OG13 SC-8代词指代问题

半夏死磕GT

8. In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.

(A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing

(B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize

(C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize

(D) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize

(E) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing

og中的解释是
A Due to is an imprecise expression of the causal connection between the tourists’ breath and the closing of the museum for cleaning; the singular pronoun its does not agree with the plural antecedent chambers.

B It is not at all clear what the reference is for the pronoun its; fungus was growing should be parallel to salt … was crystallizing (not would crystallize) because it is another effect of the humidity.

C The pronoun them seems to refer to tourists, which is nonsensical; the entire construction is awkward and wordy;would crystallize is not parallel to was growing.

D Once again, them seems to refer to tourists; the entire construction is awkward, wordy, and ambiguous; crystallize is not parallel to was growing.

E Correct. The causal sequence is clear, and them clearly refers to chambers.


为什么C中的them指代tourists不对，E中的them指代chambers没有歧义？

半夏死磕GT

没人回答啊。求解释啊，代词指代死穴

hfwang

C中tourists是从句的主语，E中是介宾，代词不代介宾

mr.ming

首先从后面的and可以用平行排除bcd三项了，因为他们都和fungus was growing形式上不平行，然后从ae当中选，其实你可以说e的them只带不清，但是a中更大的问题在于which都指代不清，相比之下，e更优。不知道我的解释你能否接受。

半夏死磕GT

hfwang 发表于 2013-7-4 10:59
C中tourists是从句的主语，E中是介宾，代词不代介宾

7. The intricate structure of the compound insect eye, having hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, help explain why scientists have assumed that it evolved independently of the vertebrate eye.

(A) having hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, help explain why scientists have assumed that it

(B) having hundreds of miniature eyes that are called ommatidia, helps explain why scientists have assumed that they

(C) with its hundreds of miniature eyes that are called ommatidia, helps explain scientists’ assuming that they

(D) with its hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, help explain scientists’ assuming that it

(E) with its hundreds of miniature eyes called ommatidia, helps explain why scientists have assumed that it

但是在这一题中，正确答案E中额it就是指代主语中the compound insect eye结构，也是介宾结构，为什么乜

kiwifoodtown

我们先看看C和D中代词them的位置，位于分词短语或定语从句中，根据句子意思就不难发现them指代了上一层级的先导词--复数的tourists. 再来看看E选项，根据原则，从句中的代词通常指代主句中的主语，那么在原因状语从句中的them也自然指代了主句的主语chambers，再回过头仔细读一下句子也能验证它的合理性。

hfwang

半夏死磕GT 发表于 2013-7-4 12:26
7. The intricate structure of the compound insect eye, having hundreds of miniature eyes called om ...

beats me.
我这题当时就做错了
还得研究研究

marshadis

同样困惑中，C中them指代tourists主语我明白，但D中的them也能指代tourists我就晕了~~

ninalee89

marshadis 发表于 2013-7-14 14:59
同样困惑中，C中them指代tourists主语我明白，但D中的them也能指代tourists我就晕了~~ ...

同晕！！！为什么D中them也refer to tourists？？求大神么解释一下 啊。。。。。。。。

ninalee89

hfwang 发表于 2013-7-4 20:08
beats me.
我这题当时就做错了
还得研究研究

从别人的帖子里看到的，代词可指代介词宾语

I'm not sure where you heard the idea that "pronouns can not refer to objects of preposition" --- that's just false. 100% false. Consider ----

The framers of the US Constitution did not anticipate the challenges it would face in a post-industrial world.

The novels of James Joyce reflect his fascination with both word origins and patterns of verbal association.

Those are two perfectly correct sentences, GMAT SC worthy in every way, in which the pronoun (in bold) clearly refers to an antecedent in a prepositional phrase. And, of course, it happens in OG 13 #7, so the GMAT has absolutely no problem with this grammatical structure.

A related problem --- some pundits say that a pronoun's antecedent can't be in the possessive --- for example,
"James Joyce's novels reflect his fascination ..."
The GMAT seems to reject this structure consistently, so I would say it's safe to call this wrong.