What "IT" Refers to here..

[Haresh_Chimanpure]

[Deleted because this question is from a banned source - see below.]

Above is Question from OG 12 and I have understood Answer is E, But Here what does IT refer to ?

Is this type of construction accepted on GMAT

[mikrodj]

it doesn't refer to anything in this sentence. This use of it is called expletive --->
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syn ... es.html#it

or just type on Google expletive it.

Here's a sentence from GMAT Prep that use this kind of construction It was X that ....

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers

[Haresh_Chimanpure]

Thanks, In the meanwhile I too saw other sentences that use IT but it doesnt refer to any previous noun in the sentence.

Basically, If the sentence using IT makes sense as a standalone, the sentence can be considered correct.

E.g.

Long before it was fashionable to be an expatriate, Baker made Paris her home.

[Ben Ku]

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