Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater

My answer is (B). It took me 02:16.

(CDE) can be eliminated first.
(C) Wordy.
"seemingly" and "would" can also be deemed redundant.
No competent writer would author this sentence.
(DE) "it" seems to refer to "black diamond trails", but "black diamond trails" is plural.

Back to (AB), there are two major differences.
"seemed" in (A) VS "seem" in (B).
No "to" after "seemed" in (A) VS. "to" in (B).

Can we rule out (A) because it uses past tense? Probably, but I think that past tense offers the contrast between the original thinking and current realization.
But in that case, "originally" may be unnecessary.

Ultimately, I got rid of (A) for its lack of "to" after "seemed".
The sentence in (AB) is equivalent with:
Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater challenge than they originally seemed/seem to pose.
We can omit "pose" because it appears earlier.
But we cannot omit "to" because it does not appear earlier.

everyone seems to have marked b , oe pls ?

Got D in 1.36.

(A) they originally seemed--lack of "to" after "seemed"
(B) they originally seem to--wrong tense. With 'originally', in this context, I expect past tense.
(C) they seemingly would pose originally--awkward
(D) it originally seemed they would--a bit long but perfectly conveys the right meaning with right grammar
(E) it seemed originally--'it' is wrong here

What would "it" be referring to in option D ?

Hello Pranay18,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, here, "it" serves as a placeholder pronoun, a pronoun that refers to a "to a that/who/whether" clause.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

What's the Explanation for this?

Posted from my mobile device

Expert's Global Official Explanation:

Comparison + Pronouns + Verb Forms

• Comparison must always be made between similar elements.
• One of the acceptable usages of placeholder pronoun “it” is that it can refer to a that/who/whether clause.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

A. Trap. This answer choice incorrectly compares the clause “pose a greater challenge” to the pronoun phrase “they originally seemed”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

B. Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb “seem to” to refer to an action that concluded in the past, the black diamond trails originally seeming to pose a lesser challenge; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the simple present tense is only used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

C. This answer choice uses the passive voice construction “they seemingly would”, rendering it needlessly indirect.

D. Correct. This answer choice correctly compares the clauses “pose a greater challenge” and “it originally seemed they would”. Further, Option D correctly uses the simple past tense verb “seemed” to refer to an action that concluded in the past. Please note, in this sentence, “it” is a placeholder pronoun that refers to the phrase “they would”; placeholder pronouns are pronouns that refer to an infinitive phrase or a that/who/whether clause or object rather than a noun or pronoun.

E. Trap. This answer choice incorrectly compares the clause “pose a greater challenge” to the pronoun phrase “it seemed originally”; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

D is the best answer choice.

Wouldn't the 'they' in option D give rise to ambiguity?

I picked option E because of above doubt. Can you elaborate on the explanation of why E is wrong. Is it also because of the order or originally seemed vs seemed originally?

Also, will this construction be correct:

Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater challenge than it originally seemed.
Posted from my mobile device

Three pressing questions spring to mind:

1 For (B), if it were "they originally seemed to", it would be correct, right?

2 For (AE), both “they originally seemed” and “it seemed originally” are clauses, not pronoun phrases. "seemed" is a verb. Do I miss something?

3 For (C), it does not use passive voice, right?

Expert's Global Video Explanation:

In (E), "it" is used as a placeholder that refers to a clause. The clause is: (that) they would (pose).
We can get rid of the placeholder "it" and write the grammatically equivalent sentence as follows:
Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater challenge than that they would pose originally seemed.

I remain skeptical that (E) can be defended as the correct answer since there is no parallelism between "that they would pose" (a clause) and "they" (a pronoun).

Hi Experts, ExpertsGlobal5 egmat KarishmaB MartyTargetTestPrep AndrewN

In option A, why isn't ellipsis used?

Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater challenge than they originally seemed (to pose)

Thanks in advance.

Hello ChandlerBong,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, to fix the comparison error in the sentence formed by Option A by modifying the underlined portion, we would need to add the infinitive verb for ("to + base form of verb" - "to + pose" in this case), however, the rule of ellipses applies to active verbs and active verb phrases that have appeared earlier in the sentence, not to infinitive verbs.

Remember, the rule of ellipses is based on assuming repetition, and we cannot assume the repetition of a grammatical construction that does not appear elsewhere in the sentence (the infinitive verb form in this case).

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

D. Correct. This answer choice correctly compares the clauses “pose a greater challenge” and “it originally seemed they would”. Further, Option D correctly uses the simple past tense verb “seemed” to refer to an action that concluded in the past. Please note, in this sentence, “it” is a placeholder pronoun that refers to the phrase “they would”; placeholder pronouns are pronouns that refer to an infinitive phrase or a that/who/whether clause or object rather than a noun or pronoun.

Can we interpret "it originally seemed they would" as "challenge originally seemed trails would pose"?

Thanks

Even for experienced skiers, black diamond trails often pose a greater challenge than they originally seemed.

(A) they originally seemed
(B) they originally seem to
(C) they seemingly would pose originally
(D) it originally seemed they would
(E) it seemed originally

Hi Experts, MartyTargetTestPrep,AndrewN,ExpertsGlobal5



Can someone pls tell me what is the difference between the "it" placeholder pronoun and the Expletive "it"? As I am totally confused between the both.

Thanks in Advance!