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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 31 May 2020, 17:18
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It looks like Ron was pointing out a tendency. The GMAT may rewrite things a bit to avoid the potential confusion created by consecutive repetitions of a particular construction. However, no one is claiming that this is a rule. If an answer doesn't break a rule or create a meaning problem, we can't cross it out.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 27 Jul 2020, 11:50
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Quote:
A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discourage poachers; the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are trimmed.
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Quote:
(A) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are
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horns are specific to rhinoceroses
Tourists may still go to park ( not just necessarily go to park to see rhinoceroses)so visit and see should be ok, right?

Quote:
(C) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see rhinoceroses once the animals’ horns have been
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horns are specific to animals( that is not as clear as in option A). here animals may not necessarily be rhinoceroses.

please help me to get rid of above thought.

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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 27 Jul 2020, 13:25
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Quote:
A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discourage poachers; the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are trimmed.


Quote:
(A) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are
horns are specific to rhinoceroses
Tourists may still go to park ( not just necessarily go to park to see rhinoceroses)so visit and see should be ok, right?

Quote:
(C) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see rhinoceroses once the animals’ horns have been
horns are specific to animals( that is not as clear as in option A). here animals may not necessarily be rhinoceroses.

please help me to get rid of above thought.
Show more
The version created via the use of (A) does not make sense. It misses the connection between the trimming of the horns and the tourists' visiting game parks.

If, as you suggested, the tourists are going to the parks "and" just happening to see the rhinoceroses, then whether the rhinoceroses have horns should not matter.

In order for the presence of the horns to matter, the tourists have to be going "to" see the rhinoceroses.

So, the version created via the use of (A) says that there is a question but then provides no reason for there to be a question, because it does not express that seeing the rhinoceroses is the purpose of going to the parks.

The version created via the use of (C), on the other hand, uses "to" and, thus, makes clear why there is a "question" about whether tourists will visit the parks, because they visit to the parks "to" see the rhinoceroses, but may not do so if the rhinoceroses' horns have been trimmed.

(C) uses "the animals'" to confuse you. It's fairly clear that the sentence would not jump to talking about another set of animals, and that "the animals'" refers to "rhinoceroses," and thus, (C) effectively conveys a logical meaning.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 13 Sep 2020, 11:48
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(A) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses after their horns are
(A) has a couple of subtle little problems. For starters, I don’t think the phrase “…will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses…” is quite right in this case. Grammatically, it’s fine: “visit” and “see” are parallel verbs. Trouble is, that suggests that the two actions are somehow equally weighted, and not necessarily related: tourists visit game parks, and tourists see rhinos, but maybe not at the same time.

So the phrasing in (A) isn't WRONG, exactly, but it’s not ideal: the intent of the sentence is to question whether tourists will continue to visit game parks TO SEE rhinos. And we have that option in some of the other answer choices.

You could also argue that the pronoun “their” is potentially ambiguous. It could refer to the rhinos or the tourists or the poachers, and only the rhinos would make sense, since tourists and poachers rarely trim their own horns. And again, pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute rule (more on that in this video), but we’ll have better options in a moment.

If you wanted to be conservative, you could keep (A), but the problems in (A) will be fixed in another answer choice.

Quote:
(B) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see one once their horns are
(B) includes the phrase “visit game parks to see [a rhino]…”, and that makes more sense than the parallel structure we saw in (A).

Trouble is, now the pronouns are worse. You could argue that “one” is a little bit ambiguous because it’s so far from “rhinoceroses”, but I can live with that – I don’t think it’s unclear, even if it isn’t awesome. But the “their” is definitely an issue: the nearest plurals are “game parks” and “tourists”, and neither of those are likely to have their horns trimmed. “Their” logically needs to refer to “rhinoceroses”, but that word is a long way from the pronoun now. That’s not cool.

So (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) whether tourists will continue to visit game parks to see rhinoceroses once the animals’ horns have been
(C) fixes all of the problems and imperfections of (A) and (B). We have “…continue to visit game parks to see rhinoceroses…”, and that’s better than the parallel version in (A). The pronoun has been completely removed, so now we have “once the animals’ horns have been trimmed” – and that’s clear as a bell.

Let’s keep (C).

Quote:
(D) if tourists will continue to visit game parks and see rhinoceroses once the animals’ horns are
(D) has the same parallelism problem as (A): “visit game parks and see rhinos” makes less sense than “visit game parks TO see rhinos.” See the explanation for (A) for more on this issue.

The GMAT also tends to frown on the use of “if” in situations like these. The GMAT seems to think that “if” can only be used for “if/then” (conditional) statements, but NOT for situations like this sentence, when the intent is just to indicate that two different alternatives are possible (e.g., visiting vs. not visiting game parks). I think that’s a silly thing for the GMAT to test, but who cares what I think?

The shorter version: if you’re given a choice between “if” and “whether” on the GMAT, then you’ll almost certainly want to choose “whether.”

So (D) is out.

Quote:
(E) if tourists will continue to visit game parks to see one after the animals’ horns have been
The only major problem in (E) is the use of “if.” See (D) for more on that issue.

So (E) is gone, and we’re left with (C).
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Hello GMATNinja
Thanks for the detailed explanation. However, I have a query regarding pronoun ambiguity. You mentioned in option A that "their" could refer to rhinos or tourists or poachers and eventually eliminated tourists and poachers saying that only rhinos make sense since rhinos have horns.
So, I wanted to know when do we say that there's pronoun ambiguity? Is it when there are more than 1 contenders (nouns) for a pronoun and all or some of them make sense
OR
Can we say that there's pronoun ambiguity even if there are multiple nouns but only 1 of them is contender because only this 1 contender makes sense (like in this option A)?
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 20 Oct 2020, 20:33
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...You could also argue that the pronoun “their” is potentially ambiguous. It could refer to the rhinos or the tourists or the poachers, and only the rhinos would make sense, since tourists and poachers rarely trim their own horns. And again, pronoun ambiguity isn’t an absolute rule (more on that in this video), but we’ll have better options in a moment....
Hello GMATNinja
Thanks for the detailed explanation. However, I have a query regarding pronoun ambiguity. You mentioned in option A that "their" could refer to rhinos or tourists or poachers and eventually eliminated tourists and poachers saying that only rhinos make sense since rhinos have horns.
So, I wanted to know when do we say that there's pronoun ambiguity? Is it when there are more than 1 contenders (nouns) for a pronoun and all or some of them make sense
OR
Can we say that there's pronoun ambiguity even if there are multiple nouns but only 1 of them is contender because only this 1 contender makes sense (like in this option A)?
Show more
Unfortunately it's impossible to draw a clear line between acceptable pronoun ambiguity and unacceptable pronoun ambiguity. And I certainly wasn't trying to say that it's okay to have multiple potential referents IF AND ONLY IF exactly one of them makes sense. As long as you have multiple potential referents, you can technically argue that there is SOME ambiguity.

Now if all but one of those referents is completely illogical, that certainly makes the ambiguity LESS of an issue. But again, it's impossible to draw a clear line in the sand.

The takeaway is that pronoun ambiguity is not a bulletproof reason for eliminating an answer choice. But if you are comparing two choices (i.e. choice (A) and choice (C) in this question) and only one of those two has an ambiguous pronoun, then you might have a vote in favor of the choice that avoids that ambiguity.

More broadly, you always want to consider clarity of meaning. If pronoun ambiguity makes the meaning unclear in one choice but not in another, you likely have a vote against the first one.

Sorry for the somewhat ambiguous (haha?) response... but unfortunately there are no black and white rules for this sort of thing. I know: it's maddening, but that's the GMAT for you. :?

And if you want a maddening full video on GMAT pronouns, here it is.

I hope that helps a bit!
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 09 May 2021, 12:51
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ravi's car broke down,so he walked back to the hotel.

here he has no referent.As ravi's car is mentioned but ravi is not mentioned.
On a separate note, it is interesting to note that there are at least a couple of examples in OG, where the pronoun in question does not have any direct referent, but still GMAT considers it acceptable. So, GMAT seems to be permissive in this regard.

#109, OG-13:

Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.

This is the correct answer, though there is no explicit referent of her. The silver lining is that all 5 answer choices use her, so you don't really have to choose an option based on this.


Hi there,

There is absolutely no problem and certainly no exception in this official question.

Please note that "her" is a Possessive Pronoun. Henec, it can very well refer to another Noun Entity in Poessessive form. This is the reason why all the answer choices use "her" because it clearly refers to the Noun Entity "Bona Dea's" that is in possessive case. In fact, Possessive Pronouns can also refer to non-possessive Noun entity in a sentence. For example:

Dia brought her dog to the exhibition. --> Here, "her" correctly refers to "Dia", a non-possessive Noun Entity.

OG13 Q#109 would have been incorrect if it had used the Pronoun "she" to refer to "Bona Dea's" because a non-possessive pronoun CANNOT refer to a Noun in Possessive Form.

Let's take a look at another official sentence where this usage is correct:

In her later poems, Phyllis Wheatley's blending of solar imagery, Judeo-Christian thought and figures, and images borrowed from ancient classicism suggests her range and depth of influences, not the least of which is her African heritage.

In this one, "her" refers to "Phyllis Whetley's", a Possesive Noun Entity. In fact, one of the answer choices uses the pronoun "she" and stands incorrect because "she", a non-possesive pronoun, CANNOT refer to possessive noun entity.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
SJ
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Hi egmat

In my understanding,

Subject case pronoun: She
Object case pronoun: Her
Possessive adjective: Her
Possessive pronoun: Hers

Now in the mentioned example, 'Her' is clearly not a possessive adjective, so it has to be an object case pronoun.
Therefore "Incompatibility of the case between pronoun and noun is not an absolute rule" on GMAT.

please confirm my understanding.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 10 May 2021, 07:16
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aarkay87
Therefore "Incompatibility of the case between pronoun and noun is not an absolute rule" on GMAT.
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Yes, not an absolute rule. Another officially correct sentence:

Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

Notice that in this sentence, subject pronoun she is referring to the possessive Elizabeth Barrett Browning's.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 04 Sep 2022, 05:32
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Hi Experts,

Can we reject Option B, as "one" is singular and it is referring to a plural noun "rhinoceroses".

Thanks

Thanks
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 05 Sep 2022, 00:36
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As pointed out by GMAT NINJA that in option A intent is missing i.e "will visit park TO see rhino" makes more sense.
My question is whether "will continue" cannot be common for both "To visit" & "To see" i.e will continue to visit game parks and continue to see rhino ?
I evaluated this way.
In option C I thought that "and" is missing.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 05 Sep 2022, 03:06
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himanshu0077
As pointed out by GMAT NINJA that in option A intent is missing i.e "will visit park TO see rhino" makes more sense.
My question is whether "will continue" cannot be common for both "To visit" & "To see" i.e will continue to visit game parks and continue to see rhino ?
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For one thing, you cannot just take "will continue" to be common for both "To visit" & "To see", because there is no "to see" in option A.

I think what you meant was: can't we take "will continue to" to be common for both "visit" & "see".

The issue still is that the presence of "and" in option A still seems to suggest the possibility of two distinct things: tourists will continue to visit game parks and tourists will continue to see rhinoceroses.

A more logical meaning is to suggest whether tourists will continue to visit game parks for the purpose of seeing rhinoceroses whose horns are trimmed. This is the meaning that C depicts.
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 05 Sep 2022, 04:25
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KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

Can we reject Option B, as "one" is singular and it is referring to a plural noun "rhinoceroses".

Thanks

Thanks
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Hello KittyDoodles,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; you have correctly identified the pronoun error in Option B.

Kudos.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 05 Sep 2022, 04:32
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himanshu0077
As pointed out by GMAT NINJA that in option A intent is missing i.e "will visit park TO see rhino" makes more sense.
My question is whether "will continue" cannot be common for both "To visit" & "To see" i.e will continue to visit game parks and continue to see rhino ?
I evaluated this way.
In option C I thought that "and" is missing.
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Hello himanshu0077,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, if we take "will continue to" to be common to "visit game parks" and "see rhinoceroses", Option A incorrectly implies that the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks and, as a separate and parallel action, continue to see rhinoceroses; the intended meaning is that the question is whether tourists will continue to visit game parks for the purpose of seeing rhinoceroses; remember, if a phrase is subordinate to another in terms of importance (or sharing a cause-effect relationship), the phrases do not maintain parallelism.

Since the context here is the possible result of trimming the rhinos' horns, it makes more sense to refer to the possible result in terms of visiting the parks and seeing rhinos as related actions.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 06 Sep 2022, 03:17
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KittyDoodles
Hi Experts,

Can we reject Option B, as "one" is singular and it is referring to a plural noun "rhinoceroses".

Thanks

Thanks
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No. "One" doesn't need to agree with a noun like this.

In fact, the most common function of "one" is to refer specifically to one of multiple things mentioned earlier in the sentence.
E.g., These dresses are amazingly beautiful, but I cannot possibly afford to buy one. This sentence is fine.

If some single item has already been mentioned earlier in the sentence, then, in most contexts, the pronoun "it" will refer to later references to that same noun.



In THIS sentence, however, "one" just doesn't make logical sense in context. (Why would someone visit a park with the specific intention of only viewing ONE rhinoceros? Would that person's day be ruined if two of them showed up at the same time?)
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A proposal has been made to trim the horns from rhinoceroses to discou 26 Oct 2025, 03:17
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