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To many critics, it seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72

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To many critics, it seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72

by RBBmba@2014 » Thu Apr 09, 2015 10:33 pm
To many critics, it seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and to large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(A) for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and to large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(B) that Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, be working on a small off Broadway-dance project.

(C) that Ms. Tramonivic, who is 72 and the legendary print and visual artist that almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, is working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(D) for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public, to large venues, and to be working on a small off Broadway dance project.

(E) that Ms. Tramonivic, who is 72 and the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

OA: A

@ Experts - I got it right but took a bit more than 2 minutes(perhaps the long sentence made it such). In SC, I think this should never happen in real test, hence looking for a smarter & faster solution.
Last edited by RBBmba@2014 on Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by mrinal.p » Fri Apr 10, 2015 1:55 am
Shouldn't the correct construction be strange 'that'?

Is 'strange' followed by 'for' idiomatically correct?
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by GMATGuruNY » Sat Apr 11, 2015 3:08 am
In some cases, it serves as an EXPLETIVE: a placeholder pronoun serving to DELAY THE SUBJECT.

Two examples:
IT is easy TO LOVE CHOCOLATE.
Here, it is standing in for to love chocolate.
Conveyed meaning:
TO LOVE CHOCOLATE is easy.
IT was not until last year THAT JOHN WROTE HIS FIRST BOOK.
Here, it is standing in for that John wrote his first book.
Conveyed meaning:
THAT JOHN WROTE HIS FIRST BOOK was not until last year.

When it serves as an expletive, the delayed referent is usually an infinitive phrase or a that-clause.
To many critics, it seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and to large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(A) for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and to large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(B) that Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, be working on a small off Broadway-dance project.

(C) that Ms. Tramonivic, who is 72 and the legendary print and visual artist that almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, is working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

(D) for Ms. Tramonivic, 72, the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public, to large venues, and to be working on a small off Broadway dance project.

(E) that Ms. Tramonivic, who is 72 and the legendary print and visual artist who almost singlehandedly brought performance art to the general public and large venues, to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.
B: It seems strange that Ms. Tramonivic...be working..
Here, the referent for it seems to be the portion in red.
Conveyed meaning:
That Ms. Tramonivic be working seems strange.
In the conveyed meaning, the usage of be is incorrect.
Correct:
That Ms. Tramonivic IS working seems strange.
Eliminate B.

In C, that cannot serve to refer to artist.
To refer to people on the GMAT, we use WHO.
Eliminate C.

A conjunction such as and must serve to connect PARALLEL FORMS.
D: It seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72...AND to be working...
Here, to be working lacks a preceding parallel form.
Also, it lacks a clear referent.
WHAT exactly seems strange?
Eliminate D.

E: It seems strange that Ms. Tramonivic...to be working.
Here, the referent for it seems to be the portion in red.
Conveyed meaning:
That Ms. Tramonivic to be working seems strange.
In the conveyed meaning, the usage of to be is incorrect.
Correct:
That Ms. Tramonivic IS working seems strange.
Eliminate E.

The correct answer is A.
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by RBBmba@2014 » Sat Apr 11, 2015 9:55 pm
Hi Mitch,
Much thanks for your explanations.

Few doubts to be clarified -
1. You said "When it serves as an expletive, the delayed referent is usually an infinitive phrase or a that-clause." , so how this fits into the sentence at hand ? Because "that-clause" is discarded here because of other errors and the correct choice doesn't seem to have an "an infinitive phrase", but rather a prepositional phrase. Please shed light on this.

2. As for idiomatic usage, "seem" should be followed by 'to'. Right ? Then is this reasoning NOT enough for the choice A to be OA ?

Please help!

Look forward to hear from you.
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:12 am
RBBmba@2014 wrote:Because "that-clause" is discarded here.
This line of reasoning is invalid.
When it serves an expletive for a that-clause, the that-clause is the implied SUBJECT and thus CANNOT be discarded.

For a discussion of official SCs employing it as an expletive, check my second post here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sentence-str ... 82034.html
2. As for idiomatic usage, "seem" should be followed by 'to'. Right ? Then is this reasoning NOT enough for the choice A to be OA ?
This line of reasoning also is invalid.

It seems strange that Ms. Tramonivic is working on a small off-Broadway dance project.
Here, it is standing in for the that-clause in red.
Conveyed meaning:
THAT MS. TRAMONIVIC IS WORKING ON A SMALL OFF-BROADWAY DANCE PROJECT seems strange.
Here, what seems strange is a particular EVENT: that Ms. Tramonivic is working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

It seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.
Here, it is standing in for the infinitive phrase in red.
Conveyed meaning:
TO BE WORKING ON A SMALL OFF-BROADWAY DANCE PROJECT seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic.
Here, what seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic is a particular ACTION: to be working on a small off-Broadway dance project.

Both meanings are sensical.
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by RBBmba@2014 » Mon Apr 13, 2015 5:33 am
Much thanks Mitch.

A quick qs on idiomatic usage of "seem" - is "seem" ALWAYS to be followed either by "to" or "that" ? OR it's nothing like this ?

I'm confused as I found both of these in SC questions.

Please clarify.
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by kutlee » Wed Apr 22, 2015 2:26 am
What is the role of "the critic" in this sentence?
To me it looks like It seems strange to the Critic that Ms. Tramonivic is working on something.
If the correct sentence is To be working on something seems strange FOR Ms. Tramonivic, what is the completion of "To many critics.."
I am confused with OA.
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by RBBmba@2014 » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:51 am
RBBmba@2014 wrote:Much thanks Mitch.

A quick qs on idiomatic usage of "seem" - is "seem" ALWAYS to be followed either by "to" or "that" ? OR it's nothing like this ?

I'm confused as I found both of these in SC questions.

Please clarify.
@Mitch - could you please quickly share your thoughts on this Sir ?

Much thanks in advance.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 23, 2015 2:47 am
RBBmba@2014 wrote:Much thanks Mitch.

A quick qs on idiomatic usage of "seem" - is "seem" ALWAYS to be followed either by "to" or "that" ? OR it's nothing like this ?

I'm confused as I found both of these in SC questions.

Please clarify.
In most cases, forms of to seem will be followed by to + VERB or a that-clause.
It is also possible for to seem to be followed by an adjective:
The task seemed impossible.
John seems happy.

If you have questions about usages of to seem in specific SCs, please post these SCs in separate threads.
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