Golf games often turn out to be more tiring than they originally seeme

I think the sentence implies a general assertion or judgement. So using past tense is not the right way to put the idea forward. For example : the chocolate often turns out to be more sweet than it seems to. It's more of a general statement rather than a particular person's perspective so using past tense ( according to me) wrong! Please correct me if my line of thinking is wrong.

I'd go with B

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MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The correct tense for the verb ‘seem’ is the past. Choice A uses the past tense and is the shortest and most efficient of the options. Choice A is the correct answer.

DmitryFarber

Your remark- The idea here is that the games seemed less tiring in the past, before they turn out otherwise. The past tense creates a contrast that wouldn't otherwise be there. Imagine someone saying "This isn't turning out to be as fun as I thought."


The example you provided implies a current situation ie., "This ISN'T turning out to be fun - present tense"
Hence the usage of past is appropriate.

In the given question -
The word "often" means a generally or not actually at the moment so the usage of past cannot be used because we are stating a generalised statement.

Though I'm still reserved over the structure of B as to the incomplete idiom "seem to" I would bet on B.

Please explain your reasoning and help me correct mine
chetan2u GMATNinja mikemcgarry daagh

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D and E use ‘it’ to refer to ‘games’. SV disagreement means these two are not possible options. C makes no sense at all. B is in the wrong tense. Past tense is needed to show contrast.

A is right.

AdityaHongunti To understand it better, try shifting the word "often" to the beginning:

Often, golf games turn out to be more tiring than they originally seemed.

Now it's clearer that the sentence is saying that this one thing happens often, and this one thing happens across two tenses. We can certainly use present tense in some cases, but in this case the past makes sense and allows us to avoid "seem to" in B. A few parallel examples:

Married couples often go out less than they did when they were dating.

Here, the past is needed to make the time shift clear.

Gail often returns the gifts she receives for Christmas.

Here, present tense is better. It makes the general pattern clear: Gail receives gifts and then returns them.

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