Pronoun concept doubt - THAT vs IT - The Beat The GMAT Forum - Expert GMAT Help & MBA Admissions Advice

Pronoun concept doubt - THAT vs IT

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sui generis: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 89; Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:07 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 1 times

by sui generis » Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:43 am

Consider the following statement: "Calcium in milk is of higher quality that IT is in the health supplements".
The pronoun IT will refer to 'calcium in milk'

And in the following statement: Calcium in milk is of higher quality than THAT in the health supplements.
The pronoun THAT refers to 'calcium'

My doubt/question based on the above example is: does the pronoun IT always refers to the entire subject with prepositional clause and the pronoun THAT refers only to the SUBJECTIVE CASE NOUN of the phrase in the context of prepositional phrases ?

Last edited by sui generis on Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:43 am

GmatKiss: Legendary Member; Posts: 2789; Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:19 amFollowed by: 43 members; Location: Chennai, India; Thanked: 206 times; GMAT Score:640

by GmatKiss » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:15 am

Based on this concept we also have an official question. Just citing it for reference here.
In addition to having more protein -than wheat does, the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat, with more of the amino acids essential to
the human diet.

A) the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat
B) rice has protein of higher quality than that in wheat
C) the protein in rice is higher in quality than it is in wheat
D) rice protein is higher in quality than it is in wheat
E) rice has a protein higher in quality than wheat

IMO:B

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sui generis: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 89; Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:07 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 1 times

by sui generis » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:25 am

Based on this concept we also have an official question. Just citing it for reference here.
In addition to having more protein -than wheat does, the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat, with more of the amino acids essential to
the human diet.

A) the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat
B) rice has protein of higher quality than that in wheat
C) the protein in rice is higher in quality than it is in wheat
D) rice protein is higher in quality than it is in wheat
E) rice has a protein higher in quality than wheat

IMO:B

Thanks for the reply. It's indeed the correct answer but then I was not really looking for answer or explanation to this question rather I citied it just as a reference. In fact I have removed it now to avoid confusion/diversion.

What I really want is clarification of the concept that I mentioned above.

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aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 88 times

by aspirant2011 » Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:08 am

sui generis wrote:Consider the following statement: "Calcium in milk is of higher quality that IT is in the health supplements".
The pronoun IT will refer to 'calcium in milk'

And in the following statement: Calcium in milk is of higher quality than THAT in the health supplements.
The pronoun THAT refers to 'calcium'

My doubt/question based on the above example is: does the pronoun IT always refers to the entire subject with prepositional clause and the pronoun THAT refers only to the SUBJECTIVE CASE NOUN of the phrase in the context of prepositional phrases ?

somehow I don't think so that it refers to calcium in milk, I think logically it's refering to Calcium............though that in second sentence is much better

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saketk: Legendary Member; Posts: 608; Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 8 members; Thanked: 37 times

by saketk » Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:57 am

GmatKiss wrote:Based on this concept we also have an official question. Just citing it for reference here.
In addition to having more protein -than wheat does, the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat, with more of the amino acids essential to
the human diet.

A) the protein in rice is higher quality than that in wheat
B) rice has protein of higher quality than that in wheat
C) the protein in rice is higher in quality than it is in wheat
D) rice protein is higher in quality than it is in wheat
E) rice has a protein higher in quality than wheat

IMO:B

Ok, now the part is correctly underlined.
The second thing to note here is that we can eliminate other option by simply looking at the part " protein of higher quality" which is the correct usage.
Saying "a protine" in option E is incorrect here. "Rice protein is higher is also" incorrect. We need "of" here.
IMO B

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