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Possessive pronouns Ah!

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Possessive pronouns Ah!

by KanchanM » Fri Oct 03, 2014 7:42 pm
Hi Guys,

Need help I am quite confused with possessives.
In the below eg. the 1st one as it is i.e. "she thought of writing a sequel" wrong but the 2nd one is right with "her bank balance" and I do not understand why. Have read up a lot but not been convincing enough for me

1. Jane's first novel was so well received that she thought of writing its sequel.
Correct: Jane's first novel was so well received that JANE thought of writing its sequel.
2. Jane's first novel was so well received that HER bank balance soared.

Please help

Thanks in Advance
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by Matt@VeritasPrep » Sat Oct 04, 2014 11:00 am
Kanchan, I agree with you: both sentences are equally fine. Unfortunately, however, my opinion is irrelevant to the testwriters, and these two sentences are a great example of the inanity to which the GMAC has reduced us.

The testwriters would say that the first sentence is NOT OK because we don't have a "she" in the sentence: Jane is only present as part of the phrase "Jane's first novel", which is a book, not a person. Personally I disagree (Jane is implied in the possessive), but my opinion won't help you on the GMAT!

The second sentence is presumably fine because we have a possessive ("Jane's first novel") and another possessive ("her") ... but I still think it's questionable because we don't have a woman in the sentence to whom to refer, only a novel. (What's the source stating this is GMAC-approved?)
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