Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her

Question

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

(A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

(B) Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels

(C) Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

(D) Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels

(E) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

Similar Question  LINK

souvik101990 · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

This sentence has a pronoun agreement error. Subject and object pronouns cannot refer back to possessive nouns; they must refer only to subject and object nouns. The subject in this sentence is "Agatha Christie's travels," not Agatha Christie herself. The first instance of "her" is correct because this pronoun is used as a possessive: "her   archaeologist husband." However, the second instance of "her," an object pronoun, is incorrect: "inspired her   to write..."

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) This choice illogically states that the travels inspired the novels themselves, rather than inspiring Christie to write the novels.

(C) This choice introduces a false cause-effect statement. The original meaning indicates that Christie traveled because her husband was an archaeologist. According to this choice, however, Christie used their travels as inspiration because her husband was an archaeologist, which is clearly illogical.

(D) This choice seems to indicate that Christie and her husband were inspired to write the novels together. This cannot be the case because this choice also clearly states
that they are "her mystery novels," not both of theirs.

(E) CORRECT. This choice corrects the original pronoun agreement error by moving the second instance of "her" in front of "mystery novels," which changes it from an object pronoun to a possessive pronoun: "Agatha Christie's travels...her   mystery novels..."

Natia · Answer

Well, here is the information from Manhattan SC
Possessive nouns are particularly dangerous on GMAT.
e.g.
Jose's room is so messy that  his  mother calls  him  a pig.
The possessive noun in the sentence is Jose's. Possessive pronouns can refer to back possessive nouns, such as, possessive pronoun "his" here refers back to possessive noun Jose's. However,  subject and object pronouns may not refer to back to possessive nouns. Therefore the object pronoun "him" is used incorrectly, because it may not refer to back to Jose's. "Him" would be only accurate if it refered back to the word Jose.

I think we have the same situation in the question posted by sudeep. Second "her" here may refer to Agatha Christie's travels, which is possessive noun and thus violates rhe rule explained above.

walker · Answer

I remember this one form one of MGMAT CAT and explanation that second "her" in A incorrectly refers to "Agatha Christie's" and that first "her" as possessive pronoun is correct.

chetan2u · Answer

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

• Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired  her  to write several mystery novels  close 2nd choice... However ,the antecedents of the last 'her' is not clear..

• Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
 changes the meaning

• Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels  changes the meaning..the inspiring novels were not because husband was an archaeologist

• Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
 changes the meaning..the inspiring novels were notwritten by both

• Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
 corrects the last 'her' by changing into her novels

a good question
ans E..

Ergenekon · Answer

E is wrong because it is an indirect way of saying A. Remember, in the gmat verbs -inspired, are preferred to nouns 'inspiration'

Pags · Answer

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

• Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels
 Correct.
 • Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
 Incorrect. Novels cannot be "inspired".
 • Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
 Incorrect. "their" has no antecedent.
 • Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
 Incorrect. "their" has no antecedent.
 • Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
 Incorrect. Novels cannot be "inspired".
 
The OA is clearly A.

sjaskaran · Answer

The confusion is between A & E in this case. There is a major meaning issue with the choice A.

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.

A) Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels

The subject of the sentence is - Agatha Christie's travels. The main question to answer is - Did her travels inspire her to write "several" mystery novels  or  Did her travels worked as a source of inspiration for several mystery novels written by her 
Choice A suggests that because of her travels she wrote (several) mystery novels, i.e. if her husband was not an archaeologist and she would not have travelled with him, then, she would not have written several mystery novels.

Choice E corrects the meaning error. It clearly says that her travels with her husband worked as a source of inspiration in several mystery novels written by her, i.e. her writing of several novels may not have contained a lot of places that she travelled with her husband if her husband was not an archaeologist & she was just a normal woman who did not travel to mysterious places such as archaeological sites and hotels visited during the archaeological site visits. However, she still would have written several novels based on her creativity.

souvik101990 · Answer

sjaskaran  is SPOT on.

a THING cannot inspire you
someONE can.
A thing can be an inspiration.

Konstantin1983 · Answer

Hi Chetan2u!
Good question i agree. The only contenders are A and E. Could please explain what could be antecedent of the last "her" in option A? I see only one antecedent - Agatha Christie itself. Thanks!

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
 In A lets see the nouns and pronouns which we have..

1)Agatha's- this is possessive form..

2)her husband- again possessive form.. Correctly refers back to Agatha's husband..

3) her- this is object. there is no subject in the sentence to which it can refer to.. It cannot refer to possessive Agastha's..

this is changed in E by using her novel- possessive form again and correctly refering to Agastha's.. 
Hope it helped

goforgmat · Answer

Confusing this question is..
Everywhere we read that pronoun can refer to only subject or object but not the possessive nouns.
Can someone point out the official question if there be any such to confirm our belief that it actually can.
 egmat  some insight into this.

sayantanc2k · Answer

First, possessive pronouns should not be confused with possessive adjectives:

This car is  his : possessive pronoun.
This is  his  car: possessive adjective.

Second, Possessive nouns are used as adjectives. Therefore the following rules of thumb could be useful to remember:

1. Personal pronoun must refer to a noun, not an adjective. Hence a possessive noun cannot be an antecedent of a personal pronoun. ( John's... he: wrong)
2. Possessive adjective may refer to a possessive noun - both act as adjectives. (John's.. his: acceptable)
3. Possessive adjective though may refer to a noun. (John.... his: acceptable)

EducationAisle · Answer

Actually GMAT is quite flexible on this front.

So, it is not be a good idea to eliminate answer choices based on this.

chetan2u · Answer

Just two points on your Observations

Could you please substantiate this point with some real OG Qs

would you kindly give us a reason to eliminate the choice

Looking forward to hear from you

sayantanc2k · Answer

Purely from grammar perspective, it is not acceptable to use a personal pronoun (subject or object) to refer to a possessive noun because a possessive noun acts as an adjective - a personal pronoun can replace only a noun, not an adjective. Therefore I definitely see a valid reasoning that  chetan2u  eliminated the choice. Nonetheless it would be interesting to see whether GMAT test writers ever deviated from this rule.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Chetan, you can refer to #109 in OG13 (Among the objects found...), where object pronoun is referring back to possessive noun.

Since this seems to be an unofficial question, I would be interested in knowing the OE. Theoretically, it can be argued that the  travels  did not inspire her to write; it was the  experience  she gained because of her travels that gave her the  content  for her novels.

However, as I mentioned, it's not an official question and so, one would be distinctly unfortunate, if one has to choose between A and E on the actual exam:).

p.s. This fact (object pronouns can refer to subject nouns) has been known for quite some time (at least since OG13, if not earlier); however, many people continued to believe that the subject pronoun can still not refer to possessive pronoun. An example in OG16 (can't remember off the top of my head, but can look it up) busted that myth as well!

chetan2u · Answer

Hi Ashish,
thanks for the prompt reply..
1) I agree with you the Q is not an official Q and from a source.
2) I did go through the example from OG and felt that the meaning could be conveying that her is refering back to the goddess
 
here the portion after EITHER tells us that people are asking the godess BONA DEA's aid in... and after OR, thanking HER for SUCH help..
so first portion talks of the help asked and second portion talks of thanking for that help. It UNAMBIGUOUSLY refers to the SAME help. so logically HER should be standing for the godess..

But thats not the case in the sentence in the question.. 
A's travels with her husband inspired  her  to write several mystery novels..
this HER could be Agatha or Mrs X, Mrs Y, who have been inspired by A's travels..

3) ( I may be slightly biased in my thinking), But may I request you to give some more examples if you come across, where the object is not literally related to the possessive noun as in this case.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Chetan, as you've rightly mentioned, in the official question,  her  is referring back to the  goddess  (though technically  goddess  is not present in the sentence in the  subject  form). Hence my suggestion earlier that absence of  subject noun antecedent  should not be a criterion for dismissing the usage of an object pronoun (or a subject pronoun).

As for pronoun ambiguity, GMAT has had a rather  liberal  view on this, and hence the general recommendation that pronoun ambiguity should  not  be the first reason for us to eliminate an answer choice.

In view of this, and since the question on this thread is an unofficial question, it's bit of a moot point taking this question as the basis of discussing pronoun ambiguity.

p.s. Yeah sure, if I come across any other official question, would highlight it here.

rhine29388 · Answer

getting confused between choices a and e still inclined more towards choice a

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards