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555-605 Level|   Pronouns|      
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Vercules
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 02 Feb 2013, 10:23
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D
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25% (medium)

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69% (00:59) correct 31% (01:12) wrong based on 213 sessions

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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave normally in public, should be declared insane; however its legal definition is someone who is unable to distinguish right from wrong.

(A) its legal definition is someone who is unable
(B) legally, it refers to a person who is unable
(C) it is legally defined as the inability
(D) the legal definition of insanity is the inability
(E) legally, they refer to someone who is unable
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D
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 02 Feb 2013, 10:31
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave normally in public, should be declared insane; however its legal definition is someone who is unable to distinguish right from wrong.

(A) its legal definition is someone who is unable- Pronoun ref not correct
(B) legally, it refers to a person who is unable- Pronoun ref not correct
(C) it is legally defined as the inability-wordy
(D) the legal definition of insanity is the inability-Correct
(E) legally, they refer to someone who is unable - Pronoun must be singular

Please correct me if I am going wrong somewhere........................
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 03 Feb 2013, 08:10
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prasannajeet
Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave normally in public, should be declared insane; however its legal definition is someone who is unable to distinguish right from wrong.

(A) its legal definition is someone who is unable- Pronoun ref not correct
(B) legally, it refers to a person who is unable- Pronoun ref not correct
(C) it is legally defined as the inability-wordy
(D) the legal definition of insanity is the inability-Correct
(E) legally, they refer to someone who is unable - Pronoun must be singular

Please correct me if I am going wrong somewhere........................
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Yes prasannajeet, you are correct. In GMAT if you see an underlined part starting with a pronoun, it is highly probable that the sentence is testing pronoun issues.

As far as the explanation is concerned

(A) contains a meaning error "its legal definition is someone" the definition can not be someone.
(E) Clearly contains a pronoun number error.

Choices (B), (C) and (D) are not exactly grammatically incorrect, however (D) conveys the meaning without any ambiguity and hence the correct answer choice.

Both (B) and (C) have the ambiguous pronoun "its".

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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 13 Feb 2013, 07:59
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Is there a significance to the semicolon here. Is that a reason for the second independent clause to have the 'insanity' explicitly mentioned?
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Vercules
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 13 Feb 2013, 09:29
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ramanujanu
Is there a significance to the semicolon here. Is that a reason for the second independent clause to have the 'insanity' explicitly mentioned?
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Hi ramanujanu,

The word "insanity" is used in the second clause to remove any pronoun reference ambiguity. The importance of the semicolon is not very significant in this question. If we use "it" in the second clause then "it" will have no clear antecedent. In the first clause the word "insane" (an adjective) is used; however a pronoun "it" can not refer to an adjective. That's why we have to explicitly mention "insanity" (a noun) in the second clause.

Hope that helps,

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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 13 Feb 2013, 21:47
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave normally in public, should be declared insane; however its legal definition is someone who is unable to distinguish right from wrong.

(A) its legal definition is someone who is unableIts should logically refer to Insane but the subject of previous clause is "a Person"
(B) legally, it refers to a person who is unablePronoun error
(C) it is legally defined as the inability Pronoun error
(D) the legal definition of insanity is the inabilityCorrect
(E) legally, they refer to someone who is unable..It changes the meaning
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 26 Sep 2014, 09:14
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Hi Guys

I cant really follow whats the pronoun issue with B ? Is the "it" not "referring" to "insane"? Please guide
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 25 May 2019, 20:15
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Quote:
Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave normally in public, should be declared insane; however its legal definition is someone who is unable to distinguish right from wrong.

(A) its legal definition is someone who is unable
(B) legally, it refers to a person who is unable
(C) it is legally defined as the inability
(D) the legal definition of insanity is the inability
(E) legally, they refer to someone who is unable
Show more

The right answer is D. The thing/concept being defined is "insanity. Hence, if we use a pronoun, we should see the word 'insanity' before, so it's clear as to what we are replacing. Since it isn't there, the only option WITHOUT the pronoun ends up being the right one.

Therefore, D is the right answer.
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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 25 May 2019, 23:52
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Shouldn’t there technically be a comma after however in the correct answer choice?

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Some people may believe that a person, who does not behave 03 Jun 2020, 04:31
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