Hubert Humphrey's attempt in his campaign to dissociate

Hubert Humphrey's attempt in his campaign to dissociate himself from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career.

a. himself from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career.
b. him from the Johnson foreign policies were built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career.
c. him from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career.
d. himself from the Johnson foreign policies were built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career.
e. him from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasizing the Senate career of the candidate.

(B),(C) and (E) are eliminated since him here is not the correct usage as per the given context.

between (A) and (D) i go for (A) since attemp should be followed by "was" and not "were"

This SC is testing use of refexive and possessive pronouns.
We need a reflexive pronoun " himself" to associate the action "dissociate" with the subject.
=>him - B,C,E ->OUT

attempt - was
were -C->out

A

Hello! I know reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of the sentence, so why is the first sentence right? Isn't the subject his "attempt," not Hurbert himself?

"Hubert Humphrey's attempt in his campaign to dissociate himself from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career."

It seems like the first of the below should be right given that the subject is "Kyle's actions," not kyle. But then it seems that this is not in line with the first sentence, which I believe is from Kaplan.

"Kyle's actions reflect poorly on him" vs. "Kyle's actions reflect poorly on himself"

If someone could clear this up I would be very appreciative!!

Take your sentence and break it down

"Hubert Humphrey's attempt in his campaign to dissociate himself from the Johnson foreign policies was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career."

Your second sentence seems to be merely a difference between "him" and "himself" -- "himself" added to clarify that the reference point is the same person.
"Kyle's actions reflect poorly on him" vs. "Kyle's actions reflect poorly on himself"
"Hubert Humphrey's attempt [in his campaign to do X...] was built around emphasis on Humphrey's Senate career."

So if you take out the "details" of the sentence, you're left with

"His attempt was built around Y" -- which is a valid sentence structure.

I think I understand, but just to clarify: the sentence that I created with "Kyle" needs a "himself" even though the subject is "Kyle actions"?

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For example, "the cat groomed itself" and the "cat" is clearly the subject.

Posted from my mobile device

How have we taken attempt as subject . Can someone explain.

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