Though the artifacts of pre-Columbian civization created a stir from t

In the official explanation of this question. Option B is rejected because " IT" in the line " It was not untill later half of nineteen century..." does not have a referent.
Whereas in Option A the same "It" is taken as place holder so can anyone explain when to take "It" as a placeholder and when "It" needs a referent ?

In option B, there is no " It was not untill later half of nineteen century..." as you mentioned. You seem to have confused something.

Nonetheless please refer to this explanation why B is wrong:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/though-the-a ... l#p1194988

great explanation
inspiration for somebody/something
inspiration of somebody/ somebody's inspiration
we can not have
inspiration of something. this makes no sense.

moreover, if we add apostrophes , we can not have "desingers, artists, and crafters' imitation " because the first noun phrase is too long. we can not have this phase in English.

daagh Bishal123456789
Can you please how the option A is an independent clause . I was unable to think of "it was not until the later ..... century" is complete in itself

"inspirations of western designers" ..... they inspired western designers not the other way around


(A) it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western designers, artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them

(B) they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was the latter half of the nineteenth century
(E) they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century

(C) not until the latter half of the nineteenth century was it that they have inspired Western designers, artists, and crafters to imitation

(D) until the latter half of the nineteenth century Western designers, artists and crafters have not been inspired to imitate

In SC, it is really important to understand the meaning of the sentence. There are thousands of idioms and rules, how many will you remember?

In option B, they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was the latter half of the nineteenth century

they stands for artifacts- correct
artifacts did not inspire imitations of western designers... ? What ? Western designers are imitated in the sentence, WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

In Option E, they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century

Artifacts were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations ... Okay wait. imitations of what? When I read the sentence, I get the sense that crafters imitated something, and artifacts inspired those "something". WRONG. Artifacts inspired these designed to imitate after these artifacts.

Takeaway : While solving questions, keep asking yourself if the sentence even makes sense. There are thousands of idioms and what not. How many can you remember?

VeritasKarishma GMATNinja
Is the bolded portion correct in terms of grammar?

Yes, though it is not usual to write like this, but subject and verb can flip.

EducationAisle what does "it" refer to out here?

it refers to that Western designers, artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them.

Let's take a simpler example:

It is essential that test-takers work hard.

Again, it is referring to that test-takers work hard. This represents a case where the pronoun (it) is used before the antecedent.

The sentence is equivalent to:

(that test-takers work hard) is essential.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses cases when pronoun is used before the antecedent, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

Though the artifacts of pre-Columbian civilization created a stir from the very first European contacts with the New World in the sixteenth century, it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western designers, artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them.

(A) it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western designers, artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them -> we have non underlined and unlined parts in PAST tense, which makes better. Let's keep it.

(B) they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was the latter half of the nineteenth century -> Imitation by is better. Incorrect.

(C) not until the latter half of the nineteenth century was it that they have inspired Western designers, artists, and crafters to imitation -> have inspired is incorrect tense.

(D) until the latter half of the nineteenth century Western designers, artists and crafters have not been inspired to imitate -> have not been is incorrect tense.

(E) they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century -> Structure changed as, we have "they were not inspirations of Western designers". Incorrect.

So, I think A.

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