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Pronoun reference issue

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Pronoun reference issue

by vaibhav.iit2002 » Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:00 am
Hi Guys,

Pronoun reference rule-
As I know we need to look for 2 things:
a. noun should be present in sentence for which pronoun is used.
b. pronoun should refer to exactly one noun unambiguously.

Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 m yrs old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Islands.

Here use of 'it' is ambiguous or not?
Source - OG
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by vaibhav.iit2002 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:38 am
Experts, plz reply.
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by crackgmat007 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:00 pm
Not an expert, but I will try:

Step 1: Check what is IT referring to? It appears that it need to refer 'sloth'. But 'sloth' is not an eligible antecedent (someone, clarify if I am wrong). The other possible antecedent is 'fossils'. Lets move to next step.

Step 2: Check the number agreement. 'fossils' is plural & IT is singular. I would not think further to move to next choice.

HTH
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by vaibhav.iit2002 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 6:28 pm
crackgmat007 wrote:Not an expert, but I will try:

Step 1: Check what is IT referring to? It appears that it need to refer 'sloth'. But 'sloth' is not an eligible antecedent (someone, clarify if I am wrong). The other possible antecedent is 'fossils'. Lets move to next step.

Step 2: Check the number agreement. 'fossils' is plural & IT is singular. I would not think further to move to next choice.

HTH
Why sloth is not eligible antecedent?
Actually OG says as sloth is used as the object, 'it' cannot refer to sloth. I have never seen any rule that while looking for referent of pronoun we should look for noun as subject/object as well.

Plz clarify and give some relevant example if possible.
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by crackgmat007 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:53 pm
vaibhav.iit2002 wrote:
crackgmat007 wrote:Not an expert, but I will try:

Step 1: Check what is IT referring to? It appears that it need to refer 'sloth'. But 'sloth' is not an eligible antecedent (someone, clarify if I am wrong). The other possible antecedent is 'fossils'. Lets move to next step.

Step 2: Check the number agreement. 'fossils' is plural & IT is singular. I would not think further to move to next choice.

HTH
Why sloth is not eligible antecedent?
Actually OG says as sloth is used as the object, 'it' cannot refer to sloth. I have never seen any rule that while looking for referent of pronoun we should look for noun as subject/object as well.

Plz clarify and give some relevant example if possible.
Neither me. But in looking at various questions & explanations, it appears to me as a general rule. But I am waiting to hear from experts on this Forum.

But if OG states so, the rule may be correct - not sure. Can you give me the question # pls?

https://www.beatthegmat.com/antecedent-p ... 46516.html
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by vaibhav.iit2002 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:13 pm
crackgmat007 wrote: Neither me. But in looking at various questions & explanations, it appears to me as a general rule. But I am waiting to hear from experts on this Forum.

But if OG states so, the rule may be correct - not sure. Can you give me the question # pls?

https://www.beatthegmat.com/antecedent-p ... 46516.html
Dood its problem 78 of OG12. I got it. Actually its object of preposition and therefore sloth cannot be used as antecedent.

This also answers ur problem in this post:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/antecedent-p ... tml#197456

I hope we are clear now. :)
What say?
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by crackgmat007 » Sun Oct 18, 2009 8:31 pm
I knew 'sloth' is the object of the prep. But I was not sure whether I can consider this a rule to eliminate choices.

I guess we both are on the same page :D Not sure if we both are correct.

Anyways, thanks for the details.
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by vaibhav.iit2002 » Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:38 am
crackgmat007 wrote:I knew 'sloth' is the object of the prep. But I was not sure whether I can consider this a rule to eliminate choices.

I guess we both are on the same page :D Not sure if we both are correct.

Anyways, thanks for the details.
I think we can safely eliminate such options as this rule is explicitly mentioned in explanation of this problem in OG. This is the prime reason OG removes this option through POE.
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by crackgmat007 » Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:26 pm
Perfect. Tx mate.
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