SC question

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SC question

by ranji » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:25 pm
305. For many travelers, charter vacations often turn out to cost considerably more than they originally seemed.
(A) they originally seemed
(B) they originally seem to
(C) they seemingly would cost originally
(D) it seemed originally
(E) it originally seemed they would

OA is A

can you please explain the answer?
ranji

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by Danielle » Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:24 pm
You can discount D and E because they is right, as it refers to vacations. C is awkward. It's between A and B. It has to be A because A is in past tense. It's got to be past tense because you are talking about how much it seemed to cost before the vacation was planned and taken. So present tense, B, can't be right.
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by pahwa » Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:49 pm
I agree with Danielle. Good explanation,

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Can somebody pls explain, how THEY is used here...why it is not ambiguous here......

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by luvaduva » Sat May 24, 2008 10:42 am
charter vacations is plural.

they = plural

it = singular

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by netigen » Sat May 24, 2008 11:15 am
I think the confusion in this case is if the pronoun "they" is used for charter vacations or the travelers. In this case, in the correct answer they is referring to charter vacations because it's closer to they than travelers.

This is the only reason 'they' works in this case.

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by s_raizada » Sat May 24, 2008 11:45 am
Very confusing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

According to Sahil's notes, one of the popular download from this site says that choice E is the best becasue it uses expletive 'it' and hence is more clearer than they in A.

I think, we need an expet to settle this issue.

Another thing, what is the source of this question for example og11, og10, sc 1000 etc

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by chidcguy » Sat May 24, 2008 3:03 pm
You mean the "it" issue? Whether "it" can be used with out a clear referent or not is really an issue to me. :) I hear different things every time.

Coming back to this Q, I was between A & B, but picked B even though I could see the past tense the sentence referred to. I guess that tells me that I have to go by the instincts and pick the answer.

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Sentence Correction :: RE: SC question

by sanjaylakhani » Sat May 24, 2008 8:46 pm
How is the THEY in this question diff from THEY in below menioned question-

Astronomers at the Palomar Observatory have discovered a distant supernova explosion, one that they believe is a type previously unknown to science.
(A) that they believe is
(B) that they believe it to be
(C) they believe that it is of
(D) they believe that is
(E) they believe to be of

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by rattanas » Sat May 24, 2008 10:54 pm
I believe the answer for travellers question is "B"..reasoning that they is used quite clearly for charter vacations..as there is comma after the travellers..so "they" cant be ambiguous..secondly..."turn out to be " already is present tense in non underlined portion so the whole sentence should be in present tense...

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by rattanas » Sat May 24, 2008 11:08 pm
How is the THEY in this question diff from THEY in below menioned question-

Astronomers at the Palomar Observatory have discovered a distant supernova explosion, one that they believe is a type previously unknown to science.
(A) that they believe is
(B) that they believe it to be
(C) they believe that it is of
(D) they believe that is
(E) they believe to be of

Here "They " refers to the astronomers reasoning that no other plural noun is there in the whole sentence so "they" has only one antecedent to refer to....i blieve the answer is "E" as belive to be is right idiom...wats the OA answer

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by tallynik » Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:40 am
With respect to orginal question how is there a number problem using "IT" ie. with E. "IT" does not refer to vacations...."THEY" refers to vacations.

At the same time I am not sure how to grammatically define what is "IT".
If someone can explain that it would be great.

My opinion is "E"
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by Bidisha800 » Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:29 pm
Simple test of "Ellipsis".

they originally seemed [to cost] is CORRECT
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IMO A

by iamcste » Sat Nov 08, 2008 7:44 pm
tallynik wrote:With respect to orginal question how is there a number problem using "IT" ie. with E. "IT" does not refer to vacations...."THEY" refers to vacations.

At the same time I am not sure how to grammatically define what is "IT".
If someone can explain that it would be great.

My opinion is "E"

Pls note: charter vacations ..plural

It is a singular pronoun and They is a plural one...

This is what you should know for the question

I can only understand that one may get 50-50 between A and B...Rest is clearly of..

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by bjp2008 » Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:39 am
tallynik wrote:With respect to orginal question how is there a number problem using "IT" ie. with E. "IT" does not refer to vacations...."THEY" refers to vacations.

At the same time I am not sure how to grammatically define what is "IT".
If someone can explain that it would be great.

My opinion is "E"
I agree with E. As par Erin note...

a. they originally seemed to
b. they originally seemed to
c. they seemingly? would cost originally?
d. it seemed originally that they would
e. it originally seemed (that) they would (cost).

This is a good start. For instance, B would need to be in past tense, seemed. In fact, I often teach GMAT and TOEFL students that the words original (and its derivations) and first usually require past tense.

Furthermore, the "past future" of would in E is more precise than the simple past in A (or that B is lacking, in case you're going to ask if B would be correct if we changed seem to seemed). Since we're talking about something we'd learn after a certain point in the past, would is better.

For example:
This Acura is a lot better than I thought it would be.
is better than
This Acura is a lot better than I thought it was.
In the first example, we are saying that something turned out to be true. In the second example, we are saying that we were not aware of a fact that was true at that time.

And in the charter vacations question, there is no fact that the travelers were unaware of when they purchased the charter vacation--after the original purchase of the charter vacation (and probably toward the end of the vacation), the charter vacation turned out to be more costly than they had at first believed it would be.