One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation

Hi Gaurav1083,

Their is possessive pronoun so its referring family's. I think you are confused with pronoun they which can not refer to noun inside the possessive noun.


A) Subject verb agreement ( Person is singular so can not be referred by their)
B) Leave B.
C) Minds can not be used for a single person so this choice is wrong.
D) Infinitive ( to+ verb) generally used to show intention, For ex to plan, to kill. Result can not show intention so this choice is also not correct.
E) appreciating is showing continuity , result can not be continuous so this choice is wrong.

I hope my explanation will help.

I don't agree with the OA.

This same question has been discussed in the following thread:
one-result-of-the-family-s-long-ordeal-at-sea-was-their-117620.html

But no fruitful result is there in the above mentioned thread.

As per me it should be between D and E. But I am not able to decide which one is more correct out of these two.

(A) their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their ---> What does first "their" refer to? Family's is singular. And the second "their", which is plural, is not in agreement with singular noun "a person"
(B) their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their ---> Here the second error of "Singular noun to plural pronoun" has been corrected but still what does the first "their" refer to"?
(c) to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her ---> Note that the word "minds" after "his or her" is not underlined. So its incorrect to say "his or her minds". It should be "his or her mind"

I would say it's not a good question to practice. Let stick to Official questions.

One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

A. their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their
Wrong.
- the first "their" is confusing, "their" means plural, but "the family" is singular.
- A person vs. Their minds <--- wrong.

B. their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their
Wrong.
- the first "their" is confusing, "their" means plural, but "the family" is singular. Official GMAT hardly commits to a basic pronoun problem like this one.

C. to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her
Wrong.
- See the non-underlined part "minds" <-- plural ==> "a person" must be wrong.

D. to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their
Acceptable.
- D has no S-V agreement or pronoun problem. The issue is infinitive mentions indicative futuristic action, but "result" does not mean that.

E. appreciating that as people dehydrate, their
Wrong.
- Progressive tense "was appreciating" is not correct here.

Hope it helps.

PS: Mike - Magoosh has a great explanation for this question in other website. Mike prefers D.

I usually replace unfamiliar wording with more familiar wording to test the structure of the sentence (For meaning don't change the wording). For this sentence, my approach was:

One result of the scientists' research was their appreciation
against
One result of the scientists' research was to appreciate

In this case "their appreciation" makes more sense, so C,D and E and Wrong.

The second issue is of a Person dehydrates, their Vs. People dehydrate, their
It's simple enough, when people dehydrate, their.....

So A is also wrong, that leaves us with B.

Hi,
Acc to Manhattan SC, all they,them, their refer to the same plural antecedent. Here, the second 'their' refers to 'person' but the first 'their' don't refer to 'person'.
Hence, the sentence is grammatically wrong.
IMO, the answer has to be (d).

This is a great question on linking verbs in parallelism

Look at this example (Source: Manhattan GMAT 4th edition):

The bouquet of flowers was a giving a love

The above example is not structurally paralleled. Was is a linking verb which should connect both the structure in parallel

A right form of writing the same would be The bouquet of flowers was a gift of love

We can solve the question under discussion in the same way.



One result of X was their appreciation. Both structured in parallel. To appreciate and appreciating would be not be parallel to the noun one result

Kudos if you like my post

I dont agree to the OA. This screenshot down below is from Manhattan Gmat Book.

well the problem with grammar is that, unlike maths, it is not governed by some hard facts !! i am not contending the rule given in Manhattan book .that rule is fine !! but the problem is that "this rule" does not present various other cases and exceptions .in fact, it is almost impossible to write a book that makes all rules very clear(BTW Manhattan SC is master piece)
so where is the real problem? ----->"this rule" (the one u have quoted) will hold true as long as u do not have another "noun" in the middle of the sentence
so in the sentence : their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their------>"their" can very well refer to "people"

is it clear now?

HERE ARE MY VIEWS

Q:> One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

A: their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their > Sub-verb agreement error

B: their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their >Correct in meaning

> Although "FAMILY" is singular but here the 1st "their" used refers to the FAMILY

> The reason for this is usage is that the decision is of all the family members as in this sentence [The staff are in disagreement over the findings] >staff members are in disagreement


C: to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her > To is wrong, that is required

D: to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their > To is wrong, that is required

E: appreciating that as people dehydrate, their

One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their - SV minds - person
their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their - Correct their can be used to explain that every individual in the family appreciated
to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her- SV minds - person
to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their - to + verb is used to present intent of an action
appreciating that as people dehydrate, their - Verb tense error
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I found one post of mikemcgarry on other forum..won't post the name of it here..but here is his explanation. Thanks again Mike for clearing things up for me

Hi, there. I'm happy to contribute to this. Smile

First, let's address the pronoun & number difficulties.

"Family" is singular, so use of the pronoun "their" is incorrect. This is a classic GMAT SC mistake --- to use a singular noun (like "family", "company", "crowd", etc.) which implicitly contains a number of people, and then refer to it with a plural pronoun. The GMAT loves this as a mistake pattern. We find this classic mistake pattern in (A) and (B), so they are both right out.

On the other side of the sentence, "minds" is plural, so that requires a plural subject --- not the "his or her" singular subject of (C) --- "his or her minds" is incorrect, so (C) is out.

That leaves (D) and (E).
D: to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their
E: appreciating that as people dehydrate, their

What I find problematic about this question --- there's not a clear black/white grammatical distinction between these two choices. On the GMAT, you will always find something black/white that allows you to determine which of two choices is correct. What we have here is very subtle, more subtle that what I have seen from GMAC. Both "when" and "as" are correct, so the choice is simply between the infinitive "to appreciate" vs. the gerund "appreciating"

To my ear, the predicate following "result" should be an infinitive, not a gerund.

"the result is to do X" --- this sounds idiomatically correct, direct, and clear
"the result is doing X" --- this sounds weaker, less forceful, and awkward

Because of that, I'll say I prefer D as the answer, but I will hasten to add: I don't feel as committed to this answer as I would to an answer in the GMAT itself, because I feel there's not a strong enough black/white distinction among these answer choices.

Fundamentally, I think this is a poorly written question. It's surprising how many low quality sources out there are producing questions for the GMAT, and the unsuspecting public gobbles those questions up. In the next few weeks, Magoosh will publish book reviews of the various GMAT books on the our free blog ---- basically, all sources in print received poor grades except for MGMAT.

Here's a higher quality SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1183
When you submit your answer, the following page will have the complete video explanation.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if anyone reading this has any further questions.

Mike Smile

According to GMAT rules, the use of “their” to refer to the singular “family’s” is incorrect. However, we must remember that the GMAT is not the only authority of the English language. A very important authority of he language, Merriam Webster, explains the use of their.

Usage Discussion of their

They used as an indefinite subject (sense 2) is sometimes objected to on the grounds that it does not have an antecedent. Not every pronoun requires an antecedent, however. The indefinite they is used in all varieties of contexts and is standard.

They, their, them, themselves: English lacks a common-gender third person singular pronoun that can be used to refer to indefinite pronouns (as everyone, anyone, someone). Writers and speakers have supplied this lack by using the plural pronouns <and every one to rest themselves betake — Shakespeare> <I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly — Jane Austen> <it is too hideous for anyone in their senses to buy — W. H. Auden>. The plural pronouns have also been put to use as pronouns of indefinite number to refer to singular nouns that stand for many persons <'tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech — Shakespeare> <a person can't help their birth — W. M. Thackeray> <no man goes to battle to be killed. — But they do get killed — G. B. Shaw>. The use of they, their, them, and themselves as pronouns of indefinite gender and indefinite number is well established in speech and writing, even in literary and formal contexts. This gives you the option of using the plural pronouns where you think they sound best, and of using the singular pronouns (as he, she, he or she, and their inflected forms) where you think they sound best.

Therefore, B is the best choice. Although this usage of their does not follow what the GMAT considers the standard rules of written English language, other authorities consider this usage correct.
_________________

VeritasKarishma

Just have a small doubt, why are we referring to the family with "their" appreciation in this question?

Its a collective noun so we should be using singular, isn't it?

Amazing question, for a moment, I had almost marked (C) because of his or her but later when I put that in sentence, I found out that a person can have only one mind and not minds

One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

(A) A. their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their- A person [...] its
(B) their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their - Perfectly balanced choice, let's keep this
(C) to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her - As explained it doesn't make sense when put in the question stem
(D) to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their - To appreciate shows a sense of purpose and not a result. That's a good trap in which people can easily fall
(E) appreciating that as people dehydrate, their - Verb-ing participial appreciating turned me off. The whole sentence become ambiguous when put in the original sentence. One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was [...should be followed by a noun...]

(B) should be the correct answer.

The question has been wrongly quoted here. Below is the actual correct question:

One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.
A. their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their
B. their appreciation that when people dehydrate, their
C. an appreciation that as people dehydrate, their
D. to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her
E. appreciating that as people dehydrate, his or her

OA: A

When we talk about family, can we use "they"?

OA is wrong. Their is plural while family is singular.

Imo the best answer although also not ideal is E

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