Small Cars manufacturing

[goelmohit2002]

Hi All,

In the below question OA is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]....Can somebody please help me understand what is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] below ? The explanation said "their" is an illogical personal pronoun choice...so [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] is wrong. Can somebody please tell me why "their" is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] ?

a) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in "their" production history.
b) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.


Thanks
Mohit

[rseeker2]

The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?

[goelmohit2002]

The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?

IMO here "their" refers to cars and not producers. Kindly tell if I am missing something here. In that case, can someone please help me in clarifying why the usage of "their" makes the choice "A" wrong.

Thanks
Mohit

[bluementor]

The sentence seems to be talking about car production in general. Nowhere in history had that happened.

And I also felt the usage of 'their' is redundant... because when it is the manufacturers who produce the cars, why explicitly mention 'their production' , when it is themselves who do it?

IMO here "their" refers to cars and not producers. Kindly tell if I am missing something here. In that case, can someone please help me in clarifying why the usage of "their" makes the choice "A" wrong.

Thanks
Mohit

I believe the problem with A is that you have two possible antecedents: manufacturers and small cars. This ambiguity is cleared in B by talking about production history in general, i.e. neither manufacturer's production history specifically nor small car's.

-BM-

[rahulg83]

Hi All,

In the below question OA is [spoiler]"B"[/spoiler]....Can somebody please help me understand what is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] below ? The explanation said "their" is an illogical personal pronoun choice...so [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] is wrong. Can somebody please tell me why "their" is wrong in option [spoiler]"A"[/spoiler] ?

a) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in "their" production history.
b) Today’s technology allows manufacturers to make small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in production history.


Thanks
Mohit

I think u only gave the answer by quoting their..
Its ambiguous here, which is not the case with B

[goelmohit2002]

But how can their refer to Manufacturers....manufactures cannot have any production history.... ...

[goelmohit2002]

Experts kindly share your opinion !!!

[scoobydooby]

their refers to cars. manufacturers cannot have production history, niether can technology. only cars can have production history. "their" is not necessary in the sentence

[russland]

I think the first answer-choice should be small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their

And the question is supposed to be:

Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.

A. small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
B. small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
C. small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
D. more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
E. more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in

[goelmohit2002]

I guess D is wrong because it contains...."fuel efficient small cars"....so "those" refers to complete noun phrase....which is wrong....

Can someone please tell is there any flaw in my reasoning ?

[scoobydooby]

D is also wrong because it does not have "now". we are comparing with the situation now with the situation then. so we need the "now". "those" is uneccessary. also D changes the meaning from the intended "degree of fuel efficiency" to "number of fuel efficient cars"