At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school bas

The word community has two meanings/contexts:
(1) a group of people residing at the same place --> physical
E.g., the Asian community

(2) a group of people sharing same status, ideas, etc --> conceptual
E.g., the poor

Now, this context decides which word to use: "where" or "which"

(1) demands 'where' and (2) demands 'which or in which'

In the question it is clear that the statement falls in the first category (decided by "At Shiprock" at the beginning of the sentence) and hence we need to use 'where'. Once this is decided, words like 'they', 'them', etc., are irrelevant/wrong. Hence C is the only one that stands.

Deciding between (C) and (D) is not simply a matter of "which" vs "where". There are other issues with (D), as described in this post and this post.

Here's a counter-example to illustrate the problem with (D):

"In New Mexico, one million households have incomes below the poverty level. The community of Shiprock has 49% of those households." - The community has households, not household incomes.

Back to the official question: the community itself does not HAVE household incomes; instead, the community has households -- and those households have household incomes. Also, the community does not HAVE 49% of some larger group of households with incomes below the poverty level.

(C) avoids these issues and conveys the correct meaning: 49% OF the household incomes in Shiprock are below the poverty level.

I hope this helps!
_________________

I think the answer is C.

Use each answer in the sentence and see if it makes sense.

A. At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are below the poverty level. -- The issue here is the "them". Who is "them"? It has no clear antecedent.

B. At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where they have 49 percent of the household incomes below the poverty level. -- Again, the "they" doesn't have a really clear antecedent. The noun before "they" is "community", which is singular - it doesn't really work. In addition, saying that they "HAVE 49% of THE household incomes below the poverty level" makes it sound like this community has 49% of all household incomes below the poverty level... in their state. Or the world. Or the universe.

C. At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where 49 percent of the household incomes are below the poverty level. -- This makes sense. In this community, 49% of the households report an income below the poverty level.

D. At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community which has 49 percent of the household incomes below the poverty level. -- Again, stating that the community "HAS 49% of the THE household incomes" makes it sound like the community is being compared to a larger group, out of which it has 49% of household incomes below the poverty level... as opposed to simply indicating that within the community, this statistic is true.

E. At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community in which 49 percent of them have household incomes below the poverty level. -- This one almost makes good sense, but again, to whom does that "them" refer?

At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are below the poverty level.

(A) where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are --> No clear antecedent for "them"
(B) where they have 49 percent of the household incomes --> same issue. What is "they" referring to?
(C) where 49 percent of the household incomes are --> Correct answer. Community+where or location+where

This is the community where rich people live.
This is the society where I live.

(D) which has 49 percent of the household incomes --> incorrect. Plug in the answer -

At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls’ high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community which has 49 percent of the household incomes below the poverty level.

Implies that community has household incomes below poverty level. Community doesn't have household incomes below the poverty level.It's the residents who have incomes below poverty level. A quick fix of this would be - community + in which.

(E) in which 49 percent of them have household incomes --> this fixes the problem (in which),but has "them".No antecedent for them.

AM I the only one that is willing to know whether income is uncountable?
I know a plural form "incomes" exist, but income is income
In addition to this: community - A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common (OXFORD DICTIONARY)
Google:
com·mu·ni·ty /kəˈmyo͞onədē/
noun
a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

Because of this, as per GMAT rules, WHERE cannot be used in this context.

Since the source is not specified, I believe it was not created by GMAC's nor by any other reputable gmat prep companies. Thus, this question is not good for practice

mvictor


Unfortunately, GMAT is very fickle.

Check this problem


_________________

I have a doubt whether percentage is singular or plural? please clarify .That was the only reason i have eliminated this option.

At Shiprock, New Mexico, a perennially powerful girls??? high school basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where 49 percent of the household incomes are/is below the poverty level
Please clarify.

SonGoku

Q: Please tell me which verb is correct in this sentence: “Ninety percent of the team is/are men.” The plural “are” sounds correct, but “team” is singular.

A: “Ninety percent of the team are men.” Here’s why.

“Percent” is used with both singular and plural verbs. It usually takes a plural verb when followed by “of” plus a plural noun, and takes a singular verb when followed by “of” plus a singular noun.

Example: “Sixty percent of the cookies were eaten, but only twenty percent of the milk was drunk.”

With original sentence, the question is whether the noun “team” should be treated as singular or plural. This isn’t a black-and-white question!


“Team” is a collective noun: a singular noun that stands for a number of people or things that form a group.

A collective noun takes either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether you’re talking about the group as a unit (singular) or the individuals (plural).

In this case, the tip-off that we’re talking about individuals is the word “men,” a plural noun.

So we’re talking here about the players who make up the team, not the group as a single unit. This calls for a plural verb: “Ninety percent of the team are men.”

A similar case can be made for the noun “band.” Like “team,” it’s a singular collective noun. But we would say, “Fifty percent of the band are vocalists.”

The singular verb “is” would be dissonant here because the plural “vocalists” indicates that we’re talking about the members of the band, not the group as a whole.

On the other hand, if we’re talking about the group as a single unit, we use a singular verb: “The team [or band] is playing in Pittsburgh.”

Hope this helps!!
_________________

I am still confused about why which has not been taken and why where has been chosen

GMATNinja

I have been under the impression that 'where' doesn't go with metaphorical locations such as company, relationship, and 'in which' is preferred.

Eg: I worked with a company, in which 49% of employees are

Slightly confused. Request enlightment



Posted from my mobile device

Can someone clearly explain usage of which v/s where ?
In GMAT, where can refer only physical places. How do we know if community refers to a caste or a neighborhood ?

I wish that I was cool enough to provide actual enlightenment!


You both have the right idea: in general, "where" would have to modify an actual place. "Community" might refer to a physical location ("the community of Ames, Iowa"), but it could also refer to a group of people who may or may not be in the same physical location ("the LGBTQ community").

So the devil is in the details. Here's the original sentence again:

Notice that the sentence explicitly mentions a physical location in New Mexico, and then the sentence goes on to discuss "household incomes." Logically, the "community" mentioned here is a physical one.

So "where" is fine -- and there are other issues in some of the answer choices, as discussed here.

I hope this helps!
_________________

Thanks for the explanation on the which-hunt, GMATNinja!

I am clear on meanings of options B, C and D, thanks to the explanations posted by you and many others.

However, I seem to be struggling with options A and E.

Option A: where the household incomes of 49 percent of them are

Q 1: In this sentence, why can't 'them' refer to the girls from the girls' team?

In the following similarly constructed sentences:

Similar to option A: At New Mexico, Mr. Smith's basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community where posters of him are found on all apartment buildings.

Similar to option E: At New Mexico, Mr. Smith's basketball team has become a path to college for some and a source of pride for a community in which autographs of him have been widely circulated

Q 1.1: Can't we infer that him refers to Mr. Smith?
Q 1.1.1: If no, why not?
Q 1.1.2: If yes, what is the difference between these sentences and the original question?

Q 1.2: Is there something else we can use to reject these 2 options?

Q 1.3: Would there have been a change in meaning if the original sentence had 'the community where...' instead of 'a community where...'?

Instead of thinking about what may or may not be acceptable grammatically here, consider the logic of the sentence if we assume that "them" refers to the girls on the basketball team.

In essence, we'd be saying that the girls' basketball team has become a source of pride to a community where 49% of the households of those same girls are below the poverty level. First, if it's a normal basketball team, half the roster would mean 6 or 7 kids. Would any community define itself by the income level of 6 or 7 households that happen to have a kid on the basketball team? Also, if the team's success is offsetting some other perceived community-wide failure, it would be very strange if that perceived failure were also coming from the very team that was the source of community pride, wouldn't it?

It would be far more logical to say that the basketball team's success is offsetting the grim reality that 49% of households in the community overall are struggling with poverty.

In other words: sure, "them" could theoretically refer to "girls," but if it does, we get a sentence that makes no sense! Your example, on the other hand, seems perfectly logical -- Mr. Smith is the only person mentioned in the sentence, so "him" must refer to this guy. Also, while in most places the autograph of a high school basketball coach wouldn't be in high demand, it's not fundamentally illogical for Mr. Smith to be a local celebrity. Who else are basketball fans in New Mexico supposed to root for?

The takeaway: don't spend much energy agonizing over whether a non-possessive pronoun can refer to a possessive antecedent. It's rare, but, as with many constructions, there's no ironclad rule forbidding it. Instead, when there's doubt about a rule, rely on meaning, logic, and clarity instead, since those elements always matter.

I hope that helps!
_________________

Hi EducationAisle

Please help with this Question. Although I selected the right option, can you explain why A is incorrect? Is it because of "them"? I think "them" can refer back to girls' but because we have a better option, C, we reject A? Is that correct? Please help me.

Thanks!

Hi Ashmit, notice that girls' is a "possessive" noun; so there is no noun "girls" in the sentence (for them to refer to).

While it might not be outrightly wrong for an object pronoun ("them") to refer to a possessive noun ("girl's"), this kind of a construct is not preferable, especially if there is a better option (in the form of C) available.
_________________

GMATNinja, I have a query and I was hoping you could address it.

Isn't '49% of them have household incomes below the poverty line' better than '49% of the household incomes are below poverty line'?

The problem I'm facing is that 49% of the people have household incomes that are below the poverty line marker; how can 49% of the household incomes be below the poverty line? I feel like it sort of distorts the meaning, that's why I eliminated options b, c and d. Please help.

(I do realise that the 'them' pronoun is an issue in options a and e, but those were the only two I was left with so I went with option e)

Hello mainbhiankit,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

The phrase "49% of the household incomes are below poverty line" simply means that out of all the household incomes (meaning the collective income of individual households) in the community, 49% are below the poverty line. In fact, this construction actually conveys a more logical meaning than options and E do, as the inclusion of "them" makes it sound as if in this community, only 49% of some unspecified "them" (most likely the girls) have household incomes below the poverty line, whereas, the intended meaning is that in this community 49% of all people have household incomes below the poverty line.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
_________________

Let's say that the poverty line is at 100,000 Klubecks (Kb) per year. If you make 120,000 Kb per year, it makes perfect sense to say that your household income is above 100,000 Kb. And since 100,000 Kb = the poverty line, it also makes perfect sense to say that your household income is above the poverty line.

In other words, "the poverty line" is just some threshold of money, and your income can certainly be above or below (or at) that threshold. And if it's okay to say that one person's household income is above/below/at the poverty line, then it's also okay to say that 49% of the household incomes (in Shiprock) are above/below/at the poverty line.

More importantly, as you mentioned, (A) and (E) have glaring pronoun issues. So even if "49% of them have household incomes below the poverty line" sounds a bit clearer to you, we don't really have that option.

I hope that helps!
_________________