Sentence Correction

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

(A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels
(B) Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
(C) Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
(D) Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
(E) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

The answer is (E)...but I don't think it's correct. A pronoun replaces nouns, and there is no noun "her" can refer to. "Agatha Christie" is an adjective in this case. This is a MGMAT problem btw...

While "a" isn't grammatically incorrect, it's more of a meaning conflict. Relating to the rest of the sentence, her writing was about the actual places they traveled to.

Choice "a" (to me) just says that the act of traveling inspired her to write. We don't know if it was her husband with her that inspired the writing, the fact that she was traveling, or even what she was actually writing about.

Choice "e" says that the travel is what she wrote about - which ties to the rest of the sentence. This ties the sentence together.

Does that make sense?

[delete message]

JDOE123 wrote:While "a" isn't grammatically incorrect, it's more of a meaning conflict. Relating to the rest of the sentence, her writing was about the actual places they traveled to.

Choice "a" (to me) just says that the act of traveling inspired her to write. We don't know if it was her husband with her that inspired the writing, the fact that she was traveling, or even what she was actually writing about.

Choice "e" says that the travel is what she wrote about - which ties to the rest of the sentence. This ties the sentence together.

Does that make sense?

Well...I didn't think (E) was wrong based on meaning. Rather, I asked if (E) contained a bizarre exception to the rule: (E) is claimed to be the correct answer, but it has a grammar error: the pronoun "her" has no antecedent. Otherwise, to me, it appears choice (E) is wrong: not in favor of any other answer but just in an absolute sense.

In answer E both the words her are possessives and have one antecedent - possessive Agatha Christie's. But the second word her in answer A has no antecedent becase "inspired her to write" is an object pronoun, not a possessive one.

Elena392 wrote:In answer E both the words her are possessives and have one antecedent - possessive Agatha Christie's. But the second word her in answer A has no antecedent becase "inspired her to write" is an object pronoun, not a possessive one.

Thanks for your message; I was mistaken. Re-looked up my pronoun rules in Manhattan Guide, and possessive nouns can serve as antecedents, but only to possessive pronouns.

"Her" is tricky because it's the same in both object and possessive use.

If you substitute "him" or "his" into the sentence, it quickly becomes clear (A) is incorrect, while (E) is correct.

Let's try an example:

Sharon's bat was given to her by her uncle.

-->This is INCORRECT because although the second "her" can correctly refer to "Sharon's", the first "her" can not.

Sharon's bat was given to Sharon's by Sharon's uncle.
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Sharon's bat is in her locker.

-->THIS is CORRECT

Sharon's bat is in Sharon's locker.