Sentence Correction

Although the term "psychopath" is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is someone who is
(B) it is a person
(C) they are people who are
(D) it refers to someone who is
(E) it is in reference to people

gmat_perfect wrote:Although the term "psychopath" is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is someone who is
(B) it is a person
(C) they are people who are
(D) it refers to someone who is
(E) it is in reference to people

IMO D

See the non underlined portion of the sentence: Although the term Psychopath....

The term Psychopath is not some one... it is referring to some one..

correct option boils down to D & E

E - not concise and might need who to refer back to people

Choose D

HTH!!!

When you see an underlined pronoun, your first step is always to identify the noun it refers to. In this sentence, the antecedent for it is "the term" not "psychopath." "Psychopath" in this sentence does not refer to an actual person, but rather to the name that we use to describe a person. Thus, A, B, and C are all out because they don't have a clear referent (A "term" cannot be a person). D is preferable to E because it uses the word "refers" instead of "is in reference" and because in E, the singular term "psychopath" illogically refers to multiple "people."

gmat_perfect wrote:Although the term "psychopath" is popularly applied to an especially brutal criminal, in psychology it is someone who is apparently incapable of feeling compassion or the pangs of conscience.

(A) it is someone who is
(B) it is a person
(C) they are people who are
(D) it refers to someone who is
(E) it is in reference to people