Balzac drank more than fifty cups of coffee a day and died of caffeine poisoning; furthermore, caffeine did not seem to bother Samuel Johnson, the great writer and lexicographer, who was reported to have drunk twenty-five cups of tea at one sitting.
(A) furthermore, caffeine did not seem to bother
(B) however, caffeine did not seem to bother
(C) however, caffeine did not seem to have bothered
(D) furthermore, caffeine did not seem to have bothered
(E) in addition, caffeine did not seem to bother
OA-B
can anybody explain, what is the difference between C and B.

My guess-To have bothered is passive and "have" is redunant.

Instructor, please correct if i am wrong.

Cheers

no. "to have bothered" is still active voice.
the passive voice uses forms of to be (e.g., was bothered; to be bothered; etc.)

so there is no passive voice anywhere in this problem.

BUT, if you think you can rule answers out just because they use the passive voice, you are in for a nasty surprise. the passive voice is often correct, and sometimes actually required.

--

on this problem, you could use either of the following constructions:
did not seem to bother (...at that time)
does not seem to have bothered (...to today's historians who are looking back at the scene)
...but not the construction in (c).

I didn't quite understand when to use the two tenses:
- did not seem to bother
vs
- did not seem to have bothered

I chose C for the parallel structure.

to have bothered ....was reported to have drunk twenty-five cups of tea at one sitting.Why is 'does not seem to have bothered' correct and 'did not seem to have bothered' incorrect

Ron would you please explain. Thanks

i'll try to explain. if it still doesn't make sense to you, rest easy knowing that this particular construction is extremely unlikely to come up again on the test.

here's an analogy:

* if i'm looking at my table right now, i might say
there does not seem to be a knife in this setting.

* if i'm looking at a picture of a table setting from the past, i might say
there does not seem to have been a knife in this setting.
note:
- "does not seem" is in the present tense (since this is in my view - i'm an observer in the present)
- "to have bothered" shifts the focus to the time at which the table was set (a previous timeframe).

* if i'm talking about the situation in the picture - but from the narrative standpoint of an observer at that time - i'd say
there did not seem to be a knife in this setting.
- note that this is the same as the first example, but shifted into the past tense (since the observation was made in the past this time).

i can't shift the second sentence in the past - there did not seem to have been..., unless a past observer is observing a situation even farther in the past.
same goes for (c) in the problem at the beginning of this thread.