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Pronoun question in question # 13 (1000 SC)

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by isisalaska » Tue Dec 12, 2006 2:07 pm
A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.
(A) that they will, or could,
(B) that they would, or could,
(C) they will be or could
(D) think that they will be or could
(E) think the power stations would or could

Is it not “they” vague,. They could refer to international journalists or to nuclear power stations… :?
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Re: Pronoun question in question # 13 (1000 SC)

by 800guy » Fri Dec 15, 2006 9:28 am
isisalaska wrote:A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.
(A) that they will, or could,
(B) that they would, or could,
(C) they will be or could
(D) think that they will be or could
(E) think the power stations would or could

Is it not “they” vague,. They could refer to international journalists or to nuclear power stations… :?
agree that "they" sounds kinda vague..

however, if they is correct maybe it's becuase "majority" refers to "journalists," and the pronoun "they" would thus only refer to "power stations"
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by prachipareekh » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:19 am
Ans must be D - best out of given 5 options

According to my analysis -- They in D --- is not ambiguous....

A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but a majority of the international journalists surveyed think that they will be (made - ellipsed) or could be made sufficiently safe in the future.

Subject (in orange) + verb (in green) + object (in blue) ... but ....subject (in orange ellipsed) + verb (think - in green) + object .

Hope it is clear now ---

E - incorrect - violates parallelism....would must be followed by BE
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by zura » Mon May 26, 2008 3:54 pm
majoity is a singular so they refers to power stations . its d
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by wawatan » Mon May 26, 2008 4:07 pm
the answer is E. "they" is ambiguous.
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by medea66 » Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:36 am
Also, D is parallel....."would be and could be"
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by perfectstranger » Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:30 pm
Could someone provide explanation and OA?
Please do not post answers visibly . Please hide them or post them later after the discussion.
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explain explain

by navdeepbajwa » Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:18 pm
The answer is D

Can anyone please explain why they in "D" is not ambigous how can we say for sure it is referring to journalists and not power stations
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by gman.gowri » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:09 pm
navdeepbajwa wrote:The answer is D

Can anyone please explain why they in "D" is not ambigous how can we say for sure it is referring to journalists and not power stations
OA is /d but i am convinced it is E
1)they is ambigous
2)if would becomes will, could should become can
3)Moreover, majority of scientists SURVEYED(in the past)...then referring to a future action (from the past) should ideally be would or could (please tell me if there is any discrepancy in this logic)
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by winner's attitude » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:17 am
can eexperts intervene.. this is a good question
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by theforrestgump » Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:54 pm
I agree with the "They" being ambiguous, E is wrong because it clubs present tense with a would...you can only club a past with a would..present needs to go with will..
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by Ahmed Mukit » Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:46 am
The best answer is D. The reason may be the fact that if we have a closer look, we may see the main verb of this sentence is 'View' and its in the present form. Therefore, we can not use "would/could" here which represents past tone. Although 'they'seems unusual, but having no other alternatives, we have to choose 'D' as the correct answer.
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by way2ashish » Thu Jan 03, 2013 8:06 am
A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.

a that they will, or could,

b that they would, or could,

c they will be or could

Correct Option:- think that they will be or could
Because : A majority of the international journalists surveyed view.......but think........
Hence introduction of think indicates parallelism which is absent in a,b,c.
Secondly we chose d and not e bcoz d is more closer to the original sentence

e think the power stations would or could
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