After its international debut, the progress of the Cube

Question

After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it  could be manufactured to Western safety and
packaging specifications.

A. After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it

B. Since its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West had been briefly halted so that it

C. After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so as to ensure that it

D. The cube‘s progress towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted after its international debut so that it

E. Since its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it

What does 'its' refer to in OA. Please explain.

tuanquang269 · Accepted Answer

My reasoning is "After/since its international debut" should modify the Cube, not the progress of Cube. So, easily to eliminate A, B, C, and E.

Dbalks · Answer

This one is confusing to me as well, because it seems to be referring to the Cube itself, which isnt the subject of the sentence, the cube's progress is.

I chose D, but only because the other sentences all incorrectly modified its international debut, with the cube's progress. The cubes progress didnt debut, the Cube did.

Dbalks · Answer

tuanquang269,

What is the antecedent of it in D. Im not arguing that A,B,C, and E are right, but D also appears incorrect as vix mentioned before.

"The cube‘s progress towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted after its international debut so that it.."

it seems to refer to the antecedent progress, which wouldnt make sense.

Any help making sense of this?

siddharthmuzumdar · Answer

Even I have the same problem understanding option D. In option D, "the cube's progress", not "the cube", is the subject. Am I correct in understanding this?

If so, then "the progress was halted after its debut"...does this construction make sense? I do not think that the progress made any debut; rather the cube did. So the antecedent of 'its' and 'it' is confusing. Could some one please throw some light on this?

ChrisLele · Answer

Hi Vix,

As others pointed out, the antecedent to its is the progress of the cube, which is clearly incorrect. I believe that the question was only testing for the correct modifier and thus is a poorly written question. (D) should be written so the antecedent to its is clearly the cube.

siddharthmuzumdar · Answer

Based on this, is the question correct? If yes, then is option D the correctly framed option? If yes, then is the correct answer D?

Would be glad if all the ambiguities are resolved.

vix · Answer

Thanks guys. As ChrisLele pointed out, this is a poorly contructed question. The OA, however, is D.

rajeevrks27 · Answer

poor Qn...
If asked opt 4 D....however IT has no antecedent in D....so poor..

prab · Answer

it is generally accepted that a pronoun should point to a antecedent that is not is a possessive case. So this might be a bit confusion here, but the first rule of GMAT is to find the best ans. among the ans choices and not the correct ans.

+1 for D, all others have misplaced modifier problem.

+1 for D, all others have misplaced modifier problem.

prab · Answer

i also want to add a small note, please make sure that you follow the VAN structure while correcting sentences.

Verb > Adjective > Noun.

Verb is the first thing that you should concentrate, then Adjective and the Noun.( from Manhattan Gmat SC).

manwiththeharmonica · Answer

Doesn't D have a pronoun error? The pronoun "its" is fine, but can "cube's" be a correct referent for "it"?

Posted from my mobile device

p2bhokie · Answer

I concur with ChrisLele....The question is clearly missing the antecedent....Cube's progress cannot be the antecedent for 'it'...

GmatBawse · Answer

I agree, "its" refers to cube's progress, not cube since in "cube's progress" , cube is in possessive case.

HKD1710 · Answer

(A) After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and
packaging specifications.

(D) The cube‘s progress towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted after its international debut so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and
packaging specifications.

Please see the full sentence version of both A & D? What seems to be the difference? Why is A wrong? Could you please explain?

Thanks.

GmatBawse · Answer

As mentioned previously, we are taking best of the 5 options. The better option is D since this is the only option that refers to cube's progress while other options explicitly refer to "the progress of the cube" which is incorrect.

IMO, D is not perfectly worded since cube's progress is not referring to "cube" and even in this case for " its  international debut" the antecedent is progress not cube (as cube is mentioned in possesive form only).

This is a poorly worded question. If we need to pick one option, we can choose D.

HKD1710 · Answer

Hi gmatbuddha , (A) After its international debut, the progress of the Cube (D) The cube‘s progress ... after its international debut I understand question is not of the official level but then i wonder if there could be some takeaway from it. I want to discuss only the referent of its. What is the difference between the progress of cube & cube's progress? aren't they same? if yes then the referent of "its" in both the choices is progress. This way i do not see any difference between choice A and D. I am kind trying to prove how poor the questions is :lol:

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

Options A, B, C, and E are clearly wrong for modifier reason, but even option D has 'it' which is not correctly modifying what it should be.
As pointed out above, the options can be improved to match the GMAT standards.

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After its international debut, the progress of the Cube

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After its international debut, the progress of the Cube

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