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655-705 (Hard)|   Pronouns|      
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Sajjad1994
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 08 Feb 2020, 08:12
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E
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

34% (00:58) correct 66% (01:15) wrong based on 307 sessions

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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, Blakey opposed them trivializing the popular genre.

(A) them trivializing the popular genre
(B) their trivializing of the popular genre
(C) them when trivializing the popular genre
(D) the popular genre being trivialized by them
(E) their trivializing the popular genre

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E
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daagh
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 12 Feb 2020, 11:32
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, Blakey opposed them trivializing the popular genre.

(A) them trivializing the popular genre --- them, an object pronoun cannot act as a subject pronoun.
(B) their trivializing of the popular genre –Though somewhat ok, their trivializing of is superfluous.
(C) them when trivializing the popular genre--- same error as in A.
(D) the popular genre being trivialized by them --- genre being trivialized is wordy and being is a modifier the genre. Wrong
(E) their trivializing the popular genre - - The acceptable choice.

Generally, this topic is not written in great style by the original author. You see, they are all great jazz musicians and deserve to be called by at least 'who' rather than by ‘that’ as if they are a herd.
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, Updated on: 15 Feb 2020, 00:06
Originally posted by aarushisingla on 13 Feb 2020, 15:08.
Last edited by aarushisingla on 15 Feb 2020, 00:06, edited 1 time in total.
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Hi,

Could you please tell me why B is wrong?
I was confused between B and E but then choose B because it is more concise.
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 14 Feb 2020, 12:48
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Official Explanation

The original sentence is faulty in its use of the pronoun them instead of the possessive their where the object of a verb (opposed) is a gerund (trivializing). Choice (E) corrects the improper use of them, replacing it with the possessive their, which properly precedes the gerund trivializing.

The correct answer is (E).
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 15 Feb 2020, 15:49
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Trivializing their genre - doesn’t it sound awkward compared to trivializing of their genre . Why is B wrong ?

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Shirisha995
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 17 Feb 2020, 21:39
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, Blakey opposed them trivializing the popular genre.

(A) them trivializing the popular genre - Them here refers to jazz musicians. Blakey didn't oppose musicians but musicians quality i.e. trivializing. Possessive pronoun their makes more sense here.


(B) their trivializing of the popular genre - The use of is unnecessary here.
For ex: If you replace trivializing with more commonly used word like criticizing. Criticizing of something is not a proper construction

(C) them when trivializing the popular genre - same as A

(D) the popular genre being trivialized by them - This is awkward and wordy. Also, passive voice should be avoided as much as possible.

(E) their trivializing the popular genre - correct answer
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Despite his admiration of the great jazz musicians that preceded him, 03 Jun 2022, 10:13
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Sajjad1994
Official Explanation

The original sentence is faulty in its use of the pronoun them instead of the possessive their where the object of a verb (opposed) is a gerund (trivializing). Choice (E) corrects the improper use of them, replacing it with the possessive their, which properly precedes the gerund trivializing.

The correct answer is (E).
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why is B wrong, between B and D? Please explain
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