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

Question

Though the artifacts of pre-Columbian civization 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

(B) they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was 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

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

GMATPrep Code  :  VSC002496

daagh · Accepted Answer

a) it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western designers artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them.---  correct choice using past tense to describe something that happed before the latter half of the 19th century; here the it just fills a place value .

b)they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was the latter half of the nineteenth century ---  ‘imitations of’ is bad idiom; imitations by is the proper idiom. - It- seems to have no referent

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 wrong tense- past tense should be used – to imitation is unidiomatic

d)until the latter half of the nineteenth century Western designers, artists and crafters have not been inspired to imitate --- have not been is wrong tense 
 
e)they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century ---  bad construction; it is not clear what the noun ‘imitations’ modifies.

daagh · Answer

In identifying the referents to a pronoun, logic is primary and proximity is much later. Here the pronoun is plural and the plural referents are, a. the artifacts, contacts and then the three copycats namely the designers, artists and crafters. Let me replace them with the nearest nouns and you can see the absurdity; Secondly, let us replace them with contacts and can see how pointless it is. Obviously they must have imitated the artifacts, which is the logical end to this trilemma.

So physical replacement is the key in clearing the befuddlement in pronoun references

So physical replacement is the key in clearing the befuddlement in pronoun references

stoy4o · Answer

Hi daagh, can you explain your approach (logical thinking) of identifying the referrent for "them" in this example? I have been having a hard time identifying  with certainty  when references of "it", "them", etc are  unclear . What is the best (or general) approach for nailing these? For all I know, "it", "them", etc. refer the noun(s) closest to them.

Thanks.

mbacrazeddude666 · Answer

It's A.

a)it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western desgnerst artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them. -  Correct "Western designers, artists , and crafiers were inspired to imitate "them". "Them" correctly referencing the artifacts (plural)

b)they did not inspire imitations of western designers, artists, and crafters until it was the latter half of the nineteenth century"they did not inspire imatitions of". -  here "they" is correctly referencing to artifacts but imitations of western desingers implies that the artifacts inspired the imitations of western designers, not of the artifacts themselves

c)not until the latter half of the nineteenth century was it that they have inspired Western designers, artists, and crafters to imitation
- Unnecessary usage of "have"

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

e)they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century  -again incorrect usage of the expression "imitations of"

Marcab · Answer

Hii Daagh.
Two doubts:
1) In B, don't you think that the role of "it" in B is kind of asserting some fact rather than modifying some noun. I thought that the "it" was asserting a fact.
If I say, "It is natural to get scared when you see a snake." In this, "it" is not modifying something.

2)The first clause is an active voice, so should'nt the second clause also be in an active voice in order to maintain a logical parallelism.

I closed down to A and B but because of these confusions, I chose B.

Please let me get over this.

daagh · Answer

A place value for pronouns such as 'it' is more in line with the flow at the beginning. But in the centre, the pronouns looks as if is dangling without referent. You might even leave the phrase, without disturbing the meaning. 
Regarding active voice / passive voice, I fell it will take lot of disturbance to covert the second part into active voice, although one can contest the usage of the active and passive voice in the same sentence as something anti-parallel

Marcab · Answer

Its an official question so I must have to accept the way it is written.
But since "it" doesn't has any deterrent and moreover going by its usage, there is nothing of the sort to modify the "time", can't it be taken more of an assertion.
I mean how can one be so sure of what to take: assertion or modification.
And yes, if one removes this "it" issue then I feel B is better than A.

greatps24 · Answer

Option B changes the intended meaning of the sentence.

they did not  inspire imitations  of western designers.

But original sentence states that Artefacts inspired Designers

greatps24 · Answer

I did this question again today...and found one more thing..use of "not until". Isn't " not un - til" repetition?

TGC · Answer

IMO, (A). has definitely an antecedent issue .

(B) . clears the "them" antecedent issue but again introduces "they" which creates an antecedent issue with "contacts".

Plz clear the air , someone also said that in case of antecedents prefer logic over proximity.

But in many guides we never found that thingy , we just see if there are many antecedents then the sentence structure is wrong be it logical or not because one antecedent can be logical to person X but may not be true in case of person Y.

Experts plz pour in

Marcab: OA Plz

mbaiseasy · Answer

The sentence is about how artists were inspired to imitate artifacts. This all happened in the sixteenth and nineteenth century, thus, the simple present tense is the correct verb tense. Hence, C and D are out.
D and B are also wrong because they made artists possessive of imitations and inspirations.

A is correct.

DmitryFarber · Answer

(B) refers to "imitations of western designers," etc. The artifacts were imitated, not the designers and artists!
(C) says that the artifacts "have inspired" designers, etc. We can't use the present perfect to refer to something that happened over a century ago.
(D) Same deal as C.
(E) Even if we add the needed apostrophes to make "designers, artists, and crafters" possessive, "inspirations of designers' imitations" is still not idiomatic, and the meaning is not terribly clear. The usage in A is much better.

vietmoi999 · Answer

Though the artifacts of pre-Columbian civization 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 desgnerst artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them.

a)it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Western desgnerst 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

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

e)they were not inspirations of Western designers, artists, and crafters imitations until the latter half of the nineteenth century
////////////////
past perfect is used to show an action which continue until a past time. this rule make b,c,d and e wrong.

in the pattern.

it is not until that+clause

the verb in the that+clause is not in perfect tense but in simple tense.

A is correct

brajeshchugh · Answer

What is the pronoun "it" referring to? Isn't the noun artifacts and it is plural so should it not be they?

mmonam · Answer

Actually no, The "it" in "it was not until the later half of the nineteenth century that western designers,artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them." refers to the object of THAT sentence, which comes after the word "THAT" western designers,artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate them.

daagh · Answer

The ‘it’ in Choice A has no more than a place holder value ; So let’s not bother much about it;

But look at the whole episode in a different angle; the pronoun ‘they’ in choices B, C and E does not have a clear reference; It can stand either for the contacts or for the artefacts equivocally.

Choice D suffers from serious grammatical flaw. Once we say ‘until’ then the tenure is limited and you cannot use a present perfect verb; so also in Choice C.

We are left with just A, which dodges these pitfalls and seems best.

kinjiGC · Answer

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 later half of the nineteenth century that western designers,artists and crafters were inspired to imitate them.

(A)it was not until the later half of the nineteenth century that western designers,artists, and crafters were inspired to imitate  them .
 Though there is a pronoun ambiguity but it can still be resolved.

(B)they did not inspire  imitations of western designers ,artists, and crafters until it was the later half of the nineteenth century ->  Imitations of western designers doesn't make sense

(C)not until the later half of the nineteenth century  was it  that they have inspired western designers,artists ,and crafters  to imitation 
 was it -> is not required
to imitation -> Completely wrong

(D)until the later half of the nineteenth century western designers,artists ,and crafters have not been inspired to  imitate  
 imitate whom or what?

(E)they were not  inspirations of western designers ,artists, and crafters imitations until the later half of the nineteenth century
 Inspirations of western designers -> aweful

EducationAisle · Answer

Any reason why you consider  them  to be ambiguous?

kinjiGC · Answer

I was thinking about "artifacts" and "European contacts" and logically western designers cannot imitate the artifacts. That was my reasoning.

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

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

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