Regarding Pronoun ambiguity

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Sudeshna23: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:30 am

by Sudeshna23 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:37 am

Hi,

In mgmat sc chapter on pronouns it is explained under pronoun ambiguity that "in theory,
every pronouns in a well-written sentence should clearly refer to one antecedent".
However for the problem set question 3 which is
"Jim may not be elected CEO by the board because he doesnot meet their standards."
the correct sentence reconstruction is given as
"Jim may not be elected CEO by the board because he doesnot meet its standards."

While I understand why "their" is replaced by the singular "its" the correct answer here doesnot match with the theory
explained before since "he" and "its" is referring to two different antecedents.
I think a more suitable sentence would have been...
"Jim may not be elected CEO by the board because he doesnot meet the board's standards"

Can someone tell me if this is the correct interpretation?

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:37 am

Bill@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1248; Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:57 pmFollowed by: 192 members; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 503 times; GMAT Score:780

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:37 am

I think your example is fine, but I don't see anything wrong with the original. As you said, you have two pronouns ("he" and "its") and two antecedents ("Jim" and "board"). However, you could never use "its" with "Jim" or "he" with "board", so I don't think there is any ambiguity.

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Sudeshna23: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:30 am

by Sudeshna23 » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:25 pm

Yes I understand that but what I really wanted to know is ....if there is more than one antecedent in a sentence, shouldn't all pronouns in a sentence be used to refer to only one particular antecedent (and no pronouns used for the other antecedents)?
Wanted to know if gmat follows this as the ideal approach or if there is a different interpretation to the rule.
Thanks for your reply.

Bill@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1248; Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:57 pmFollowed by: 192 members; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 503 times; GMAT Score:780

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:52 am

If you can logically determine which noun goes with which pronoun, you're fine. As an example:

Bob drove the new Tesla sedan, and he was impressed by its power.

Here, you have two pronouns and two antecedents, but you can match them pretty easily. As another example:

Bob and Jim played soccer, and he scored the first goal of his career.

Again, two pronouns and two antecedents, but in this case you can't match them correctly. You would want to replace one of the pronouns:

Bob and Jim played soccer, and Jim scored the first goal of his career.

Now it's clear who we're talking about.

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Sudeshna23: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:30 am

by Sudeshna23 » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:20 am

Thanks Bill. That makes sense

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