Bluerobbin I see. I need kudos for explaining this one !
Jim is working harder than Jack, as he wants the scholarship. ----> He (in subject position of first clause) is not ambiguous. It refers to Jim not Jack.
I can break the above sentence into 2 clause
Jim is working harder than Jack.
He wants the scholarship.
Now this will hint that this sentence is different. Do you have more than one clauses??
In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the US was nearly as fast as it was in the 1970's >>>> "it" is correct as it is comparing the "rate of increase"
2 mistakes in this sentence -
1. "as fast as" is redundant since you are using "increase" - rate of increase
2. Use DOUBLE,TRIPLE as verbs and TWICE ,THRICE for comparisons
Fishing is a sport and knitting is an art, hence john loves it. here it is ambigious as to whether it refers to Fishing or Knitting. >> Right on ! "it" is ambiguous. Break the sentence into three parts
Fishing is a sport
knitting is an art
John loves it ----> "it" (in the object position of clause 3) can refer to sport or to art. Hence ambiguous!
In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970’s.
(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than
IMO : C
In your example if you say "it" is referring to minority population then you are forgetting the preposition "of"
e.g Men of Rome that fought bravely
that refers to "Men" which is a noun before the preposition.
BlueRobin wrote:
nusmavrik wrote:
It is in the subject position of the "first" clause and unambiguously refer to "constellation"
Jim is working harder than Jack, as he wants the scholarship. ----> He (in subject position of first clause) is not ambiguous. It refers to Jim not Jack.
Pls see this post -
pronoun-95757.html?hilit=Jim%20is%20working%20harder%20thanSo u mean to say if in a sentence, "if" correctly refers to the subject of a sentence, then its fine, so if in the below sentence it was
In the 1980's the rate of increase of the minority population of the US was nearly as fast as it was in the 1970's
Based on this one can understand that IT refers to rate of increase, but even minority population is also a noun, yet it is not the primary subject hence IT does not refer to minority population.
If a pronoun such as IT in the subordinate clause, has 2 antecendents i.e. 2 nouns such as
Fishing is a sport and knitting is an art, hence john loves it. here it is ambigious as to whether it refers to Fishing or Knitting.
Am i correct in understanding this concept, pls explain.
In the 1980’s the rate of increase of the minority population of the United States was nearly twice as fast as the 1970’s.
(A) twice as fast as
(B) twice as fast as it was in
(C) twice what it was in
(D) two times faster than that of
(E) two times greater than