OG Ques

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greatchap: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 38; Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 12:23 am; Location: India; Thanked: 1 times

by greatchap » Sun Sep 05, 2010 3:03 am

Hi Guys,

The following SC Ques confuses me :

While depressed property values can hurt some large investors, they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose equity - in many cases representing a life's savings - can plunge or even disappear.

A. they are potentially devastating for homeowners, whose
B. they can potentially devastate homeowners in that their
C. for homeowners they are potentially devastating, because their
D. for homeowners, it is potentially devastating in that their
E. it can potentially devastate homeowners, whose

OA IS A

How can I confirm that they is pointing to prop value? How to check pronoun is pointing to which noun.

Help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
GR

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Sep 05, 2010 3:03 am

karanrulz4ever: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 358; Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:47 amFollowed by: 4 members; Location: Mumbai; Thanked: 34 times; GMAT Score:740

by karanrulz4ever » Sun Sep 05, 2010 3:09 am

'depressed property values' is plural. So D and E are ruled out. In B and C, 'their' is ambiguous and can refer either to homeowners or to depressed property values. In A,'they' clearly refers to 'depressed property values' and also uses the proper pronoun 'whose'.

Hence A

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scorpionz: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 98; Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:760

by scorpionz » Sun Sep 05, 2010 5:20 am

karanrulz4ever wrote:'depressed property values' is plural. So D and E are ruled out. In B and C, 'their' is ambiguous and can refer either to homeowners or to depressed property values. In A,'they' clearly refers to 'depressed property values' and also uses the proper pronoun 'whose'.

Hence A

Wrong.. "they" in option A does not clearly refer to "depressed property values", "they" logically refers to "depressed property values". Grammatically "they" is ambiguous because it could refer back to "depressed property values" or "investors"..

@greatchap

I was stuck up on this question while going thru OG but finally selected A for lack of a better option...

Guess this is one of the not-so-good questions..

Cheers!!

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Sun Sep 05, 2010 5:53 am

scorpionz wrote:
karanrulz4ever wrote:'depressed property values' is plural. So D and E are ruled out. In B and C, 'their' is ambiguous and can refer either to homeowners or to depressed property values. In A,'they' clearly refers to 'depressed property values' and also uses the proper pronoun 'whose'.

Hence A
Wrong.. "they" in option A does not clearly refer to "depressed property values", "they" logically refers to "depressed property values". Grammatically "they" is ambiguous because it could refer back to "depressed property values" or "investors"..

@greatchap

I was stuck up on this question while going thru OG but finally selected A for lack of a better option...

Guess this is one of the not-so-good questions..

Cheers!!

Actually, here they grammatically also refers to depressed property values because of presence of a subordinate clause before it.

In a construction like this -->
Subordinating conjunction + subject +verb + object, pronoun(subject) + verb +object.

Pronoun in the main clause will generally refer to the subject of the subordinate clause.
E.g. Even though Tarkan has outperformed Orhan, he still has a long way to go.

scio me nihil scire

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:15 am

niksworth wrote:

Actually, here they grammatically also refers to depressed property values because of presence of a subordinate clause before it.

In a construction like this -->
Subordinating conjunction + subject +verb + object, pronoun(subject) + verb +object.

Pronoun in the main clause will generally refer to the subject of the subordinate clause.
E.g. Even though Tarkan has outperformed Orhan, he still has a long way to go.

In fact, for clarity, you would expect the pronoun's antecedent to be repeated in any case where it did NOT refer to the subject of the subordinate clause ("Even though Tarkan has only slightly outperformed Orhan, Orhan still has a long way to go").

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scorpionz: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 98; Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:00 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 7 times; GMAT Score:760

by scorpionz » Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:37 am

homullus wrote:
niksworth wrote:

Actually, here they grammatically also refers to depressed property values because of presence of a subordinate clause before it.

In a construction like this -->
Subordinating conjunction + subject +verb + object, pronoun(subject) + verb +object.

Pronoun in the main clause will generally refer to the subject of the subordinate clause.
E.g. Even though Tarkan has outperformed Orhan, he still has a long way to go.
In fact, for clarity, you would expect the pronoun's antecedent to be repeated in any case where it did NOT refer to the subject of the subordinate clause ("Even though Tarkan has only slightly outperformed Orhan, Orhan still has a long way to go").

@homullus

Not sure I fully understood you... Can you please elaborate with some examples?

Thanks!!

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greatchap: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 38; Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 12:23 am; Location: India; Thanked: 1 times

by greatchap » Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:44 am

scorpionz wrote:
karanrulz4ever wrote:'depressed property values' is plural. So D and E are ruled out. In B and C, 'their' is ambiguous and can refer either to homeowners or to depressed property values. In A,'they' clearly refers to 'depressed property values' and also uses the proper pronoun 'whose'.

Hence A
Wrong.. "they" in option A does not clearly refer to "depressed property values", "they" logically refers to "depressed property values". Grammatically "they" is ambiguous because it could refer back to "depressed property values" or "investors"..

@greatchap

I was stuck up on this question while going thru OG but finally selected A for lack of a better option...

Guess this is one of the not-so-good questions..

Cheers!!

I guess you are right. Ques is kinda dicey.

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