Usage of that The sentence below is from my textbook used in my high school days, and please note the [that] in the middle. "Many observers have commented on what seems to be the fact [that] fear plays a much smaller part than we should think it must in the life of an animal which lives dangerously." I do not ask the meaning of the whole sentence. Instead, I want to know the function of [that] after "the fact", or rather what the [that] modifies here. I presumed that the usage of the [that] is: 1. used after verbs, nouns, and adjectives to introduce a clause which shows what someone says or thinks, or states a fact or reason (from Longman), and judged that it should modify the phrase "the fact" just before the word, as in this sentence "The fact that he is your brother-in-law should not affect your decision."But my brother propounded a view that the [that] should modify the entire clause "what seems to be the fact". Which interpretation is right? Or are both of them incorrect? I'm sorry. I suppose this question is really trivial. Thank you for reading this to the end. Perhaps you would explain.