gmat740 wrote:In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for the unlawful seizure of their ancestral lands in the eighteenth century.

(A) that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for the unlawful seizure of
(B) that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians because of their
unlawful seizure of
(C) two upstate New York counties to owe restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for their unlawful seizure of
which one is correct

[spoiler]A or B?[/spoiler]

I will go with A

As court ruled it out it should be like statement. I will prefer 'for' than 'because'

Also in B 'their' will create ambiguity.

what is OA?

I too would say A..

B makes the phrase 'because of their unlawful seizure of their ancestral lands'... where 'their' creates ambiguity

gmat740 wrote:In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for the unlawful seizure of their ancestral lands in the eighteenth century.

(A) that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for the unlawful seizure of
(B) that two upstate New York counties owed restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians because of their
unlawful seizure of
(C) two upstate New York counties to owe restitution to three tribes of Oneida Indians for their unlawful seizure of
which one is correct

[spoiler]A or B?[/spoiler]

A you have to first identify 2 things. Who did it and who was affected. so, you should know meaning of Idiom "owed restitution " this makes it clear that counties did it and hence O. Indians were afffected. so, "Their" in underlined part refers to O. Indians. With this logic, A is ok..But why isnt B. Difference is usage of additonal "their" and "because" Additional "their" refers to counties...which is really not required as we know they did it ..so it doesnt add any value. Also, in case of pronouns, if we use a particular pronoun to refer to a particular antecedent, you cannot use the same pronoun to point to other antecedent as it raises ambiguity. so, as their in underlined part refers to O. Indians we cant use the same to refer to counties as B did it to create ambiguity. This is not the only logic there could be many more. let our colleagues come out with some more.

Yep the OA is A

Although I agree that meaning of the sentence clearly indicates that their refers to O.Indians however in the sentence structure it can refer to New York counties as well. In my view their is not explicitly referring to O.Indians.

Request comments on above view.

obviously A is winner

Let me trow some light on B and C if you closely look at b it is almost same as A except the part "because of their unlawful seizure of" their is ambiguous here . See non underlined part their unlawful seizure of . whose land and who sized ambiguous is not it ?

If a pronoun is used in sentence it will be have one antecedent wherever it is used. Also it is better to place modifiers as close to thing which it is modifying .