voodoo_child wrote:"take the pizza out of the box and put it on the table" --> "it" refers to "pizza" since both are direct objects)

why does it refer to pizza and not box ?

Thanks

I didn't get your question??? one side you are explaining ""it" refers to "pizza" since both are direct objects)" and then you are asking "why does it refer to pizza and not box"...

Anyways, as per knowledge, in context of GMAT, the pronoun IT is ambiguous in your sentence...whenever a logically possible antecedent is available for the pronoun then the pronoun is said to be ambiguous. here IT can be Box or Pizza and both make logical sense.

Manish told his friend that he had been elected president.

Here again He is ambiguous as it can logically refer to Manish or Friend.

Sometimes it helps to back off and stop thinking about the sentence as a GMAT problem and look at it as real life. If your friend told you to take the pizza out of the box and put it on the table, you would not know whether the box or the pizza was supposed to go on the table.

This was a post by Ron. He specifically took this example to explain pronoun antecedents. It's copy pasted stuff....