Errors on Sentence Correction Bible

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whatjrohwants: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 15; Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:14 pm; Thanked: 3 times

by whatjrohwants » Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:16 pm

I found the post with same concern I have:
someone please help.

spiuk wrote:I am confused with pronouns that have a possessive as their antecedent.

According to MGmat, possessive nouns can serve as antecedents only to possessive pronouns. And they are usually poor antecedents.

But i found the following sentence in gmat sentence correction bible :

Marco Polo's travels are documented in his book, Il Milione, which took him over seventeen years.

(C) travels, which took him over seventeen years to complete, are documented in his boo, Il Milione.
C is the correct answer in this case, and I cannot find the difference with a sentence like :
Although I own the band's album, I have never seem them in concert.
Which is considered incorrect for the same reason. ( There is also a number agreement problem, but let's forget about that for the reasoning ).

Thanks a lot in advance!.

One more thing added: SCBible corrected the above sentence (although I own the band's-) to "Although I own their album, I have never seen the band in concert". Shouldn't 'their' be 'its' since 'the band' is not plural or people?

Thanks.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:16 pm

Night reader: Legendary Member; Posts: 1337; Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:29 pmFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 127 times

by Night reader » Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:35 pm

This sentence alone makes absolutely no sense. There could be implied meaning both logically and grammatically, if this sentence were preceded by another one: "Marco Polo was a traveler, and he was writing books"

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:53 pm

whatjrohwants wrote:I found the post with same concern I have:
someone please help.

spiuk wrote:I am confused with pronouns that have a possessive as their antecedent.

According to MGmat, possessive nouns can serve as antecedents only to possessive pronouns. And they are usually poor antecedents.

But i found the following sentence in gmat sentence correction bible :

Marco Polo's travels are documented in his book, Il Milione, which took him over seventeen years.

(C) travels, which took him over seventeen years to complete, are documented in his boo, Il Milione.
C is the correct answer in this case, and I cannot find the difference with a sentence like :
Although I own the band's album, I have never seem them in concert.
Which is considered incorrect for the same reason. ( There is also a number agreement problem, but let's forget about that for the reasoning ).

Thanks a lot in advance!.

One more thing added: SCBible corrected the above sentence (although I own the band's-) to "Although I own their album, I have never seen the band in concert". Shouldn't 'their' be 'its' since 'the band' is not plural or people?

Thanks.

An object pronoun such as him cannot refer to an adjective such as Marco Polo's. An object pronoun can refer only to a noun.

A plural pronoun such as them cannot refer to a collective noun such as the band. Collective nouns are singular.

I'm not familiar with the SCBible, but I'd be wary. Neither of the two sentences above would be correct on the GMAT.

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whatjrohwants: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 15; Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:14 pm; Thanked: 3 times

by whatjrohwants » Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:14 am

Thank you for your help! Actually, I heard Sentence Correction Bible was the best book for SC,,,, maybe not;

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Paulrichards: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:27 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Paulrichards » Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:47 am

whatjrohwants wrote:Thank you for your help! Actually, I heard Sentence Correction Bible was the best book for SC,,,, maybe not;

I think Manhattan SC Guide is probably the best book for SC.

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