BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

who/whose

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 106
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:55 pm
Thanked: 1 times
Followed by:1 members

who/whose

by veenu08 » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:16 am
Robinson is a botanist whose dream is to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii, a place now awash with introduced species of plants and animals.

A. who has the dream to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii,
B. whose dream it is to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii,
C. who it is his dream to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii,
D. that is dreaming to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii,
E. whose dream is to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii

[spoiler]OA E
Why not A[/spoiler]
Top
Source: — Sentence Correction |
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 1556
Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:18 pm
Thanked: 448 times
Followed by:34 members
GMAT Score:650

by theCodeToGMAT » Sat Jan 25, 2014 7:59 pm
Robinson is a botanist whose dream is to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii, a place now awash with introduced species of plants and animals.

A. who has the dream to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii,
INCORRECT; here "who" seems to describe botanist and not Robinson..

E. whose dream is to reestablish an authentic pre-human piece of Hawaii
we use "whose" for possessive reference.. hence, is correctly describing Robinson.
R A H U L
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Elite Legendary Member
Posts: 10392
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Thanked: 2867 times
Followed by:511 members
GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:02 pm
Hi veenu08,

The technical explanation for answers A vs. E might come across as long-winded, so I'll do my best to keep it simple.

In answer A, the word "who" is a pronoun that represents the subject "Robinson." In this sentence, it comes across as redundant since we already know that Robinson is the subject. It would be the same as writing "Robinson is a Botanist and he has a dream...."; the sentence doesn't require a pronoun to be correct, so the pronoun probably shouldn't be there.

In answer E, the word "whose" is a possessive pronoun that links "dream" to "Robinson" (so we know it's Robinson's dream, without having to write "and he has a dream"). From a "style" standpoint, it's preferable to eliminate redundancies and this answer does so.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
Image
Top
Post new topic Locked
• Page 1 of 1