gmatquant25
A minority of the US scientists assessed view atomic power stations as unsecured at present but that they will, or could, be made adequately secure in the future.
(A) that they will, or could,
(B) that they would, or could,
(C) they will be or could
(D) think that they will be or could
(E) think the power stations would or could
I am confused between option D and option E.
what is "they" in option D referring to?
Is it referring to atomic power stations or scientists?
For this ambiguity I chose E but I believe correct formation should be "think that"
Please help.
We hope this finds you well.
To answer your query, here "they" refers to "power stations"; pronoun ambiguity is not at play in this case, as "they" can logically refer to only one noun - it makes no sense to say that scientists could be made adequately secure in the future.
To understand the concept of exceptions to pronoun ambiguity on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):