> The gong, believed to have originated in Western Asia, reached China in the sixth century, where it continues to be used for a wide range of purposes, including a military signal, a rhythmic accompaniment for vocal performance, and a ritual instrument.
> Now abbreviate the sentence to see what it is really saying: The purposes of the gong are a military signal, a rhythmic accompaniment, and a ritual instrument. It does not make sense to say that these are the purposes of the gong, but it does make sense to say that the purpose of the gong is to be used as these things. Therefore, choice D (including) is wrong.
An interesting way to read that sentence.
Ah, right. Including doesn't mean such as.
Let's have a look at B (which include).
> The gong, believed to have originated in Western Asia, reached China in the sixth century, where it continues to be used for a wide range of purposes, which include a military signal, a rhythmic accompaniment for vocal performance, and a ritual instrument.
Choice B omits the necessary preposition "as" and is needlessly wordy. Even if "as" were included, the sentence is just as correct without "which" as with it.
This is the perfect sentence (because it's the answer, according to people around the web):
> The gong, believed to have originated in Western Asia, reached China in the sixth century, where it continues to be used for a wide range of purposes, including as a military signal, a rhythmic accompaniment for vocal performance, and a ritual instrument.
0
I don't think that "including" is optimal here, I would prefer e.g. (for example); then you have no problem with "as".
This is true... but it's the rule of the game. They'll never give you the most sensible choice.
1
We can rephrase the sentence slightly, with emphasis:
The range of purposes that gongs are used for includes as a military signal, [as] a rhythmic accompaniment, and [as] a ritual instrument.
With this in mind, most of your questions become hard to parse, because include as isn't a coherent...
This is a reasonable explanation.
So, essentially, the test wants us to read a wide range of purposes as a single unit, and its post-modifier must modify only "range", not "purpose".
So, I think the test designer would appreciate this alternative of mine:
Hmm... probably not. (I was thinking of such as as.)