A little-known fact from Michelangelo’s early years as an artist

As per Manhattan SC guide there is rule that possessive nouns are not nouns .
Here is the excerpt from Manhattan SC Guide that should help

"Just as possessive nouns are often dangerous with regard to pronoun reference, they are also
dangerous in sentences with modifiers. Misplaced modifiers sometimes appear in sentences
that have possessive nouns (nouns that end in s or l).
Wrong: Unskilled in complex math. Bill's ~. on the exam was poor.
Here, the modifier unskilled in complex math should describe Bill. However, this modifier
cannot "reach inside" the possessive form Bill's and modify Bill. As it stands, the sentence is
saying that BillS score itself is unskilled in complex math. This meaning is not what the
author intended. To solve the problem, we should replace the possessive Bills score with Bill.
Right: Unskilled in complex math. Bill did not score well on the exam.
Do not ignore the noun development or other abstract nouns. They follow the same rules as
all other nouns: modifiers that touch them should be intended to modify them. "

OE by egmat
Meaning Analysis

The sentence presents some historical facts about Michelangelo. The sentence begins by stating a fact about Michelangelo’s early years as an artist. Michelangelo forged a statue in 1496. The sentence then provides additional information about how he forged it: he treated it with acid to make it look like an antique. He sold this statue for far more than its actual value.

Error Analysis

The pronoun “he” logically refers to the noun “Michelangelo”. This is a grammatical error since this noun is not present in the sentence, which uses the possessive form “Michelangelo’s”.

Incorrect: This choice has the error pointed out in the error analysis.


Incorrect:
1) The passive verb “was treated” does not convey the meaning that Michelangelo himself treated the statue with acid.

2) The verbs “was” and “sold” are not logically parallel, leading to a nonsensical meaning. The sentence now states that “his 1496 statue was a forgery… and sold it.” The statue clearly did not perform the action of selling itself.

Incorrect:
1) This choice has the same pronoun error as option A does.

2) Like Choice B, this choice also uses the passive verb “was treated”, leading to a meaning error.

Correct: This choice is the correct answer as it fixes the pronoun error of option A by using the noun “Michelangelo”.

Incorrect:
1) This option does not make it clear that Michelangelo himself forged the statue.

2) It also repeats the parallelism error of Choice B since the verbs “was” and “sold” are not logically parallel to each other.

More on possessive pronoun and its usage
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-tuesday ... 67929.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/use-of-posse ... 49996.html
https://gmatclub.com/blog/2010/01/posse ... r-cohorts/

IMO D.

A and C -- Usage of he for possessive.

B and E -- Change in meaning.

Since Michelangelo’s early years as an artist is in possessive form, he/his are incorrect in A,B & C
E is not parallel with and sold it for far more than it was actually worth. in not underlined part.

D is correct

IMO D

A little-known fact from Michelangelo’s early years as an artist is that he forged a statue in 1496, treating it with acid to make it look like an antique, and sold it for far more than it was actually worth.

I think if we approach it from a meaning and construction standpoint the answer is really clear. The first portion of the sentence there is a little known fact about Michelangelo's early years as an artist. Then the sentence goes on to state what that fact is, but the use of a pronoun at the beginning of the fact is improper. The fact is that Michelangelo..... the use of the proper noun is grammatically correct here and logical to convey clear intended meaning.

So D is the best answer!

Hi,
Can an expert please look at the question in:

Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.


(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

The correct answer is D, I use the same logic in this question but got it wrong. This seems to suggest that for a possessive pronoun like Michelangelo’s we can refer to he directly in our case, but it seems its not the case.

A. he forged a statue in 1496, treating it with acid to make it look like an antique
it isn't having the right reference therefore out

B. his 1496 statue was a forgery, which was treated with acid to make it look like an antique
The statue wasn't a self figure wrong meaning therefore out

C. he forged a statue in 1496 that was treated with acid, making it look like an antique
THe statue was forged with the treatment with acid wrong meaning therefore out

D. Michelangelo forged a statue in 1496, treating it with acid to make it look like an antique
The meaning is spot on therefore our answer

E. a statue treated with acid to make it look like an antique was forged in 1496
who forged the statue isn't clearly stated therefore out

THerefore IMO D

Hey rgumber,

You most certainly present a very nice official question in the context of the reference of a possessive pronoun. However, this is probably the only official question in which the non-possessive pronoun refers to a possessive noun. I regard this usage more as an exception to the rule rather than the rule itself. I will still look for possessive and non-possessive pronoun references as the grammar books teach us. However, I will also look for at least one absolute error to reject an answer choice and would not make my decision solely on the pronoun reference.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

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