Pronoun problem

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vaibhav.iit2002: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 295; Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:07 am; Thanked: 4 times; GMAT Score:690

by vaibhav.iit2002 » Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:38 pm

In Kaplan it is mentioned in an example that

"Dreading another trip to the cat clinic, she persuaded her veterinarian to treat her cat at her home, ....."

is incorrect as sentence doesn't tell who "she" is.

I don't buy this point as if there are more than 2 girls in ques. and referent of she isn't clear, it is fine but is it necessary to include a noun before using a pronoun? I mean it might be the case that any preceding sentence[which isn't included here] have already used noun.

Please help !!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:38 pm

rsadana1: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 119; Joined: Sat Jan 24, 2009 3:52 pmFollowed by: 9 members; Thanked: 16 times

by rsadana1 » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:09 am

You are correct in your analysis. In a passage this sentence may be correct if "she" has a clear antecedent in the previous sentence. However, in simplistic terms, since in GMAT SC, the focus is on one sentence only, this will be considered incorrect.

Having said that, I should also state that typically GMAT sentences clearly state the name of "she" so that there is no ambiguity on this front. So the same sentence may be written as follows:

"Dreading another trip to the cat clinic, Maria persuaded her veterinarian to treat her cat at her home, ..."

And you may then question if all 3 occurrences of her have clear antecedent.

Hope that helps.

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KapTeacherEli: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 578; Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:00 pmFollowed by: 62 members; Thanked: 136 times

by KapTeacherEli » Thu Oct 01, 2009 10:59 pm

rsadana more or less summed it up. A lot of the GMAT does require common sense, but sometimes common sense will get you in trouble--in ordinary conversation, you'd certainly be able to figure out who "she" was, but in the isolated context of this SC problem, "she" could be Maria, or Daniella, or Samantha, or....

Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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vaibhav.iit2002: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 295; Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:07 am; Thanked: 4 times; GMAT Score:690

by vaibhav.iit2002 » Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:04 pm

KapTeacherEli wrote:rsadana more or less summed it up. A lot of the GMAT does require common sense, but sometimes common sense will get you in trouble--in ordinary conversation, you'd certainly be able to figure out who "she" was, but in the isolated context of this SC problem, "she" could be Maria, or Daniella, or Samantha, or....

Thanks a lot KapTeacherEli and rsadana1

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