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ritula wrote: The governor’s team of advisors, including her education and political strategists, has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal.
(A) has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal
(B) have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal
(C) have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform
(D) has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal
(E) has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education The subject here is "team" of advisors, which is singular and hence, will take a singular verb. So on this basis, eliminate answer choices B and C. In answer choices C & D, pronoun "she" is incorrect as it mistakenly makes the governor the subject. That leaves only A, the correct answer. A note:Personal Pronouns referring to Possesives are quite common wrong answer choices on GMAT and if not spotted, are prone to have test takers commit error. So watch out for the 's-es 
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petrifiedbutstanding wrote: I still don't understand why it can't be D. The former part of the statement anyway uses her in reference to the governor. You have spotted what all others including me missed! Kudos..
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Hi guys, I have been contacted by gmatpapa to help with this question. btw what is the source of the question? My choice is E. Here is why: First, in "including her" in not underlined portion of the sentence "her" - is a determiner, not a pronoun and it can't be a referent. However, a sentence before might have mentioned who is "she". I do not see a problem when a pronoun is mentioned instead of a noun (see A vs. E). and who is she I don't care. Read the sentence in this way: " Since she <anyone> released her proposal [on...], the governor's <the governor may be a man or a woman- we don't know this, we can only assume it> team has not been available to make comments". - Everything seems to be fine here. Second, As all of you have spotted team requires the verb has. So no discussions here. Third, what confuses me most is that almost all of you have ignored the last words of the sentence. The intended meaning is the following: a woman has released a proposal What is controversial: reform or proposal? I think that a reform might be controversial, since reform implies a change and changes often imply controversions. controversial is an adjective and modifies the word reform. Reform in what? It seem that the reform is in education. This flow of words clearly conveys the intendet meaning of the sentence. Hence E for me. Why have I dismissed A? well read this again slowly "governor released her controversial education" . It is a nonsense. Don't you think so? how could a governor release a controversial education?! Does it seem logically sound to you? what meaning does have "reform proposal"? This nonsense meaning makes A wrong choice for me. p.s. to whom it may concern: guys, I really discourage you from looking in spoiler for correct answer choice first and then respond the question providing reasons like "+A" or "A since team requires the verb has" (well there are other choices with "has" but one does not provide any additional reasoning). You have to reason to yourself why your answer choice is correct.
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petrifiedbutstanding wrote: I still don't understand why it can't be D. The former part of the statement anyway uses her in reference to the governor. Petrified - This is a classic GMAT trick. Remember the rule here: all pronouns must have antecedents in the sentence. "She" and "her" are pronouns that are trying to refer back to the governor. However, nowhere in this sentence do we have the noun "governor." What we do have is: "the governor's team of advisors." However, here the noun is "team of advisors" and "the governor's" is serving not as a noun, but as an adjective modifying the team itself. We even have a name for this mistake: possessive poison. Does that help you see why D is wrong? Brett
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BKimball wrote: petrifiedbutstanding wrote: I still don't understand why it can't be D. The former part of the statement anyway uses her in reference to the governor. Petrified - This is a classic GMAT trick. Remember the rule here: all pronouns must have antecedents in the sentence. "She" and "her" are pronouns that are trying to refer back to the governor. However, nowhere in this sentence do we have the noun "governor." What we do have is: "the governor's team of advisors." However, here the noun is "team of advisors" and "the governor's" is serving not as a noun, but as an adjective modifying the team itself. We even have a name for this mistake: possessive poison. Does that help you see why D is wrong? Brett Hi Brett, Even in the part that is not underlined, there is a pronoun "her". Is this correct? We don't see any clear antecedent for this pronoun.
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A for me. Thanks for explanation BKimball.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
 04 Jan 2012, 00:31
A is clearer. D changing meaning.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
04 Jan 2012, 08:16
A
BKimball's analysis was excellent kudos
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
05 Aug 2012, 18:01
The governor’s team of advisors, including her education and political strategists, has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal.
(A) has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal
(B) have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal - Team is Singular
(C) have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform - Team is Singular
(D) has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal - Whom does she refer to.
(E) has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education - where dies she refer to
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BKimball wrote: Tania,
It looks like you're not satisfied with the explanations of why "she" in E can't refer to "governor's." Let's try to make it a little more explicit:
Rule: On the GMAT, every pronoun must have a noun antecedent in that sentence. The antecedent need not appear before the pronoun, but it must be there in noun form.
In E: "she" is trying to refer back to the governor. Unfortunately, there is no noun form of "governor" in the sentence. Instead, we have "the governor's team of advisors" where the word "governor" is in the possessive tense and serving to modify the subject of the sentence: team.
Other examples of this "possessive poison" error:
"I bought Jose's birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to his party." --> Here "his" is trying to refer to "Jose" but cannot legally do so. Fix: "I bought Jose a birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to his party."
"Nobody knows why he dresses this way, but Steve's signature wardrobe is a black turtleneck with jeans and tennis shoes." Again, "he" is trying to refer to "Steve" but cannot do so because "Steve" is not present in the sentence as a noun.
That help?
Brett Thanks Brett for your comments. but doesn't modifier phrase "including her education and political strategist" where "her" is used necessiate the use of She in following clause to clear ambiguity regarding "her" use in the modifier pharse? Thanks!!
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
28 Dec 2012, 06:27
The governor’s team of advisors, including her education and political strategists, has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal. (A) has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal (B) have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal (C) have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform (D) has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal (E) has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education The key thing about modifier is that if you remove them from the sentence, then also the sentence can stand on its own. Since the modifier is "including her education and strategists", therefore we can safely cross it off. Upon removal of this modifier, the rest of the sentence has to stand on its own, but in the answer choices there is still a pronoun SHE, which typically has no referrent in the sentence. This is the reason, why A is correct and why rest of the answer choices are incorrect.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
28 Dec 2012, 06:49
I agree that correct answer should be A as SHE does not have an antecedent in E
But what about her (does it have an antecedent in --- "including her education and political strategists" --- In non-underline portion)
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
28 Dec 2012, 08:28
Its a part of modifier. Even if you remoe that modifier, the sentence must stand on its own. The sentence, excluding the modifier, must not contain any pronoun without a referrent.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
28 Dec 2012, 09:28
This statement has three clauses, all separated by commas. If you see the second sentence, it uses "her"for governor as a pronoun.
B and C can be eliminated owing to "Subject verb agreement"as "team"is singular and "have" cannot be used for "team".
D can be straight away eliminated to "Vague pronoun reference".
E can also be eliminated due to "Vague pronoun reference"as we have to choose the "best"possible choice and its better not to use "she" inthe last clause, so as to define the statement more clearly.
Hence, the answer A.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
30 Dec 2012, 22:15
Split between Have and Has,go for 'has' since Team (subject) takes singular form of verb.
This leaves us with options A),D) and E).
E) is wordy, also 'She' pronoun cannot refer to posessive , which in this case if Governor.
that leaves with option A) and D).
Option D) -> 'She' pronoun cannot refer to posessive , which in this case if Governor.
Hence correct answer is Option A).
Cheers
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
16 Feb 2013, 00:58
Referring team so one, "has" to be used.
Options left are A,D & E.
Between A & D, A is right since antecedent of "she" in D refers to team..Antecedent cant be governor bcoz it is acting as a adjective.
Saabi
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and [#permalink]
24 Apr 2013, 00:05
The governor’s team of advisors, including her education and political strategists, has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal. (A) has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal Correct. (B) have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal Wrong. (C) have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform Wrong. (D) has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal Wrong. We must repeat "the governor" to make the sentence more clear. Because "she" may modify one of governor's advisors. (E) has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education Wrong. We must repeat "the governor" to make the sentence more clear. Because "she" may modify one of governor's advisors. Also, E changes meaning.
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Re: The governors team of advisors, including her education and
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24 Apr 2013, 00:05
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