Sentence Correction

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels
B. Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
C. Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
D. Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
E. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

IMO A

Its between A and E. Her can refer to Agatha as possesive pronoun.
I will reject E due to wordiness.

A. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

B. Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels .. used her is awkward .. She didn't used the travels

C. Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels .. S-V error

D. Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels .. S-V Error

E. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

I agree with Madhur . Original sentence has used inspired but in Option E it is changed to “ served as inspiration” More wordy.


But I have one more doubt in option a. In MGMAT SC book there is an example about possessive nouns.

Incorrect : Jose’s room is so messy that his mother calls him a pig.
Correct : Jose’s room is so messy that his mother calls Jose a pig.

Similar situation is here :


Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels.

Hence it should be Agatha instead of her then only this sentence will be correct.

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired Agatha to write several mystery novels.


Although out of given choices option A is best.


Correct me if I misunderstood something.

IMO E

Replace 'her' by Agatha Christie's

A.
Agatha Christie's travels with Agatha Christie's archaeologist husband inspired Agatha Christie's to write several mystery novels

E.
Agatha Christie's travels with Agatha Christie's archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of Agatha Christie's mystery novels

Option A has a pronoun agreement error. Subject and object pronouns cannot
refer back to possessive nouns; they must refer only to subject and object nouns. The
subject in this sentence is "Agatha Christie's travels," not Agatha Christie herself. The
first instance of "her" is correct because this pronoun is used as a possessive: "her
[Agatha Christie's] archaeologist husband." However, the second instance of "her," an
object pronoun, is incorrect: "inspired her [Agatha Christie, who is not an object in
this sentence] to write..."

IMO E.. we can use possesive pronouns for the possessive nouns but we cannot use it for the object noun... in A first "her" is possessive pronoun but the second one is object pronoun..
in E both "her" are possessive nouns..

OA is "E"

thnx people. The first explanation by rahul mehra is a good technique. thank u.

ketkoag wrote:IMO E.. we can use possesive pronouns for the possessive nouns but we cannot use it for the object noun... in A first "her" is possessive pronoun but the second one is object pronoun..
in E both "her" are possessive nouns..

How do we deduce this ? Which one is possessive and which one is object ?

Still not clear on the possessive pronoun part..