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daagh
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 12 Dec 2019, 05:00
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Abhishek
It is just a place holder and a dummy to get started with the statement, just as legally we say -- It looks as if it is going to rain today".
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 12 Dec 2019, 22:01
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daagh
Abhishek
It is just a place holder and a dummy to get started with the statement, just as legally we say -- It looks as if it is going to rain today".
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I was actually referring to the it in the non underlined portion. ' that it is impossible'. So what does this stand for ? a placeholder or does it have a antecedent? daagh
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 13 Dec 2019, 00:31
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Abhishekrao12
It cannot refer to any infinitives.
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Hi Abhishek, any specific reason why you say so?
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 13 Dec 2019, 01:40
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Abhishek,
In GMAT, it doesn't help to worry about non-underlined parts. We should consider them only to solve the underlined part. We might lose precious minutes on these inconsequentials.
But, for your query's sake, when there is no sensible antecedent for a pronoun, the pronoun may mostly be a dummy. Don't we say, it is impossible to decide which is better between the devil and the deep sea. What does the 'it' refer to?
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2020, 06:55
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Hi Experts,

In the second part, there is an it and it can't refer back to an action. Doesn't that make all the choices incorrect? Or have I got it wrong?

Any help would be much appreciated.
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2021, 04:12
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Abhishekrao12
daagh
It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny undersea vents, but at the present time submersibles require such thick walls to withstand the high pressure that it is impossible.


(A) It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny undersea vents

(B) Someday, it may be feasible to try and retrieve organisms from tiny undersea vents

(C) Trying to retrieve organisms out of tiny undersea vents may someday be feasible

(D) To try for the retrieval of organisms out of tiny undersea vents may someday be feasible

(E) Retrieving organisms out of tiny undersea vents may be feasible to try someday


IN the above sentence , what does it refer to ? daagh

According to the meaning of the sentence, it must refer to the noun form of retrieve.
For this reason , i can eliminate A,B,C D.
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I thought of the same thing and chose option E. IMO "it" is an indicator here and is not pointing to any noun. Please help.
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2021, 11:45
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arya251294

The great daagh has addressed the "it" issue above. The sentence is using a "placeholder it," as in "It is very difficult to get into Stanford." This is just a form we use to say, in this case, "I am going to mention something that is difficult to do." If we try to find an antecedent for "it," we get sucked into a black hole: surely "it" must refer to getting into Stanford, but then is the sentence saying "To get into Stanford is very difficult to get into Stanford"??? No. The "it" is just holding a place until we can explain what we want to say. This might seem a bit odd, but it is an extremely common, everyday usage in English. In fact, as I was writing this, I almost wrote "It might seem strange to use "it" here," and of course that "it" at the front of the sentence is itself a placeholder. A few other examples:

It isn't important what you wear.
It's a long way to the top of the mountain.
It has long been considered likely that life exists on other planets.
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2021, 11:48
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arya251294

The great daagh has addressed the "it" issue above. The sentence is using a "placeholder it," as in "It is very difficult to get into Stanford." This is just a form we use to say, in this case, "I am going to mention something that is difficult to do." If we try to find an antecedent for "it," we get sucked into a black hole: surely "it" must refer to getting into Stanford, but then is the sentence saying "To get into Stanford is very difficult to get into Stanford"??? No. The "it" is just holding a place until we can explain what we want to say. This might seem a bit odd, but it is an extremely common, everyday usage in English. In fact, as I was writing this, I almost wrote "It might seem strange to use "it" here," and of course that "it" at the front of the sentence is itself a placeholder. A few other examples:

It isn't important what you wear.
It's a long way to the top of the mountain.
It has long been considered likely that life exists on other planets.
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Thanks a ton for your reply.
Actually I was under the impression (read somewhere on internet) that - "it" & "that" are not preferred as indicators on GMAT.
Is there any rule like that?
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2021, 11:58
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arya251294
"It" and "that" are extreme common and important words throughout SC, and they have a number of different valid uses that can go astray. I'd have to see the specific usage your source was addressing to evaluate that particular claim.
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 30 Apr 2021, 12:00
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arya251294
"It" and "that" are extreme common and important words throughout SC, and they have a number of different valid uses that can go astray. I'd have to see the specific usage your source was addressing to evaluate that particular claim.
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sure thing.
will find out & tag :)

Thanks again.
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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 03 Jul 2021, 10:35
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The OA definitely seems the most idiomatic. However, is there a meaning error there? Won’t it always be feasible to try something? When I was reviewing this, I looked for some sort of hint that it would someday be feasible to successfully retrieve, and while B does not fit idiomatically it seems to be the only option that hints of something that will be feasible in the future but isn’t today.

I have to imagine, given the overwhelming number of idioms in the English language and high proportion of non-native speakers sitting for the exam, GMAT prefers meaning to idiom.

Anyone have thoughts? Welcome feedback to help me see where my reasoning is incorrect.

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It may someday be feasible to try to retrieve organisms from tiny unde 10 Sep 2022, 04:42
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