One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was

rakeshd347 wrote:One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

A) their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their
B) their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their
C) to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her
D) to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their
E) appreciating that as people dehydrate, their

Source: Kaplan test

See the link to this thread, and my comment on this problem:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/ordeal-t112712.html

Mike

Hi rakeshd347,

This SC has a problem with its "style" and "intent" that Official GMAT SCs won't have.

There are two concrete rules though:

1) The word "family" is a singular noun (similar to "group" or "team"), so the pronoun would NOT be "their." Eliminate A and B.
2) The noun "minds", after the underlined portion of the sentence, is plural, so we need a plural noun. Eliminate C.

At this point, we have some intent/style issues. Stylistically, I *think* that the phrase "to appreciate" *sounds better* than "appreciating", but the word "when" is supposed to be for an event that takes place at a specific TIME. The idea that a person dehydrates at a specific "time" is an odd concept. In that same vein, the verb "appreciating" implies that the family might appreciate the effects of dehydration at more than one point in time (the appreciation took place in the past, could take place right now and could take place in the future).

An argument could be made for either D or E. These sorts of situations are remarkably rare on the GMAT, so don't put too much energy into this one SC. In the event that this were to happen on a GMAT question, the question would likely be "experimental" (and not count) or be retroactively removed (and your score adjusted accordingly).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

rakeshd347 wrote:Thanks rich and mike,

However the correct answer is B.
This is a kaplan test question and they have justified their answer by saying that family is singular but every member of family is participating then it can take plural pronoun. So the OA is B

Dear Rakeshd347,
I hate to say it, my friend, but that particular piece of advice is pure poison. If you follow this logic for pronoun use with collective nouns, you will get one pronoun problem after another wrong on the GMAT SC. The GMAT loves to test singular/plural pronouns against singular collective nouns with multiple members. You will NEVER see a question on the real GMAT in which this "every member is participating" logic justifies use of the plural pronoun.
Mike