORRECT because it contains a misleading/misplaced modifier! The phrase "but which is precisely the opposite" SHOULD modify the word "radio." However, the ways this is often worded, it actually modifies "telephone," which isn't what we're trying to mention is "precisely the opposite" here.
(C) This is CORRECT! It's clear how this can be written that the phrase "it has become precisely the opposite" is referring back to the radio. We also haven't got the other issues with meaning, modifiers, or punctuation.
(D) This answer choice incorrectly refers to the noun “telephone” with the “which” phrase “which is”, incorrectly implying that the telephone has become a tool for communicating with an outsized, public audience; the intended meaning is that the radio has become a tool for communicating with an outsized, public audience.
(E) This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “other than what it was”; the development of this phrase ends up in an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for personal conversation that might substitute for the telephone, instead it's become a tool for communicating with an oversized, public audience.

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