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pronoun reference error

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pronoun reference error

by jeevan.Gk » Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:37 am
13.
A majority of the international journalists surveyed view nuclear power stations as unsafe at present but that they will, or could, be made sufficiently safe in the future.
(A) that they will, or could,
(B) that they would, or could,
(C) they will be or could
(D) think that they will be or could
(E) think the power stations would or could

OA is D .. Dont you think correct answer has pronoun reference error . I opted for E .What is wrong in it.
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D

by satish.nagdev » Sat Jan 31, 2009 6:29 am
if you see last part of sentence [be made sufficiently safe in the future] "would" is past tense of "will" here will is needed to correctly refer to future

and regarding pronoun error that you are referring I think its correct in the actual reference "they" refers to power plants instead of journalists.

I hope I'm right if not plz correct me.

Cheers,
Satish.
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by jeevan.Gk » Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:53 pm
y cant "they" refer to journalists.. can someone throw light on this
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by Alara533 » Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:57 pm
jeevan,

There are many threads regarding this particular question!

D definitely has a pronoun reference error as you said.

In E, 'would' and 'could', or 'will and 'can' can be used. Even though would/could is said to be in past tense, there are many places where we use it while referring to future things.

The main mistake with E is that it doesn't use 'be' after would - which is incorrect. { And you can't take the 'be' after 'could' to be common to both would and could ;-) }

So both are incorrect. But D is a better choice, as it just has ambiguity associated with it.
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by jeevan.Gk » Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:24 pm
The main mistake with E is that it doesn't use 'be' after would - which is incorrect
Are you sure "would" should always have "be" after it when v are referring to future tense
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by Alara533 » Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:41 pm
I didn't say 'be' should always follow 'would' for future tense.

But 'would made' is wrong.

It should be 'would make', or 'would be made' or 'would have made'!!
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