Church's attraction

realizedream wrote:Constructed with the finest Italian marble, the floor of the church is its greatest attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.
(A) attraction and is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
(B) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
(C) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists as are its ornate stained-glass windows
(D) attraction, being more attractive to tourists than its ornate stained-glass windows are
(E) attraction as it more is attractive to tourists than are the church's stained- glass windows

Source: Kap 800
[spoiler]Doubt: Isn't 'it' referring to the floor, then how come 'its' refer to church?
OA: B[/spoiler]

This is really confusing, pronoun ambiguity, i discuss this concept with many and everyone held different views...

For me, Op A looks good..

the floor of the church is its greatest attraction..
and
the floor is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows.

The pronoun ITS logically can refer to ONLY CHURCH...NOT FLOOR...saying that, FLOOR'S ORNATE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS IS NONSENSICAL.

In Sum, the meaning of the sentence is clear and there is no ambiguity.

Consider this ex: Made up

John told his friend that he had won the election.

Here, pronoun HE is ambiguous, as HE can logically refer to both John and Friend so its not clear who had won the election.

But in the given question, ITS is clear, so why not Op A....?????

Agree with Atul as I have arrived on A too.

However, I eliminated B and C because I felt 'itself' to be awkwardly placed.
D eliminated due to being and E seems wordy.

So, left with A.

Can someone comment on my reasoning for elimination of B and C?

I am NOT a big fan of this question, and it has been discussed elsewhere (https://www.beatthegmat.com/constructed- ... 80374.html), but it's worth discussing since I think it comes down to comparisons and parallelism, rather than any pronoun ambiguity.

We have the idiom "more...than" here, which helps elim. (C).
(D) is out because of "being" and "are", while (E) also has "are" ruining the comparison.

When it comes down to (A) and (B), we do not need the "are" in (A). The comparison would be parallel and clear if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS."

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

You're correct that "its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows (at least not any church I've seen )

VivianKerr wrote:I am NOT a big fan of this question, and it has been discussed elsewhere (https://www.beatthegmat.com/constructed- ... 80374.html), but it's worth discussing since I think it comes down to comparisons and parallelism, rather than any pronoun ambiguity.

We have the idiom "more...than" here, which helps elim. (C).
(D) is out because of "being" and "are", while (E) also has "are" ruining the comparison.

When it comes down to (A) and (B), we do not need the "are" in (A). The comparison would be parallel and clear if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS."

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

You're correct that "its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows (at least not any church I've seen )

Hi Vivian,

I have a doubt in this question regarding "itself" in option B.......don't you feel that this "itself" is ambiguous and can refer to either floor or to church.............though I agree that "its" refers to church..............

Good question. No, I don't think "itself" is ambiguous here since "itself" logically refers back to the noun immediately preceding it. "Herself", "himself" and "itself" are typically used to emphasize that preceding noun.

She, herself, did not know the answer.

On graduation day the orator's speech was itself exceptionally long.

We'd never think that "itself" refers to "graduation day."

The phrase "of the church" is a prepositional phrase describing the floor. We can almost eliminate it mentally, the way we would an appositive.

"The floor [insert prep. phrase] is [insert description], ITSELF..."

VivianKerr wrote:Good question. No, I don't think "itself" is ambiguous here since "itself" logically refers back to the noun immediately preceding it. "Herself", "himself" and "itself" are typically used to emphasize that preceding noun.

She, herself, did not know the answer.

On graduation day the orator's speech was itself exceptionally long.

We'd never think that "itself" refers to "graduation day."

The phrase "of the church" is a prepositional phrase describing the floor. We can almost eliminate it mentally, the way we would an appositive.

"The floor [insert prep. phrase] is [insert description], ITSELF..."

Hi Vivian Thanks for the Explanataion .

(B) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
In Option B, when "its" windows refers to the churchs windows, how come itself refers to the church's floor.
This is confusing . :>
Also In C
C)It is more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
Here,"are" is a helping verb .
I read that in cases in which the tenses do not need to match , the exact verb form missing after the helping verb should be present elsewhere in the sentence .
He likes movies more than does his sister : Similar sentence . I think this sentence is correct

With all due respect to Vivian and everyone else discussing, I too think option A is the best.
In B, whether itself points to the church, or the floor is unclear from the sentence, and the position of the comma is incorrect too.
The usage of 'are' as done in A is necessary because floor is singular, and windows (is) plural.
I would once more argue that A is the best answer in this case.

VivianKerr wrote:I am NOT a big fan of this question, and it has been discussed elsewhere (https://www.beatthegmat.com/constructed- ... 80374.html), but it's worth discussing since I think it comes down to comparisons and parallelism, rather than any pronoun ambiguity.

We have the idiom "more...than" here, which helps elim. (C).
(D) is out because of "being" and "are", while (E) also has "are" ruining the comparison.

When it comes down to (A) and (B), we do not need the "are" in (A). The comparison would be parallel and clear if we said "The floor...is more attractive...than...THE WINDOWS."

(B) makes the comparison clear by comparing "itself" to "its WINDOWS."

You're correct that "its" can only logically refer to the church, since a floor does not have windows (at least not any church I've seen )

Viv - Agree with you that the question is not good.

(B) attraction, itself more attractive to tourists than are its ornate stained-glass windows
Here the last "its" refers to floors.
So again according to B - We are comparing FLOOR with FLOOR's stained-glass windows that is nonsensical.

Let me know if I am missing anything here.