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By a unanimous vote

by kvcpk » Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:07 pm
By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

[spoiler]
My query is "it" is ambiguous in the main sentence or not? I felt that it can refer to school board or city council. Please explain.[/spoiler]
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by shashank.ism » Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:39 pm
kvcpk wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

[spoiler]
My query is "it" is ambiguous in the main sentence or not? I felt that it can refer to school board or city council. Please explain.[/spoiler]

Use of "it"may be ambiguous here as it may refer to school board or city council..

so Ans C is correct I think...
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by clock60 » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:48 am
i will vote for A

i very hope that board is singular with singular antecedent -it,
so D an E are out
B and C slightly distort the meaning of original version
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by shashank.ism » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:59 am
How does B & C change the meaning of original version..
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by paes » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:02 am
IMO C

A) 'it' is not ambiguous here


By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board ... --> here 'school board' is object

allowing it to make spending decisions --> here 'it' is also an object

So no issue of ambiguity.

But still I will prefer C over A

A : spending decisions
C : 'decisions of spending' looks better

Please post the OA and Source.
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:44 am
OA is A. Source is Grockit.
I am still not clear on why "it" is not ambiguous in option A.

Can you please restate.
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by paes » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:58 am
kvcpk wrote:OA is A. Source is Grockit.
I am still not clear on why "it" is not ambiguous in option A.

Can you please restate.
let me try again.

consider following 2 sentences :

The board granted the committee autonomy allowing it to take its own decision.

The board said the committee that it will take more time to take any decision.

In both the sentence :
board : subject
committee : object

In 1st sentence : 'it' is an object , so will refer to object (committee)
In second sentence : 'it' is an subject, so will refer to subject (board).

kvcp,

Can you write me the OA explanation for C to be incorrect.
Because I am not seeing any problem with C.
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 3:15 am
Hi Paes,

I do not know why the answers are wrong. I have only the OA. I felt "autonomy for" is wrong and so eliminated B and C. I am not sure though.

Coming to the "it" query.. I have one more doubt.
If I understood correctly,
you are saying that "it' in this question is a object pronoun and thus should refer to the object "school board".
Am I right?


I read that object pronouns can only be objects of verbs or prepositions.
What is the verb or preposition in this case that is making "it" object pronoun?

Thanks for your help!!
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by adi_800 » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:07 am
Aha...
I can explain this one... I got it wrong but then realized what mistake I made. :)
It can refer only to school board and nothing else.
If you wanna refer it to city council then you should be using itself and not it.
Manhattan sc guide does have this mentioned in which the book says a sentence such as the one under consideration will be less ambiguous because it can not refer to the subject. To refer to subject, you should be using itself.
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:10 am
adi_800 wrote:Aha...
I can explain this one... I got it wrong but then realized what mistake I made. :)
It can refer only to school board and nothing else.
If you wanna refer it to city council then you should be using itself and not it.
Manhattan sc guide does have this mentioned in which the book says a sentence such as the one under consideration will be less ambiguous because it can not refer to the subject. To refer to subject, you should be using itself.
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by SaraiGMAXonline » Sat Jul 17, 2010 4:27 am
kvcpk wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

[spoiler]
My query is "it" is ambiguous in the main sentence or not? I felt that it can refer to school board or city council. Please explain.[/spoiler]
Hi Guys,

Pronoun ambiguity confuses a lot of people!

Note: Pronoun ambiguity arises when there is more than one logical referent for a pronoun, causing the sentence to have two different possible, logical meanings.

Ex. Computer A is next to computer B, and it is broken.

In this sentence both computers are logical referents for "it". When you are presented with an ambiguous pronoun you will have trouble understanding what your sentence is saying. A correct answer will be a version of the sentence that is easier for you to understand because it is clearer.

Now let's look at A again:

...the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy, [NOTE: there would have been a comma here if this were a real GMAT question] allowing it [the school board] to make spending decisions...

Logically, the city council cannot grant the school board autonomy, allowing the city council to make decisions.

Let me know if that was confusing!

(More on Pronouns in SC Lesson 3 at gmaxonline.com! Mention my name when you register and received a 10% discount on any online lessons!)

Best,
Sarai
Sarai
GMAT Verbal Instructor at GMAX
Visit me at www.theverbalcorner.com

If this helped, kindly thank! :wink:

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by Haaress » Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:40 pm
By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

"It" can only refer to the school board because the last part of the sentence refers to the "council".
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by reply2spg » Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:07 am
Can someone please help me on this. How come granted and allowing is ok in A? isn't it shows redundancy? Council has already granted then how come allowing is correct here?
kvcpk wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

[spoiler]
My query is "it" is ambiguous in the main sentence or not? I felt that it can refer to school board or city council. Please explain.[/spoiler]
Sudhanshu
(have lot of things to learn from all of you)
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by nikhilkatira » Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:49 am
Haaress wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

"It" can only refer to the school board because the last part of the sentence refers to the "council".
Point to be noted.
Best,
Nikhil H. Katira
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by pnk » Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:23 am
kvcpk wrote:By a unanimous vote, the city council granted the school board considerable autonomy allowing it to make spending decisions without seeking council approval.

A.allowing it to make spending decisions
B. for it to make spending decisions
C. for making decisions of spending
D. that enable them to make decisions for spending
E. that they can make spending decisions

[spoiler]
My query is "it" is ambiguous in the main sentence or not? I felt that it can refer to school board or city council. Please explain.[/spoiler]
granted...does it require 'allow'!! I think usage of 'allowing' is redundant as granted communicates the same. Not convinced with OA. IMO B - can some expert help pls
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