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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot

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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 12 Aug 2019, 07:16
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

Show Spoiler
https://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=15462&crd=0&searchKey=islands%20that%20dot%20the%20South%20Pacific#folio=059

The New Yorker
FEB 15, 1999
PAGE 59

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific (generally called Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s sixty-five hundred languages.
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A

Originally posted by Ethan on 05 Apr 2006, 06:39.
Last edited by Bunuel on 12 Aug 2019, 07:16, edited 5 times in total.
Formatted the question.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 05 Apr 2006, 19:09
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A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

subject = the vast constellation; verb = has

subject = it; verb = is

it refers to 'the vast constellation'.

Originally posted by Professor on 05 Apr 2006, 19:07.
Last edited by Professor on 05 Apr 2006, 19:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   10 Dec 2018, 06:33
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As a general observation, a pronoun's most eligible suitor is the subject of the main clause. If there is no such suitor existing, then the pronoun will have to scout for the next eligible noun, may be an object or the object of a preposition and so on.


Here, the subject noun constellation is handily available and is most eligible. e. Therefore, there is no need to find another noun other than the constellation to be antecedent of 'it'.

Can it refer to the South Pacific? South Pacific is just an ocean and it cannot be home to either people or languages.

The constellation is the contrasted item by the word "although". Therefore, the other item being contrasted must be related to the constellation. If 'islands' were to be contrasted, then the sentence should start as -- Although the islands --
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   05 Apr 2006, 19:30
Professor wrote:
A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

subject = the vast constellation; verb = has

subject = it; verb = is

it refers to 'the vast constellation'.


Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained).
But the OA is 'B'.
I'm confused. :?
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   05 Apr 2006, 19:40
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Professor wrote:
A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

subject = the vast constellation; verb = has
subject = it; verb = is

it refers to 'the vast constellation'.

Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained).
But the OA is 'B'. I'm confused. :?

thats true. i too overlooked cuz it doesnot clearly refer to "the constallation". since there are two singular nouns, so "it" could refer to "south pacific" as well. therefore A is incorrect.

but "they" has only one referent i.e. "small ilands". therefore B is perfect.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   01 Aug 2007, 17:55
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,they are
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
D.Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are


The relative pronoun decides the number whether it is singular or plural

"that" is the rel pronoun and the closest noun is islands...So"they" is needed as a pronoun.

B stands
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   01 Nov 2010, 07:04
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
D. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

Show Spoiler
Hi,
I stumbled upon this question during a CAT I took from the GMATPrep software. I remembered vaguely that there was an example I saw where a pronoun can refer to the Y object in the X of Y subject if it makes sense.
In the case above I did recognize that the subject is the vast constellation of small islands and it is singular but what the sentence talked about who is home to about sixth of the world's 6000 or so languages, I thought that the islands are a more appropriate home than the vast constellation so I picked B. I think I still have a hard time to decide why is it more appropriate than they. I read somewhere that there is an issue with parallelism but I am not sure I'm convinced. Can anyone explain why A is better than B, and give me examples where changing the pronoun to refer to the Y part ,in the X of Y subject, is better. How should this sentence be written so B is the correct answer?


Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   01 Nov 2010, 07:10
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'The vast constellation' is singular.

You can omit the middle part and the sentence will still make sense.
'Although the vast constellation........has a population of........'

Based on this, B & E are out.

C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
Use of 'although....and' is wrong.

D. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
Badly formed.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is
Correct answer.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   01 Nov 2010, 08:18
I'm sorry but none of you answered my question. When will B be correct? can anyone give example for a similar sentence where the pronoun will refer to the of part in the prepositional part of the subject?
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   05 Nov 2010, 08:44
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Hi rafi,

You're right that in a noun phrase like "X of Y," either X or Y can be the antecedent of a pronoun.

The breadth and intensity of the biology class lead many of its participants to study intensely.

The subject of this sentence is the plural compound noun "the breadth and intensity," so we use the plural main verb "lead." However, the pronoun "its" can logically refer only to the biology class, which is inside a prepositional phrase and is singular.

The key with these types of sentences is LOGIC -- in the question you posted, it's the entire CONSTELLATION of islands that contains the languages, not each individual island.

Hope that helps!
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   24 Nov 2010, 12:48
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Rafi wrote: I'm sorry but none of you answered my question. When will B be correct? can anyone give example for a similar sentence where the pronoun will refer to the of part in the prepositional part of the subject?


Hi, Rafi,

To answer your specific question, let me give you a couple of examples where the pronoun clearly refers to the of part of the preposition

Although none of the test takers have scored more than 600 in the GMAT, they are still applying to top business school
Some of the legislators are expected to cross vote in the coming vote -on count, but they are keeping an eerie silence
The pronoun they in the first case refers to the test takers and in the second one to legislators
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   09 Sep 2017, 11:34
Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are - Subject verb agreement - constellation is singular

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is - although .. ,and is incorrect as we need an independent clause before and

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless - not even a sentence

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are- no verb

Answer A
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   09 Dec 2018, 16:28
Ethan wrote:
Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are



I ended up choosing B over A as I felt that it made the sentence's meaning more clear.

IT could refer to South pacific or vast constellation of islands in A

However in B, we know for sure they is referring to islands, making the sentence perfectly logical.
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   26 Aug 2019, 04:36
Ethan wrote:
Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

Show Spoiler
https://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=15462&crd=0&searchKey=islands%20that%20dot%20the%20South%20Pacific#folio=059

The New Yorker
FEB 15, 1999
PAGE 59

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific (generally called Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world’s sixty-five hundred languages.



(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is - Correct

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are - Wrong: 1) Pronoun

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is - Wrong: 1) Verb 2) Structure

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless - Wrong: 1) Redundancy 2) Meaning

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are - Wrong: 1) Verb 2) Redundancy 3) Pronoun
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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   02 Sep 2020, 02:53
Professor wrote:
A. Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

subject = the vast constellation; verb = has

subject = it; verb = is

it refers to 'the vast constellation'.


your explanation is great , and, so gives us a lesion that we can use the cue in the non underlined part.

"collective noun+of+plural count" is not easy. sometime it is singular, other time plural, depending on meaning. sometime we consider it a mass. other time we consider it a group of many entities.

the population of students in this area growS fast.

the population of students in this area HAVE passed gmat.

the meaning in choice A is that all islands combined have the population of a few millions. but , consider

the constellation of islands in the south pacific have population of 1 milion persons, totalling 10 milion.

in this case, each island contain 1 milion.

i will come back to editing.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   07 Jan 2021, 02:46
Can somebody please explain, why option (A) is correct shouldn't there be a ";" instead of "," as both are independent clause.
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink] New post   17 Apr 2023, 09:05
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Re: Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot [#permalink]
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