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.
To many critics, it seems strange for Ms. Tramonivic, 72
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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.
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.
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.
B: It seems strange that Ms. Tramonivic...be working..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.
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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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.
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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This line of reasoning is invalid.RBBmba@2014 wrote:Because "that-clause" is discarded here.
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
This line of reasoning also is invalid.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 ?
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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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.
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.
Last edited by RBBmba@2014 on Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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.
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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@Mitch - could you please quickly share your thoughts on this Sir ?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.
Much thanks in advance.
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In most cases, forms of to seem will be followed by to + VERB or a that-clause.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.
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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Followed here and elsewhere by over 1900 test-takers.
I have worked with students based in the US, Australia, Taiwan, China, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia -- a long list of countries.
My students have been admitted to HBS, CBS, Tuck, Yale, Stern, Fuqua -- a long list of top programs.
As a tutor, I don't simply teach you how I would approach problems.
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