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

I would go with E. B and C are awkward; D is inaccurate; and A doesn't really seem to be that idiomatic, and also makes it sounds as if she wrote only a few mystery novels period. There doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with E--it sounds normal. And that's usually a good sign.

I think it is a OG question. I feel it should be E.

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

B is awkward and does not convey the correct meaning. Here it seems the mystery novels were inspired and not Agatha herself.

C is wordy and awkward.

D is wordy.

A and D are close contenders. In A, the second her in the underlined part is used as an Object Pronoun. However, it has no antecedent. The second her cannot refer to Agathe Christie's. The first her is used as an Possessive Pronoun and it refers to Agathe Christie's.

Hence the correct answer is "E".

Perfect example of "Meaning questions".
Even if one knows no grammar rules, one can still rule out B,C and D (change in meaning)
A is wrong because "her" can't have "Agatha Christie's" as antecedent.
E is fine

saurabhmaloo wrote: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.
"¢ Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery
novels
"¢ Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery
novels
"¢ Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as
inspiration for several of her mystery novels
"¢ Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their
travel into several of her mystery novels
"¢ Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her
mystery novels

Some good discussion here. However, I question the logic that the first her in A) can refer to Agatha Christie but the second cannot. Please point to a documented grammar rule on that issue. Maybe there is such an authoritative rule, but I'm not familiar with it.

The problems IMO with A) are:

1) The sentence sounds as if Christie wrote several mystery novels period, her travels "inspiring" her to write all of them. Typically, though, knowing outside info about an author mentioned in a sentence shouldn't be required.

2) "Serves as inspiration for" is much more idiomatic here. Would one say, "Walden Pond inspired Thoreau to write...."? Probably not. It would be more idiomatic to say, "Walden Pond served as inspiration for one of Thoreau's works."

Some good discussion here. However, I question the logic that the first her in A) can refer to Agatha Christie but the second cannot. Please point to a documented grammar rule on that issue. Maybe there is such an authoritative rule, but I'm not familiar with it.

The problems IMO with A) are:

1) The sentence sounds as if Christie wrote several mystery novels period, her travels "inspiring" her to write all of them. Typically, though, knowing outside info about an author mentioned in a sentence shouldn't be required.

2) "Serves as inspiration for" is much more idiomatic here. Would one say, "Walden Pond inspired Thoreau to write...."? Probably not. It would be more idiomatic to say, "Walden Pond served as inspiration for one of Thoreau's works."

Hi Neptune28. I will try to elaborate my point.

The first her can be substituted by "Agatha Christie's" as "her" in this case is used as a possessive pronoun (Agatha Christie's archaeologist husband). However, the second her is used as a object pronoun which would have been correct to substitute for Agatha Christie and not for Agatha Christie's ("Agatha Christie's to write several mystery novels" is wrong, it should actually be "Agatha Christie to write several mystery novels". However, Agatha Christie never appears in the sentence).

I hope I am clear...

Thanks for your post, gmatpart2. Yes, what you wrote was clear. I had heard the rule of never allowing possessives as antecedents, but not one of selectively allowing them according to part of speech. I did some looking on Google, and there are many dissenting opinions by experts on this matter:

1) New York Public Library Writer's Guide: "Once a noun becomes possessive, it no longer is a noun; it is an adjective and cannot function as an antecedent."

2) Theodore Bernstein: "The rule shall be considered valid whenever it functions to preclude ambiguity. . . . If there is no possibility of ambiguity and observance of the rule would serve only to gratify the strict grammarian's sense of fitness, forget it....[Most people] would understand [the following] sentence and find nothing wrong with it: Immediately upon the President's arrival a crowd broke into cheers for him."

3) Michael Quinion: "If somebody says to you, 'My neighbour's wife left him,' or 'John's mother loves him' (both of which would be outlawed by the rule) you understand the meaning at once. Indeed, you will find it next to impossible to rephrase these sentences elegantly and without repeating yourself."

https://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/ar-pos1.htm

4) The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style: "In our 2004 survey, fully 91 percent of the Usage Panel accepted the uncomplicated sentence...Susan Maxwell's readers adore her. But when the possessive construction was subordinated in a prepositional phrase, in the sentence In Susan Maxwell's new book, she castigates reporters who rehash articles they have seen elsewhere, the acceptability fell to 76 percent--the Panel was still strongly in favor, but less so...."

So, it all comes down to this: What sources do the GMAT test writers consider authoritative?

If we go by 1) above, then Agatha Christie's is an adjective and cannot function as an antecedent period, making all the choices wrong. If we go by 2), 3), and 4), then using a possessive as an antecedent is fine in both cases in choice A), because it's clear who's being referred to.

It seems to boil down mainly to style and educated opinion. Again, we need to know exactly what sources the GMAT is drawing its "rules" from.

However, Agatha Christie never appears in the sentence.

Perhaps you've uncovered another mystery!! Well, let's hope nobody gets murdered in the end.

I think we need a expert opinion here.

Request expert to comment!