Sentence Correction

The Industrial Revolution, making it possible to mass-produce manufactured goods, was marked
by their use of new machines, new energy sources, and new basic materials.

A. making it possible to mass-produce manufactured goods, was marked by their use of
B. making possible the mass production of manufactured goods, marked by the use of
C. which made it possible that manufactured goods were mass-produced, was marked by their using
D. which made possible the mass production of manufactured goods, was marked by the use of
E. which made the mass production of manufactured goods possible and was marked by using

D

I got the answer right.
Just had a doubt,I always face a problem with pronoun and its antecedent. Actually its the only place where I make mistake in SC section.

Like here I think 'their' is pointing out to 'manufactured goods' or 'is it a collective noun'?
Also, if a noun is present in a non-essential clause like in this sentence then can 'a pronoun in an essential clause point to it' or 'can it only point to a noun in an essential clause'?

Asking a question like this seems silly but I always fail in pronoun-antecedent errors.

My Gmat exam is scheduled on 23rd November. Any advice from any of the experts on CR's weaken and strengthen section I have problems handling them too.

Hi Akash.

In order to correctly match pronouns with their antecedents you have to consider the meaning of the sentence. In other words, what determines which noun is the antecedent of a pronoun goes beyond gender and number matches. There has to be a logical connection between the noun and the pronoun.

For instance, in the sentence version using choice A, while their is plural and manufactured goods is also plural, the idea that manufactured goods were using new machines does not make sense. So via considering the meaning that would be conveyed were their referring to manufactured goods, you can tell that manufactured goods is not a logical antecedent of their and that therefore their does not have a logical antecedent.

A. It - okay, stands for "to mass-produce manufactured goods", Verbing Noun Modifer sound bit awkward but not an elimination criteria; Their - no antecedent
B.No verb;
C. Their; it - okay, expletive usage
D. All good
E. No verb and faulty parallelism.

Any expert advice on this question?

It is important that the sentences makes sense with the antecedent-pronoun pair.
A simple trick to check if the pronoun is correctly used is by putting the antecedent in place of the pronoun.

Let's try this in the question. Replace 'their' with 'manufactured goods'.

The Industrial Revolution, making it possible to mass-produce manufactured goods, was marked by manufactured goods use of new machines, new energy sources, and new basic materials.

The sentence makes no sense. That is why the pronoun-antecedent combination is incorrect.

Hope this post helps.