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Desperately need a PERSUADING answer

Expert replies
by bettylll » Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:11 pm
I am TOTALLY confused on the pronoun question in the SC section. Sometimes, a pronoun is wrongly used because it can cause ambiguity.At other times, however, the official answers seemingly tell me that we shouldn't consider about the issue. Here is one from the PREP:


The budget for education reflects the administration's demand that the money is controlled by local
school districts, but it can only be spent on teachers, not on books, computers, or other materials or
activities.

(A) the money is controlled by local school districts, but it can only be spent
(B) the money be controlled by local school districts, but it allows them to spend the money only
(C) the money is to be controlled by local school districts, but allowing it only to be spent
(D) local school districts are in control of the money, but it allows them to spend the money only
(E) local school districts are to be in control of the money, but can only spend it

The correct answer is B, but isn't it possible that "it" can refer to whichever singular words like "the budget", "demand","the money"? PLEASE help me.
Also, I REALLY want to know in GMAT whether a pronoun refers to the closest noun or what. Does GMAT test have a rule in such pronoun questions? Thank you in advance~
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by e-GMAT » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:15 pm
Hi Bettylll,

You are correct that this topic can be confusing. Please review the provided link for detailed treatment on pronoun ambiguity errors in GMAT.

As far as this sentence is concerned, the pronoun "it" is placed in subject position of clause "but it allows..." and hence it refers to the noun at subject of the parallel clause "the budget for education reflects..." . This reference makes complete sense.

Payal
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by bettylll » Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:56 am
Thank you. I've read the thread and found the strategy very useful. I know there are much more obvious errors in other four choices and we can easily choose the right one without considering about the pronoun ambiguity problem here. But what I'd like to ask is that shouldn't the "it" here refer to "the money"? Can "budget" be spent?
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by e-GMAT » Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:16 am
If you observe carefully in choice B (correct), the construction is "it allows", where "it" correctly refers to "budget" and hence it makes sense to say that "the budget allows...".

Now reading your question, I feel you are asking whether we can reject choice A on the basis of pronoun error - "it" refers to budget, thus choice A does not make sense since we should say that money can be spent.

Your analysis is correct. Although as you have stated, there are more obvious errors in these choices than the pronoun ambiguity error.
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