|
Author |
Message |
|
TAGS:
|
|
|
Director
Joined: 26 Oct 2016
Posts: 674
Location: United States
Concentration: Marketing, International Business
GPA: 4
WE: Education (Education)
|
Re: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
 23 Aug 2017, 10:57
anje29 wrote: LogicGuru1 wrote: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, enough computers to use them effectively.
Simple of coordinating conjunctions :- FANBOYS - for, and, nor, because, or, yet ,so
A Coordinating conjunction introduces 2 independent clauses.
Clauses by definition should have independent subjects. and also independent verb(although not parallel but still a verb is present in the second clause)
Therefore the problem is absence of a PROPER SUBJECT in the second clause.
Only D has the proper subject "THEY". "THEM" in the NON-Underlined part refers back to "THEY"
REST ALL OPTIONS A,B,C,E are missing the subject. "THEM" in the NON-Underlined part has no subject to refer back to.
ANSWER IS D Hi, Are you sure 'them' is referring to 'they' here. As per the meaning of the sentence 'them' should refer to the 'computers' . @Anje (A) and (B) are incorrect because of their poor parallelism. In this "or" construction, the first half is "do not have", a tensed verb. Therefore, the second half of the construction must also contain a tensed verb. (A) and (B) don't have a tensed verb ("likely to have" contains only an infinitive - not what we want here). (option E) contains a double negative, so it's out. (option C) is, as far as i can tell grammatically correct (although the commas are superfluous in such a construction), but it's simply absurd. The use of "or" here creates a sentence that is weirdly self-contradictory. The clear point of the sentence is that the schools don't have enough computers, so you need to select the choice that's grammatically correct but also in line with that meaning. (option D) is the only choice that satisfies both criteria.
_________________
Thanks & Regards,
Anaira Mitch
|
|
|
|
|
|
Verbal Forum Moderator
Status: Greatness begins beyond your comfort zone
Joined: 08 Dec 2013
Posts: 1960
Location: India
Concentration: General Management, Strategy
GPA: 3.2
WE: Information Technology (Consulting)
|
Re: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
30 Nov 2017, 12:46
egmat wrote: anje29 wrote: LogicGuru1 wrote: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, enough computers to use them effectively.
Simple of coordinating conjunctions :- FANBOYS - for, and, nor, because, or, yet ,so
A Coordinating conjunction introduces 2 independent clauses.
Clauses by definition should have independent subjects. and also independent verb(although not parallel but still a verb is present in the second clause)
Therefore the problem is absence of a PROPER SUBJECT in the second clause.
Only D has the proper subject "THEY". "THEM" in the NON-Underlined part refers back to "THEY"
REST ALL OPTIONS A,B,C,E are missing the subject. "THEM" in the NON-Underlined part has no subject to refer back to.
ANSWER IS D Hi, Are you sure 'them' is referring to 'they' here. As per the meaning of the sentence 'them' should refer to the 'computers' . Hello anje29, I will glad to answer this one. The plural pronoun them in the non-underlined portion of the sentence refers to plural computers and not to many schools. It is the computers that are not used effectively. Hope this helps.  Thanks. Shraddha , RonPurewal , sayantanc2k , mikemcgarry , daagh , egmat , EMPOWERgmatRichC , AjiteshArun , ChiranjeevSingh -- is it okay to have plural pronouns refer to two different antecedents?
_________________
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. - Henry Ford
The Moment You Think About Giving Up, Think Of The Reason Why You Held On So Long
+1 Kudos if you find this post helpful
|
|
|
|
|
|
e-GMAT Representative
Joined: 02 Nov 2011
Posts: 2499
|
Re: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
30 Nov 2017, 15:45
Skywalker18 wrote: Hello Skywalker18, I will be glad to help you with this one. A pronoun must have a just one logical antecedent in the sentence. If a sentence uses multiple pronouns, all of them must have clear logical antecedents. It is absolutely okay to use two plural pronouns that CLEARLY refer to their respective plural noun antecedents. After all, we have this usage in the correct answer choice of an official sentence. So this usage is absolutely acceptable. The only logic by which the usage of pronouns is governed is that they must have clear logical antecedents. In the official sentence in question, the plural pronoun they logically refers only to many schools and plural pronoun them in the non-underlined portion of the sentence refers to plural computers. Hope this helps. Thanks. Shraddha
_________________
 
| '4 out of Top 5' Instructors on gmatclub | 70 point improvement guarantee | www.e-gmat.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
Joined: 28 Dec 2011
Posts: 4675
|
Re: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
30 Nov 2017, 18:08
Skywalker18 wrote: is it okay to have plural pronouns refer to two different antecedents? Dear Skywalker18, I'm happy to respond. With all due respect to Shraddha, I will disagree. I will say that, under certain circumstance, it is 100% fine for a single plural pronoun to refer to two different antecedents. 1) John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were bitter political rivals at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but they became the dearest of friends in their old age. That sentence is 100% correct, and the pronoun " they" clear refers to the two subject nouns in parallel. This would be the most common case: if two single nouns are in parallel, right next to each other, this setup makes it very easy to include them together in a single pronoun. It's possible, though, that the two nouns would be separated or in different roles. If the two nouns are separate, the pronoun " they" is often followed by the word " both" for clarity. 2) Diamond is the hardest substance in the natural world while graphite is so soft that it's smearable, and yet they both are forms of the element carbon. 3) T.S. Eliot was as much a staunch conservative as e e cummings was a non-conformist liberal, but they both broke substantial new ground in the modernist expansion of the poetic canon. Both of those sentences are 100% correct. Both of these are of the general logical form " P and Q are different but they're also similar." The grammatical construction of #3 is particularly sophisticated, but it's 100% correct. Does all this make sense? Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test Prep
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)
|
|
|
|
|
|
GMAT Tutor
Joined: 15 Nov 2013
Posts: 59
|
Re: One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
05 Dec 2017, 02:17
Skywalker18 wrote: -- is it okay to have plural pronouns refer to two different antecedents? ^^ this is an official problem. if something happens in the correct answer to an official problem, then ... well ... you have your answer to "is it okay?". EVERYTHING in OFFICIALLY correct sentences is correct and acceptable!__ in fact — in the problem at hand here, these two pronouns MUST refer to different things. "they" is a subject, and "them" is an object in the same clause / part of the sentence. if both of these were intended to refer to the same noun, then they'd have to be "they" and "them selves", not just "they" and "them".
_________________
Please visit my corners of the web:
http://www.RonPurewal.com
http://www.facebook.com/RonPurewalGMAT
__
Pueden hacerle preguntas a Ron en castellano
Potete fare domande a Ron in italiano
On peut poser des questions à Ron en français
Voit esittää kysymyksiä Ron:lle myös suomeksi
__
Un bon vêtement, c'est un passeport pour le bonheur.
—Yves Saint-Laurent
|
|
|
|
|
|
Verbal Expert
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 3226
Location: Germany
WE: Corporate Finance (Pharmaceuticals and Biotech)
|
One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have, [#permalink]
Show Tags
07 Dec 2017, 08:34
Skywalker18 wrote: In general no because a pronoun ambiguity would arise, but in case the subject and object are "they" and "them" (as in this case), such ambiguity does not arise, since if the object referred to the same antecedent, it would be the reflexive form "themsleves" rather than "them".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One report concludes that many schools do not have, or likely to have,
[#permalink]
07 Dec 2017, 08:34
|
|
|
|
|
Go to page
Previous
1 2
[ 26 posts ]
|
|
|
|
|
|
