Sentence Correction

Along with the spike in average selling prices announced early this morning, the strong mobile device sales figures released at noon seem like it is indicative that consumer, though not extremely confident, has a strong appetite for mobile devices.

(A)like it is indicative that

(B)as if to indicate

(C)to indicate that

(D)indicative of

(E)like an indication of


IMO C

Experts, please comment.

Along with the spike in average selling prices announced early this morning, the strong mobile device sales figures released at noon seem like it is indicative that the consumer, though not extremely confident, has a strong appetite for mobile devices.

(I added the word the before consumer.)

(A)like it is indicative that

it has no antecedent. So the sentence seeks to compare the figures received at noon with nothing. The figures seem like it.

(B)as if to indicate

the figures seem as if to indicate is not idiomatically correct. as if generally connects a subject and a verb to a subject and a verb.

(C)to indicate that

the figures seem to indicate that the consumer has is idiomatically correct.

(D)indicative of

indicative of means something along the lines of signifying and must be followed by a noun or noun phrase, not by a clause.

indicative of some thing

correct: indicative of strong consumer appetite

not correct: indicative of consumers have a strong appetite

(E)like an indication of

The figures do not seem like an indication. The figures seem to be an indication.

The correct answer is C.

1. You could also consider that SEEMS LIKE is redundant: whatever seems, does so because it is like another thing in some way. Thus, from a distance, a wasp might seem to be an ant, because it is like an ant, and an alligator could seem to an untrained eye to be a crocodile.

2. My own feeling about SEEMS AS IF is also that it is redundant, and that it appears in wrong options in Sentence Corrections as a kind of hangover from colloquial speech. If we say that it was as if a storm were brewing, we are saying that it seemed that there would be a storm: AS IF and SEEM both introduce an hypothetical situation, but when we combine them, it seems as if we want to say the same thing twice.

3. Every time I have seen SEEMS LIKE and SEEMS AS IF in an official question, they have been in incorrect options. On the other hand, SEEMS + infinitive is a sure bet.

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fabiocafarelli wrote:My own feeling about SEEMS AS IF is also that it is redundant, and that it appears in wrong options in Sentence Corrections as a kind of hangover from colloquial speech.

I tend to agree, and after I wrote my response above I was pondering how to change it ...

Maybe I will just take out the part where I say that seems as if they indicate that is correct.