aaba
A new initiative requires that cable companies report
to their new customers all the costs, including taxes, that the customers will be expected to pay.A. to their new customers all the costs, including taxes, that they will be expected to pay.
B. to their new customers all the costs, including taxes, that the customers will be expected to pay.
C. to its new customers all the costs, including taxes, that they will have to pay.
D. to the companies' new customers all the costs, including taxes, that the companies have paid.
E. to their new customers all the costs, including taxes, that its customers will be expected to pay.
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:
With two pronouns underlined, this sentence is likely to test your knowledge of proper pronoun usage. The pronoun their should refer to cable companies. Both items are plural and the referent of the pronoun is clear so all's well so far. Eliminate (C). Next, you have they in the final phrase of the sentence. Now, at this point, you've been given a lot of plural nouns, including companies, costs, taxes, and customers. While it's logical that customers is the intended referent of they, the sentence itself allows for some ambiguity (technically speaking, the companies could be the ones expected to pay these costs). Where a pronoun is ambiguous, a pronoun is used incorrectly. Eliminate (A), and take out (E) as well since its certainly doesn't help matters any: What singular subject could its logically and usefully refer to? Of your remaining options, you can remove (D) from consideration because changing the verb to have paid unnecessarily distorts the meaning of the original sentence. (B) survives.