Stacey Koprince wrote:goel asked me to come and address this instance of the "it" in option B. This is a confusing one - I was just discussing this one recently with a tutoring student. Let's strip the sentence down a little:

The army... is <something>... and took <some people> more than 36 years to complete... (it?)

The army took <some people> more than 36 years to complete.
The army took <some people> more than 36 years to complete it.

What does "it" refer to - what was being completed? The army. So the second sentence reads:
The army took some people more than 36 years to complete the army.

Did the army take a certain amount of time to complete itself? No. The army took some time to complete. So we don't want to mention the army again at the end of the sentence.

goelmohit2002 wrote:

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:i couldnt get the meaning of sentence. it wants to say that ...army was created and creation was complete when 7000 artsian were included,then we can read as
army took 2000years and 7000 artisan to complete..So, 'it' is not needed

Can someone please tell which grammar rule is broken by inclusion of "it" in option B ?

real2008 wrote:

goelmohit2002 wrote:

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:i couldnt get the meaning of sentence. it wants to say that ...army was created and creation was complete when 7000 artsian were included,then we can read as
army took 2000years and 7000 artisan to complete..So, 'it' is not needed

Can someone please tell which grammar rule is broken by inclusion of "it" in option B ?

Had it been ITSELF in place of IT, the choice B would be ok.

goelmohit2002 wrote:

real2008 wrote:

goelmohit2002 wrote:

vivek.kapoor83 wrote:i couldnt get the meaning of sentence. it wants to say that ...army was created and creation was complete when 7000 artsian were included,then we can read as
army took 2000years and 7000 artisan to complete..So, 'it' is not needed

Can someone please tell which grammar rule is broken by inclusion of "it" in option B ?

Had it been ITSELF in place of IT, the choice B would be ok.

IMO itself is a reflexive pronoun....that is used to describe the action that somebody do on himself.....e.g.

He cut his hand by knife himself....

Action = cut
Action performed by = He
Action performed on = He

How the same is applicable here....Can you please tell.....

Please tell in case I am misinterpreting you.