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by Maverick_1 » Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:39 pm
lunarpower,

In answer choice D, what does "they" refer to ?

Is this question wrong ?
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by lunarpower » Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:33 am
^^ to the post above me

in that post, "it" refers to "rural migrant workers".

i can see what you're saying: yes, the pronoun is technically ambiguous. we are considering this problem for review.

HOWEVER,
it's important for you to realize that THE GMAT TOLERATES A CERTAIN DEGREE OF AMBIGUITY IN PRONOUNS.

there are only two ABSOLUTE RULES of pronouns:
* pronouns MUST match their intended antecedents in terms of SINGULAR / PLURAL (NO exceptions);
and
* pronouns MUST have an antecedent that is actually THERE in the sentence. (only one exception --> the idiomatic construction "it is ADJ that...", as in "it is unbelievable that he showed up early")

pronoun unambiguity, on the other hand, is a rule that is followed at best tenuously by the gmat people. therefore, you should only eliminate on pronoun ambiguity after you've taken care of other problems, unless the ambiguity is so fatal that you literally can't tell what the sentence is supposed to say.
for instance, if the sentence said "james talked with jim about his progress at work", then you can safely eliminate that one - because it's IMPOSSIBLE to tell to whom "his" refers.
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by lunarpower » Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:35 am
in any case, though:

this is a problem on which exactly the same pronoun-ambiguity problem is present in ALL the answer choices.

therefore, you simply don't have to worry about it.

and yes, the official problems do the same thing!
see problem #19 in the purple OG verbal supplement for an example.
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Re: why C is wrong, Stacey, pls, help

by goelmohit2002 » Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:55 am
lunarpower wrote:
duongthang wrote:pls, explain why C is wrong
the only thing that's actually wrong with (c) is that it contains "the problems that migrant workers face", a construction that is considered inferior, in formal writing, to "the problems faced by migrant workers".

in general, "the X that Y VERB" isn't as goot as "the X VERBed by Y".

--

we are going to improve this problem soon, though (it's one of ours). it is very, very unlikely that such a subtle difference would be the only determinant of an incorrect answer choice (as it is here).
Hi Ron,

Shouldn't D follow the action doer...there is no action doer in D...and the modifier looks to be noun modifier modifying the noun.....

Please tell what I am missing here ?
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Re: why C is wrong, Stacey, pls, help

by lunarpower » Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:50 am
goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi Ron,

Shouldn't D follow the action doer...there is no action doer in D...and the modifier looks to be noun modifier modifying the noun.....

Please tell what I am missing here ?
i'm sorry, i don't follow your question. could you please ask it again, but in more specific terms?

like, please specify which modifiers, verbs, etc. you're talking about.

thanks
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete chiedere domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi

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Re: why C is wrong, Stacey, pls, help

by goelmohit2002 » Tue Aug 11, 2009 6:25 am
lunarpower wrote:
goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi Ron,

Shouldn't D follow the action doer...there is no action doer in D...and the modifier looks to be noun modifier modifying the noun.....

Please tell what I am missing here ?
i'm sorry, i don't follow your question. could you please ask it again, but in more specific terms?

like, please specify which modifiers, verbs, etc. you're talking about.

thanks
Hi Ron,

"In an assessment of the problems faced by rural migrant workers"....this opening modifier shouldn't it follow the action doer ? There is no action doer like officer etc. here......

Can you please tell what I am missing here ?

Thanks
Mohit
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