(3). A pronoun should refer to one and only one noun or compound noun. This is the most common error in test questions. If a pronoun follows two nouns, it is often unclear which of the nouns the pronoun refers to.
Incorrect - The destabilization of the economy has left unstable stocks in the hands of frightened investors. It is imperative that they be more tightly controlled.
Should the unstable stocks be controlled or the frightened investors?
Either interpretation is possible from the structure of the sentence.
Correct - The destabilization of the economy has left unstable stocks in the hands of frightened investors. It is imperative that the unstable stocks be more tightly controlled.
Post subject: Re: Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:01 am
ManhattanGMAT Staff
Posts: 6517
JadranLee wrote:
(A) is correct because of the following rule:
When a sentence begins with one clause (in this case "while depressed property values can hurt some large investors"), a pronoun in the following clause (in this case "they are potentially devastating for...") is presumed to refer to the subjectof the first clause, as long as that pronoun agrees in number and gender with the subject of the first clause.
The subject of the first clause here is "depressed property values", whereas "some large investors" is the direct object of the first clause. Thus "they" refers to "depressed property values".
Likewise, in the sentence "Although Albert hates Bernardo, he loves Cassandra", the pronoun "he" clearly refers to "Albert", not "Bernardo".
this is correct in this instance, but this is not a general rule.
the general rule is that the pronoun, by default, refers to the noun that plays the same grammatical role in its own clause. so: * if the pronoun is a subject (as is the case here), then it refers by default to the subject of the other clause. * if the pronoun is a direct object, then it refers by default to the direct object of the other clause. (i.e., "take the pizza out of the box and put it on the table" --> "it" refers to "pizza" since both are direct objects)
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发表于 2011-12-5 01:33:27
