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OG 12-52

by gmatmachoman » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:59 pm
To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance.


(A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long
before it was fashionable to be an expatriate,


(B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was
fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her
home,

(C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long
before to be an expatriate was fashionable,

(D) Long before it was fashionable to be an
expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris
her home,

(E) Long before it was fashionable being an
expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker

OA :D

My doubt is in D...what does the "it" refer to??
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by money9111 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 4:44 pm
good call out... i'm actually not sure what IT refers to, but i'd like to know so i'm following this post
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by mmon » Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:37 pm
In D IMO, it => "to be an expatriate"
In A it as if refers to Paris.
In B changes meaning as if "to be an expatriate was fashionable - only to Josephine
In C, awkward construction
in E - don't like "being" there, somehow meaning or construction seems awkward. Anyway , guess I require to find the right answer not to prove the others as wrong.[/i]
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by Cinji18 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:02 pm
D makes most sense.

A, B, and E have "she" referred to "Paris."
C has the awkward "to be."
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by thephoenix » Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:46 pm
gmatmachoman wrote:To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance.


(A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long
before it was fashionable to be an expatriate,


(B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was
fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her
home,

(C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long
before to be an expatriate was fashionable,

(D) Long before it was fashionable to be an
expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris
her home,

(E) Long before it was fashionable being an
expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker

OA :D

My doubt is in D...what does the "it" refer to??
IMO it in D is correctly reffering to ...expariate
u can read as long before to be an expariate was fashionable , jhon made paris his hme
in A and B there is an ambiguity for reference of it
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by CANDOGIRL » Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:30 pm
I am still confused as to why "it" in A) and B) is ambiguous, but not in D.
Ron, can you explain why A and B are incorrect? I eliminated E) for the awkwardness of "being an expatriate" and also C) for the "to be an expatriate"
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by brijesh » Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:02 pm
gmatmachoman wrote:To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, and she remained in France during the Second World War as a performer and an intelligence agent for the Resistance.


(A) To Josephine Baker, Paris was her home long
before it was fashionable to be an expatriate,


(B) For Josephine Baker, long before it was
fashionable to be an expatriate, Paris was her
home,

(C) Josephine Baker made Paris her home long
before to be an expatriate was fashionable,

(D) Long before it was fashionable to be an
expatriate, Josephine Baker made Paris
her home,

(E) Long before it was fashionable being an
expatriate, Paris was home to Josephine Baker

OA :D

My doubt is in D...what does the "it" refer to??
I think D is right ans.
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by lunarpower » Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:17 am
CANDOGIRL wrote:I am still confused as to why "it" in A) and B) is ambiguous, but not in D.
that pronoun is not ambiguous in any of those choices. in fact, if you look at those choices, you'll notice that the pronoun is used in exactly the same way, and in exactly the same context, in all of them.

in fact, this is an example of the only type of pronoun that you'll see it on the test that does NOT have to stand for an actual noun.

if you see
"IT + is/was/seems/etc. + ________ + THAT + clause"
or
"IT + is/was/seems/etc. + ________ + TO + verb"
or
a construction derived from one of these,
then the "it" DOES NOT have to stand for a noun.

examples:
it is obvious that we are going to be late.
it was difficult to drive because of the rain.
the rain made it difficult to drive (note that this is a construction derived from the one above it)
etc.
all of these constructions are correct; none of these instances of "it" have to stand for a noun. (note the necessary presence of "that" or "to" in each of these constructions.)
ALL other pronouns on the gmat must stand for nouns.

in order to confirm your knowledge of this type of construction -- and your ability to differentiate it from normal pronouns that have to stand for nouns -- take a look at OG12 problem 57 (i'm not allowed to reproduce that problem here, per copyright rules).
in that problem, there are four instances of "it" in the answer choices. two of them are examples of the construction above, and are thus exempt from having to stand for nouns; the other two are normal pronouns that must stand for nouns (and are thus incorrect, since there are no adequate referents present). see if you can tell which are which.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by lunarpower » Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:25 am
CANDOGIRL wrote: Ron, can you explain why A and B are incorrect?
there is at least one solid reason why these choices are wrong, and at least one other solid reason why they are suboptimal.

what is definitely INCORRECT about these choices is their redundant construction.
analogy:

to me, black and yellow are the best colors.
black and yellow are my favorite colors.
--> each of these two sentences is correct. neither is redundant.

to me, black and yellow are my favorite colors.
--> redundant; this sentence says exactly the same thing twice.

choices (a) and (b) have the same problem as the last of these examples.

--

also, these two choices have sub-optimal parallelism.
notice the second, non-underlined part of the parallel structure: "and she remained in France"
since "she" (josephine baker) is the subject of this clause, the parallelism is ideal only if josephine baker is also the subject of the first clause. that happens in the correct answer, but not in these two answers.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

--

Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

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by davidfrank » Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:55 pm
lunarpower wrote:
CANDOGIRL wrote: Ron, can you explain why A and B are incorrect?
there is at least one solid reason why these choices are wrong, and at least one other solid reason why they are suboptimal.

what is definitely INCORRECT about these choices is their redundant construction.
analogy:

to me, black and yellow are the best colors.
black and yellow are my favorite colors.
--> each of these two sentences is correct. neither is redundant.

to me, black and yellow are my favorite colors.
--> redundant; this sentence says exactly the same thing twice.

choices (a) and (b) have the same problem as the last of these examples.

--

also, these two choices have sub-optimal parallelism.
notice the second, non-underlined part of the parallel structure: "and she remained in France"
since "she" (josephine baker) is the subject of this clause, the parallelism is ideal only if josephine baker is also the subject of the first clause. that happens in the correct answer, but not in these two answers.


Hi Ron,

I see even option D has the same pronoun her so why is this construction not redundant. Can you please explain.
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