In order to document their contribution to the field of structural eng

In order to document their contribution to the field of structural engineering, the curators at the university’s art museum organized a comprehensive exhibition of the work of leading Swiss designers, including photographs, diagrams, and models of their most famous bridges and buildings.

The reference of 'their' is not clear in the sentence. As per the original sentence, 'their' can refer to either the curators or the Swiss designers. Logically it should refer to the Swiss designers because they are the one's who have made the contribution. So the correct option should clearly have this reference.

A. In order to document their contribution to the field of structural engineering, the curators at the university’s art museum organized a comprehensive exhibition of the work of leading Swiss designers, including photographs, diagrams, and models of their most famous bridges and buildings. Pronoun reference error as stated above.

B. In order to document the contribution of the Swiss to the field of structural engineering, the curators at the university’s art museum organized a comprehensive exhibition of the work of leading Swiss designers, including photographs, diagrams, and models of their most famous bridges and buildings. Correct option as this rectifies the pronoun reference problem in the original sentence

C. In order to document the contribution of the Swiss to the field of structural engineering, the curators at the university’s art museum organized a comprehensive exhibition of the work of leading Swiss designers, including photographs, diagrams, and models of its most famous bridges and buildings.The original error is corrected. But the usage of its to refer to the Swiss designers is incorrect

D. In order to document their contribution to the structural engineering field, a comprehensive exhibition was organized by the curators at the university’s art museum of their photographs, diagrams, and models of the most famous bridges and buildings of leading Swiss designers.Pronoun reference error as stated above. The usage of the second 'their' is also ambiguous.

E. The curators at the university’s art museum, in order to document their contribution to the field, organized a comprehensive exhibition of the work of leading Swiss designers, including photographs, diagrams, and models of their most famous bridges and buildings.Pronoun reference error as stated above. In fact here the pronoun incorrectly refers to the curators.

I choose C over OA B for following reasons

and models of [its/their most famous bridges and buildings]. .........can be written as
and models of [Swiss most famous bridges and buildings]......in case of its OR
and models of [designers/s' most famous bridges and buildings]..... in case of their

I believe bridges and buildings belongs to Swiss rather than designers.
Experts, Please help to clarify my understanding of this part.

I thought likewise.."its" can only refer to the Swiss in C, so I didn't think there was an antecedent error.

I have the same doubt. I also picked C, as 'its' can refer to Swiss. Designers don't own bridges and buildings.

Can someone please explain why B is correct over C?
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In "... leading Swiss designers", "Swiss" is actually an adjective - so a pronoun cannot refer an adjective, it must refer a noun, i.e "designers". So, we need a plural pronoun to refer a plural noun.

Cheers !!

Imo B
Well this was easy
In the original sentence there is an error in pronoun their . We are not sure the antecedent of their so A is out
B is correct as first their is replaced by Swiss which removes the ambiguity
C its is wrong to refer to Swiss
D again their is wrong
E Changes the structure into a more complex structure and again there is pronoun error in E

C should be correct. their most famous bridges and buildings are illogical. IT should be Swiss most famous bridges and buildings. B is clearly wrong.

'Swiss' is an adjective in the context. It or its cannot refer to an adjective and can only stand for a noun. The only singular noun in C is the museum. C gives a wrong picture that the museum's creations are being exhibited.
In general, Swiss can also as a noun refer to a Swiss native; However, it is not relevant in the context.
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A,D,E - Meaning and modifier issue. The curators are not
the one who are documenting their contribution. It is the "contribution of the swiss"

C - pronoun agreement issue. Its cannot refer back to swiss designers.

Hence, B is the Answer.

Hey egmat

What is the role of "including" in the OA of this question. Isn't it a verb-ing modifier, which is supposed to modify the action of the preceding clause?

POE:

A) THEIR is vague, who is their? the curators or the designers?
B) Correct
C) ITS is wrong, we need THEIR to refer back to the designers
D) an exhibition did not document the designers' contributions
E) THEIR is vague, and the modifier is dangling. Did the art museum document the contribution to the field?

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

B

Pronouns must refer clearly to the nouns they replace. Here, the antecedent for the pronoun their in the opening phrase is ambiguous. Are the curators documenting their own contribution or the contribution of the leading Swiss designers? Based on the overall meaning of the sentence, their should refer to the designers, not to the curators, so the correct choice must make that clear. Eliminate (E), which retains the ambiguous pronoun their.

(C) resolves the problem with their in the opening phrase, but then uses its in place of their at the end of the sentence. (D) makes the sentence extremely awkward by switching the active verb organized to the passive verb was organized. This also makes their even more ambiguous, since it should now technically refer to the exhibition. (B) resolves the ambiguity by replacing their contribution to the field with the contribution of the Swiss to the field, so it could be the correct choice.
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Can it refer back to "the swiss" in the opening modifier? kindly guide.

Regards,
Gaurav

Dissecting correct answer

In order to document the contribution -- noun phrase modifying curators/noun
of the Swiss to the field of structural engineering, -- propositional phrase
the curators -- noun
at the university’s art museum
organized -- verb
a comprehensive exhibition -- noun phrase
of the work of leading Swiss designers, -- prepositional phrase
including -- modifier
photographs, -- start of list I
diagrams, and
models of their most famous
bridges and -- list II
buildings.

Hi Bunuel,

How can we justify the use of "their" in correct answer as there is a possibility that "their" can take either designers or curators?

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