Appearing to be the only candidate whose views

[vietst]

Appearing to be the only candidate whose views would be acceptable to its membership, the Youth Canorous finally endorsed Gorge for city council.
A) Appearing to be
B) Seeming to be
C) Because he appeared to be
D) Because he seemed
E) Being
OA is C. Could you tell me the structure in C?
Thanks

[RonPurewal]

process of elimination here for sure.

a, b, and e are wrong right away, because they're misplaced modifiers: they don't have subjects, and so must modify the noun immediately following. in all 3 cases, that following noun is 'the y.c.', while the modifier is clearly meant to refer to 'gorge'.

of the other two, choice d is wrong because of incorrect idiomatic usage (you can't eliminate 'to be' from 'seemed to be the only...').

--

the correct answer here is unusual, in that it contains a pronoun ('he') that appears quite far ahead of its referent ('gorge'). interesting.

[Anirudh]

I screwed this one up bad.
I saw the choices
1. Eliminated E for 'Being'
2. Eliminated C and D because 'he' occured before George in the sentence.
3. was left trying to choose between A and B -> chose B for no good reason.

RON has already pointed out that it is unusual for 'he' (the pronoun) to occur before 'George' (the subject).
But, now I am at a loss on how I should approach such a problem. Maybe I should consider this - pronoun before noun - rule at a low priority.

But I remember that in one GMATprep problem on this forum we chose the right answer purely on the basis of this rule.
I will post the link as soon as I find it. (Stacey posted taht explantion)

Any input on the kind of approach to be followed will be appreciated.

[RonPurewal]

I screwed this one up bad.
I saw the choices
1. Eliminated E for 'Being'
2. Eliminated C and D because 'he' occured before George in the sentence.
3. was left trying to choose between A and B -> chose B for no good reason.

well, there's no strict rule stating that pronouns can't appear before their referents; it's just that they usually don't.
this is a preference; you should never place preferences above hard and fast rules.

one hard and fast rule that's in play here is the fact that 'headless' modifiers (those with no subject) automatically modify the noun immediately following the comma. this rule eliminates choices (a) and (b), because 'youth canorous' doesn't correctly state who appeared/seemed to be the only candidate who blah blah blah.

RON has already pointed out that it is unusual for 'he' (the pronoun) to occur before 'George' (the subject).
But, now I am at a loss on how I should approach such a problem. Maybe I should consider this - pronoun before noun - rule at a low priority.

preference, not rule.
you are correct in asserting that its priority should be lower than that of all bona fide rules.

But I remember that in one GMATprep problem on this forum we chose the right answer purely on the basis of this rule.
I will post the link as soon as I find it. (Stacey posted taht explantion)

post it if you can find it; it would be interesting if that were indeed the only issue. perhaps the wrong answer had an excessive distance between the pronoun and the referent, engendering confusion? or, more likely yet, there was some ambiguity in the wrong answer?

[stock.mojo11]

process of elimination here for sure.

a, b, and e are wrong right away, because they're misplaced modifiers: they don't have subjects, and so must modify the noun immediately following. in all 3 cases, that following noun is 'the y.c.', while the modifier is clearly meant to refer to 'gorge'.

of the other two, choice d is wrong because of incorrect idiomatic usage (you can't eliminate 'to be' from 'seemed to be the only...').

--

the correct answer here is unusual, in that it contains a pronoun ('he') that appears quite far ahead of its referent ('gorge'). interesting.

Because the question was not underlined I assumed that the poster missed to be in the choice D. What is the difference between appear to be and seem to be?

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

of the other two, choice d is wrong because of incorrect idiomatic usage (you can't eliminate 'to be' from 'seemed to be the only...').
the correct answer here is unusual, in that it contains a pronoun ('he') that appears quite far ahead of its referent ('gorge'). interesting.

Can you explain the use of "seem"? Is always necessary "seem to be"?
What is the difference between "appeared to be" and "seemed to be"?

[RonPurewal]

of the other two, choice d is wrong because of incorrect idiomatic usage (you can't eliminate 'to be' from 'seemed to be the only...').
the correct answer here is unusual, in that it contains a pronoun ('he') that appears quite far ahead of its referent ('gorge'). interesting.

Can you explain the use of "seem"? Is always necessary "seem to be"?
What is the difference between "appeared to be" and "seemed to be"?

there's not much of a difference between "seem" and "appear" in this context.
some purists insist that "appear" should be restricted to judgments based on literal physical appearance (i.e., such people would insist that interest rates appear to be reaching a maximum is wrong, because you can't literally look at interest rates), but most usage experts indicate that both "seem" and "appear" are ok in a context such as the one in this sentence.

(there are other contexts in which you can use "appear" but not "seem" - for instance, you can say a ghost appeared before my eyes, but not a ghost seemed before my eyes - but that's irrelevant to this problem.)

--

as for the presence or absence of "to be", luckily, the rules are exactly the same for "appear" as for "seem".

before a NOUN or a PARTICIPIAL construction, you must use "to be".
he appeared/seemed to be lying. --> correct
*he appeared/seemed lying. --> incorrect
he appeared/seemed to be a liar. --> correct
*he appeared/seemed a liar. --> incorrect

before an ADJECTIVE, you don't have to use "to be" (but you still can).
the report appears/seems credible. --> correct
the report appears/seems to be credible. --> also correct

[devneeetbajaj]

I understand Ron's process of elimination. However, if C is right, the sentence reads:

Because he appeared to be the only candidate whose views would be acceptable to its membership, the Youth Canorous finally endorsed Gorge for city council.

"he" could be either the YC or George, no?

[cyber_office]

I understand Ron's process of elimination. However, if C is right, the sentence reads:

Because he appeared to be the only candidate whose views would be acceptable to its membership, the Youth Canorous finally endorsed Gorge for city council.

"he" could be either the YC or George, no?

If the Youth Canorous is an organization, the pronoun "he" cannot refer to YC. When I read "the Youth Canorous" I felt comfortable that it referred to a body, organization, institution, etc. If YC was a person, you wouldn't precede the name with "the." Unless, of course, the YC actually refers to someone like "the" Pope, or "the" Bishop, in that case maybe you are right.

[RonPurewal]

I understand Ron's process of elimination. However, if C is right, the sentence reads:

Because he appeared to be the only candidate whose views would be acceptable to its membership, the Youth Canorous finally endorsed Gorge for city council.

"he" could be either the YC or George, no?

If the Youth Canorous is an organization, the pronoun "he" cannot refer to YC. When I read "the Youth Canorous" I felt comfortable that it referred to a body, organization, institution, etc. If YC was a person, you wouldn't precede the name with "the." Unless, of course, the YC actually refers to someone like "the" Pope, or "the" Bishop, in that case maybe you are right.

well done.

by the way, i would bet long money that this problem is NOT from the official GMATPREP software.

what is the real source of this problem?