aditya8062 wrote:
although i marked D in this SC because all other choices had some blatant errors but i feel even D is a poorly worded !!
D says: known at the time for its sexually explicit dialogue and the controversy this provoked, would be regarded--------->"this provoked" is considered wrong in GMAT.
Dear
aditya8062,
I'm happy to respond.
First of all, of course the "best" answer even on official questions is not always ideal. The OA must be grammatically and logically correct, but it may or may not be the best or ideal way to say something.
Here, I don't think there's any problem with the use of the word "
this." The word "
this" is a
demonstrative pronoun, and like any pronoun, it must have a noun as its antecedent. On the GMAT, it is absolutely incorrect for "
this" to refer to a clause, to an entire action:
The Yankees won the ball game, and this made me sad. That usage would be 100% wrong on the GMAT. The antecedent of a pronoun cannot be an entire clause. The antecedent of a pronoun must be a noun.
In choice
(D) of this problem, the antecedent of the pronoun "
this" is the noun "
dialogue."
The movie was known for its sexually explicit dialogue.
The movie was known for the controversy that the sexually explicit dialogue provoked. As one sentence,
The movie was known for its sexually explicit dialogue and the controversy that the sexually explicit dialogue provoked. That's wordy, but we can shorten that with the pronoun:
The movie was known for its sexually explicit dialogue and the controversy (that) this provoked. Does this make sense? This is a 100% legal use of a pronoun, a pronoun with an ordinary noun-antecedent. This is very different from the "clause-as-antecedent" problem to which the GMAT strenuously objects.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)