Napoleon’s army

[rohit9359]

Q. Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than they had in their previous campaigns, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.
(A) they had in their previous campaigns
(B) their previous campaigns had had
(C) they had for any previous campaign
(D) in their previous campaigns
(E) for any previous campaign

OA is [spoiler](E)[/spoiler]. Why not [spoiler](C)[/spoiler]?

Thanks,
Rohit.

[karmayogi]

Rule:
1. Read non-underlined part (NUP) of the sentence very carefully because your underlined part (UP) can change but NUP can’t.
2. Correctness of UP depends on NUP.

There might be some confusion whether "Napoleon’s army" is singular or plural. Check the NUP: "Napoleon’s army." Clearly, "army" is singular. Except E, all other options have pronoun problem.

[ketkoag]

karmyogi, i have a ques for u..
if in the statement below, i replace 'they' by 'it', then will the statement be correct or there would be a problem that 'it' represents which of these? army or Russia. please reply.

Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than they had in their previous campaigns, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.

[karmayogi]

karmyogi, i have a ques for u..
if in the statement below, i replace 'they' by 'it', then will the statement be correct or there would be a problem that 'it' represents which of these? army or Russia. please reply.

Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than they had in their previous campaigns, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.

Army is a collective noun, and is always singular. The plural form of army is armies. Hence, we can't use "they" for Nepolean's army. I agree with you that there is some ambiguity in the use of 'it', but 'it' is part of NUP (non underlined portion), which you can't change. Also, 'it' is logically referring to the army.

[walker]

karmyogi, i have a ques for u..
if in the statement below, i replace 'they' by 'it', then will the statement be correct or there would be a problem that 'it' represents which of these? army or Russia. please reply.

Although Napoleon’s army entered Russia with far more supplies than they had in their previous campaigns, it had provisions for only twenty-four days.

No! ketkoag

even if u have the sentence replace 'they' by 'it', the sentence will still bcome wordy. why we need unnecessary pronoun to refer back army.

Also u will break parellism for more x than y idiom by introducing an pronoun there.