Ballet dancer Misty Copeland has accomplished a lot. She has appeared on Broadway, toured with Prince, and even served on...
GMAT Expression of Ideas : (Expression) Questions
Ballet dancer Misty Copeland has accomplished a lot. She has appeared on Broadway, toured with Prince, and even served on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. _____ according to Copeland, nothing in her career matches the honor of being the first African American woman named principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Ballet dancer Misty Copeland has accomplished a lot." |
|
| "She has appeared on Broadway, toured with Prince, and even served on the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition." |
|
| [MISSING TRANSITION] |
|
| "according to Copeland, nothing in her career matches the honor of being the first African American woman named principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Despite Misty Copeland's many impressive accomplishments, she considers becoming the first African American principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre her greatest achievement.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes Copeland's impressive track record with concrete examples, then shifts to highlight that she views one particular achievement as more significant than all the others combined.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- Looking at our table, we see a clear shift happening
- Before the blank, we have a list of Copeland's various accomplishments
- After the blank, we learn that she considers one specific achievement more important than everything else mentioned
- The logical relationship needed here is contrast
- We need a connector that signals despite all these impressive things I just listed, there's something even more significant
- "Thus" signals a conclusion or logical result
- This would suggest that becoming principal dancer is the natural outcome of her other accomplishments
- But the passage presents it as something that surpasses them all, not something that follows from them
- "However" creates the perfect contrast between her many accomplishments and this singular achievement
- It signals that despite all the impressive things just mentioned, this one thing is different/more important
- Matches exactly what Copeland is saying - that nothing else compares to this honor
- "For example" would make the principal dancer position just another item in the list of accomplishments
- But the passage presents it as something that stands above all the others, not as one more example
- "Second of all" suggests we're continuing an enumerated list
- There's no "first of all" anywhere in the passage
- This would make the principal dancer role just another accomplishment rather than the standout achievement it's presented as