Native to south america, when peanuts were introduced to Africa by

PRONOUN AMBIGUITY IS NOT THE ABSOLUTE RULE.
please refer below file for better understanding.

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Gmat sentence corrections now a days is all about meaning and grammar...in the option C as it says if we replace this option with the underlined portion of the original sentence it reads "Native to south america , peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

Now the" they "here has been compared with Bambara groundnut in the non underlined portion of the sentence..Can we say that they stands for Portugese explorers and then the Portugese explorers are compared with Bambarra groundnut ?? Isnt it absurd and nonsensical?? So "they" can only refer to the peanuts to preserve the sensical meaning of the sentence ..

One needs to take a holistic view of the answer choices. A, C, D and E all use "they"; B is not even a sentence. That being the case, it should be apparent that pronoun ambiguity is not being tested in this sentence.

The reason this kind of an approach is important, is because one should not adopt a "puritan's view" of options; quickly summarize things that "matter" in the answer choices and then focus on those things. In this case, it should be evident that "they" does not matter.

a.when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
Native to south america, when (modifier issue)
Part after the comma is not a clause. (probably because of being.... -- there is no verb)

b.peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because of being
No verb

c.peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

d.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were
There is no verb for Peanuts. First clause needs to be independent here. because clause after the comma is dependent clause.

e.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were
same as D.

C is correct when compared with other choices, but
"probably because they were ", i'm concerned with "were", should not it be "are" , since they are still similar ?
It's like "my blood group was O+"

Anyone wanna clarify this ?

Native to south america,when peanuts were introduced to Africa by portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

a.when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
- Modifier error; "Native to south america" should be followed immediately by what is native to SA i.e. "peanuts"

b. peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being
- The highlighted portion of sentence does not have a working verb. Hence, it is a fragment.

c. peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were
- Correct parallel structure

d. peanuts, introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were
- Subject "peanuts" has no verb. Hence, it is fragment.
- pronoun ambiguity for "they"

e. peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were
- Same issues as (D)

Hello,

As indicated, in letter B clauses are not complete parallel ('verb + object' X 'adverb + verb + object'), but I am not sure about verb tense parallelism: since both clauses are in past tenses (past perfect and simple past), are they parallel in terms of verb tense?

In other words, if I correct the parallelism and other errors, but maintain verb tenses, it would be correct? For example:
'...peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers since 1600 and were adopted into Africa’s agriculture by natives in 1650, probably because they were...'

Could anyone clarify?

(On the other side, (1) as already pointed out before, the fragment 'probably because of being' has no main verb; (2) one cannot use past perfect if time is defined: 'having been introduced...' and 'early in the sixteenth century')

Best,

No PN ambiguity issue b/c 'they' is parallel to peanuts (subject-subject in both clauses)

Native to south america,when peanuts were introduced to Africa by portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

a.when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being - opening modifier issue

b.peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because of being - no verb

c.peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were - Correct

d.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were - no main verb for subject peanuts

e.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were - same as D

Answer C

Dear TirthankarP,

I resonate with fmanan here, as "They" in option C clearly refers to peanuts and not to Portuguese explorers.
As these are two different clauses in the same sentence, and they being the first pronoun in the second clause "probably because they were.....indigenous plants" refer to the first noun in the preceding clause i.e. the first clause "peanuts were introduced .....Africa's agriculture".
For more clarity on the pronoun ambiguity Kindly refer to the video lesson by GMATNinja

Native to south america,when peanuts were introduced to Africa by portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century Native to south america,when peanuts were introduced to Africa by portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

a.when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

b.peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because of being

c.peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

d.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

e.peanuts,introduced to Africa by Portugese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture,probably because they were

First thing, A and B are gone for using 'because of being', as a modifier. Second, if one is aware of the basic structure of a sentence, which is the most basic to SC, one can within seconds make out D and E are fragments.

That leaves us with just C in less than half a minute. The so-called ambiguity of the pronoun 'they', is merely tentative rather than logical.

Honestly, is there anything more to this question?

Isn't in option C the pronoun "they" improperly referring to explorers?

I rejected all except C because other options have a missing verb issue

What is the logic behind saying that the pronoun 'they' refers to explorers who were similar to a local groundnut plant? Were the explorers human beings or not?

It also means that if there was one pronoun like 'they', we cannot have more than one plural noun in a sentence.

Hello all,
(A) has a clear modifier error- when is used to show time reference. A is out.
(B) having been introduced shows the previous of a series of events, but there is none.
because should be followed by a clause (presenting a reason) not with a prepo phrase.
(C) peanuts were introdced and were quickly adopted because they were ---- the error has been corrected.
(D)peanuts has no verb as everything mentioned has been transformed into a modifier.
(E) peanuts has no verb also having been quickly adopted shows a series of events which is not there.

Thanks.

Hi,
In Option C what is the verb?

Thanks

Hi Superg8

Main verb is "were introduced"

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