Gogh's view

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Gogh's view

by Onell » Wed Nov 10, 2010 6:28 pm
In June of 1987, The Bridge of Trinquetaille, Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone sold for $20.2 million and it was the second highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.
(A) Rhone sold for $20.2 million and it was
(B) Rhone, which sold for $20.2 million, was
(C) Rhone, was sold for $20.2 million,
(D) Rhone was sold for $20.2 million, being
(E) Rhone, sold for $20.2 million, and was

According to OG it in option A has no logical referent.However I feel like Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone is a noun phrase and IT can be used to refer a noun phrase. So why is OG saying IT has no referent? Am i missing sth?

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by kapur.arnav » Thu Nov 11, 2010 9:37 am
Onell wrote:In June of 1987, The Bridge of Trinquetaille, Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone sold for $20.2 million and it was the second highest price ever paid for a painting at auction.
(A) Rhone sold for $20.2 million and it was
(B) Rhone, which sold for $20.2 million, was
(C) Rhone, was sold for $20.2 million,
(D) Rhone was sold for $20.2 million, being
(E) Rhone, sold for $20.2 million, and was

According to OG it in option A has no logical referent.However I feel like Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone is a noun phrase and IT can be used to refer a noun phrase. So why is OG saying IT has no referent? Am i missing sth?
Read the sentence again and you will notice that It needs to refer to $20.2million and not Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone... therefore, it induces ambiguity and has an illogical referent...

hope it helps..
Last edited by kapur.arnav on Thu Nov 11, 2010 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:38 am
Great explanation, Kapur - to rephrase the solution you should probably say that the word "it" has an illogical referent. The painting itself wasn't the second highest price...it was the price of $20.2 million.

A is wrong for the same reasons as B, D, and E - each choice seeks to make the painting the highest price, but only C correctly identifies that the $20.2 million was the price.
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