Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot

Question

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South  Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is  home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

https://archives.newyorker.com/?iid=15462&crd=0&searchKey=islands%20that%20dot%20the%20South%20Pacific#folio=059

The New Yorker 
 FEB 15, 1999 
PAGE 59

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific (generally called Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia)  has a population of only a few million people, it is  home to about a sixth of the world’s sixty-five hundred languages.

Professor · Accepted Answer

A. Although   the vast constellation   of small islands that dot the South  Pacific   has   a population of only a few million people,   it is    home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

subject = the vast constellation; verb = has

subject = it; verb = is

it refers to 'the vast constellation'.

daagh · Answer

As a general observation, a pronoun's most eligible suitor is the subject of the main clause. If there is no such suitor existing, then the pronoun will have to scout for the next eligible noun, may be an object or the object of a preposition and so on.

Here, the subject noun constellation is handily available and is most eligible. e. Therefore, there is no need to find another noun other than the constellation to be antecedent of 'it'.

Can it refer to the South Pacific? South Pacific is just an ocean and it cannot be home to either people or languages.

The constellation is the contrasted item by the word "although". Therefore, the other item being contrasted must be related to the constellation. If 'islands' were to be contrasted, then the sentence should start as -- Although the islands --

M8 · Answer

Professor I answered 'A' as well (the same reason as you explained). But the OA is 'B'. I'm confused.

Professor · Answer

thats true. i too overlooked cuz it doesnot clearly refer to "the constallation". since there are two singular nouns, so "it" could refer to "south pacific" as well. therefore A is incorrect. 

but "they" has only one referent i.e. "small ilands". therefore B is perfect.

trivikram · Answer

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages. 

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,it is 
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people,they are 
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is 
D.Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless 
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are 


The relative pronoun decides the number whether it is singular or plural

"that" is the rel pronoun and the closest noun is islands...So"they" is needed as a pronoun.

B stands

rafi · Answer

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South  Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is  home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is 
B. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are 
C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is 
D. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless 
E. Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are

Hi,
I stumbled upon this question during a CAT I took from the GMATPrep software. I remembered vaguely that there was an example I saw where a pronoun can refer to the Y object in the X of Y subject if it makes sense.
In the case above I did recognize that the subject is the vast constellation of small islands and it is singular but what the sentence talked about who is home to about sixth of the world's 6000 or so languages, I thought that the islands are a more appropriate home than the vast constellation so I picked B. I think I still have a hard time to decide why is it more appropriate than they. I read somewhere that there is an issue with parallelism but I am not sure I'm convinced. Can anyone explain why A is better than B, and give me examples where changing the pronoun to refer to the Y part ,in the X of Y subject, is better. How should this sentence be written so B is the correct answer?

Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to help

siyer · Answer

'The vast constellation' is singular.

You can omit the middle part and the sentence will still make sense.
'Although the vast constellation........has a population of........'

Based on this, B & E are out.

C. Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is
Use of 'although....and' is wrong.

D. Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless
Badly formed.

A. Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is
Correct answer.

rafi · Answer

I'm sorry but none of you answered my question. When will B be correct? can anyone give example for a similar sentence where the pronoun will refer to the of part in the prepositional part of the subject?

JenRugani · Answer

Hi rafi,

You're right that in a noun phrase like "X of Y," either X or Y can be the antecedent of a pronoun.

The breadth and intensity of the biology class lead many of its participants to study intensely.

The subject of this sentence is the plural compound noun "the breadth and intensity," so we use the plural main verb "lead." However, the pronoun "its" can logically refer only to the biology class, which is inside a prepositional phrase and is singular.

The key with these types of sentences is LOGIC -- in the question you posted, it's the entire CONSTELLATION of islands that contains the languages, not each individual island.

Hope that helps!

daagh · Answer

Hi, Rafi,

To answer your specific question, let me give you a couple of examples where the pronoun clearly refers to the of part of the preposition

Although none of  the test takers  have scored more than 600 in the GMAT, they are still applying to top business school 
Some of  the legislators  are expected to cross vote in the coming vote -on count, but they are keeping an eerie silence 
 The pronoun  they  in the first case refers to the test takers and in the second one to legislators

Skywalker18 · Answer

Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot the South  Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is  home to about a sixth of the world's 6,000 or so languages.

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, they are - Subject verb agreement - constellation is singular

(C) Pacific is populated by a only a few million people, and it is - although .. ,and is incorrect as we need an independent clause before and

(D) Pacific, having a population of only a few million people, is nonetheless - not even a sentence

(E) Pacific, is populated by only a few million people, yet they are- no verb

Answer A

NinetyFour · Answer

I ended up choosing B over A as I felt that it made the sentence's meaning more clear.

IT could refer to South pacific or vast constellation of islands in A

However in B, we know for sure they is referring to islands, making the sentence perfectly logical.

dabaobao · Answer

(A) Pacific has a population of only a few million people, it is  - Correct

(B) Pacific has a population of only a few million people,  they  are  - Wrong: 1) Pronoun

(C) Pacific  is  populated by a only a few million people,  and  it is  - Wrong: 1) Verb 2) Structure

(D) Pacific,  having  a population of only a few million people, is  nonetheless   - Wrong: 1) Redundancy 2) Meaning

(E) Pacific,  is  populated by only a few million people,  yet   they  are  - Wrong: 1) Verb 2) Redundancy 3) Pronoun

thangvietnam · Answer

your explanation is great , and, so gives us a lesion that we can use the cue in the non underlined part.

"collective noun+of+plural count" is not easy. sometime it is singular, other time plural, depending on meaning. sometime we consider it a mass. other time we consider it a group of many entities.

the population of students in this area growS fast.

the population of students in this area HAVE passed gmat.

the meaning in choice A is that all islands combined have the population of a few millions. but , consider

the constellation of islands in the south pacific have population of 1 milion persons, totalling 10 milion.

in this case, each island contain 1 milion.

i will come back to editing.

J3D1 · Answer

Can somebody please explain, why option (A) is correct shouldn't there be a ";" instead of "," as both are independent clause.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot

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Although the vast constellation of small islands that dot

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