The governors team of advisors, including her education and political

Question

The governor’s team of advisors, including her education and political strategists,  has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal .

(A) has not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal

(B) have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal

(C) have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform

(D) has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal

(E) has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education

BKimball · Accepted Answer

Tania,

It looks like you're not satisfied with the explanations of why "she" in E can't refer to "governor's." Let's try to make it a little more explicit:

Rule: On the GMAT, every pronoun must have a noun antecedent in that sentence. The antecedent need not appear before the pronoun, but it must be there in noun form.

In E: "she" is trying to refer back to the governor. Unfortunately, there is no noun form of "governor" in the sentence. Instead, we have "the governor's team of advisors" where the word "governor" is in the possessive tense and serving to modify the subject of the sentence: team.

Other examples of this "possessive poison" error:

"I bought Jose's birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to his party." --> Here "his" is trying to refer to "Jose" but cannot legally do so. Fix: "I bought Jose a birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to his party."

"Nobody knows why he dresses this way, but Steve's signature wardrobe is a black turtleneck with jeans and tennis shoes." Again, "he" is trying to refer to "Steve" but cannot do so because "Steve" is not present in the sentence as a noun.

That help?

Brett

Vercules · Answer

Hi Darmody,

"her" is a possessive pronoun and it can refer to the possessive "governor's". If you consider the original sentence, the answer choice (A) uses "the governor" in the underlined part because "she" can not be used for a possessive noun "governor's"

The following sentence will be correct as per GMAT

The  editor's team  and  his  family went to the ceremony.

The following will not be correct

The  editor's team  accompanied  him  to the ceremony.

The following will be correct

The  editor's team  accompanied  the editor  and  his  family to the ceremony.

I hope it clears your doubt,

Vercules

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation:

The singular subject in the original sentence, “the governor’s team,” agrees with the singular verb phrase “has not been.”

(A) CORRECT.  This choice is correct as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) The subject-verb relationship is incorrect. The singular subject of the sentence, “the governor’s team,” does not agree with the plural verb phrase “have not been.”

(C) The subject-verb relationship is incorrect. The singular subject of the sentence, “the governor’s team,” does not agree with the plural verb phrase “have not been.” Also, the subject pronoun “she” has no antecedent. The subject pronoun “she” cannot refer back to the possessive noun, “governor’s.” Only possessive pronouns, such as “her,” can refer to possessive nouns. Finally, the phrase “her proposal on controversial education reform” changes the original meaning. This phrasing implies that the education reform is controversial. However, it is clear in the original sentence that it is the governor’s proposal that is controversial, not education reform itself.

(D) The subject pronoun “she” has no antecedent. The subject pronoun “she” cannot refer back to the possessive noun, “governor’s.” Only possessive pronouns, such as “her,” can refer to possessive nouns.

(E) The subject pronoun “she” has no antecedent. The subject pronoun “she” cannot refer back to the possessive noun, “governor’s.” Only possessive pronouns, such as “her,” can refer to possessive nouns. Also, the phrase “her proposal on controversial reform in education” changes the original meaning. This phrasing implies that the education reform is controversial. However, it is clear in the original sentence that it is the governor’s proposal that is controversial, not education reform itself. Finally, the phrase "to make comments" is not as concise as the original "for comment."

unplugged · Answer

'she' has to refer back to a noun. There is no noun present

I'll go with A

Cheers,
Unplugged

sjayasa · Answer

My choice is  A  too, and below is my explanation:
In A, the singular subject in the original sentence, “the governor’s team” agrees with the singular verb phrase “has not been.”

B. have not been available for comment since the governor released her controversial education reform proposal -  The subject-verb relationship is incorrect. The singular subject of the sentence, “the governor’s team,” does not agree with the plural verb phrase “have not been.” 
C. have not been available for comment since she released her proposal on controversial education reform -  Same as B. This sentence also changes the meaning because the phrasing “her proposal on controversial education reform” implies that the education reform is controversial.  
D. has not been available for comment since she released her controversial education reform proposal -  The subject pronoun “she” has no antecedent. The subject pronoun “she” cannot refer back to the possessive noun, “governor’s.” Only possessive pronouns, such as “her,” can refer to possessive nouns. 
E. has not been available to make comments since she released her proposal on controversial reform in education -  Same as D and Also, like in C, the phrasing “her proposal on controversial education reform” implies that the education reform is controversial. It is clear from the original sentence that, it is the governor’s proposal that is controversial and not the education reform itself. Finally, "for comment" is more concise than "to make comments".

Please let me know if that makes sense.

seekmba · Answer

We need singular verb "has" because of the singular noun "team"

that leaves A, D and E.

D and E uses "she" but "she" has no referent. "governor's team" is possesive noun and "she" cannot be used to refer to the possessive noun. We need proper noun "governor" which is correctly done in A.

adineo · Answer

There is no requirement to use prepositions to make the sentence wordy.

For eg. prince sat on a gold throne OR prince sat on the throne of gold.

Sentence one is preferable, the structure S + V + ADJ + NOUN preferred over S + V + NOUN + prepositional phrase.

I hope that is fine

Darmody · Answer

Hi guys,

I have seen this question on manhattan gmat and even though I got the correct answer but still was not really convinced by the use of the pronoun "her" to refer to the governor who is only present in the possessive "the governor's team". I also read this topic about this sentence where some people seem to believe it is a wrong usage :
 https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-governors-team-of-advisors-including-her-education-and-75712.html?hilit=The%20governor%E2%80%99s%20team%20of%20advisors

Please can somebody convincingly give the final word on whether a pronouns which refers to an antecedent in the possessive form are accepted by the GMAT or not ? Thanks a lot!

Nightmare007 · Answer

Hi GMATNinja ,

Here, In option E - available to make comments is grammatically correct or wrong ? . Just a general doubt.
I agree she is wrong in E.
I was just wondering if "available for comment" is better than "available to make comment " .Please throw some light here.

.

GMATNinja · Answer

"Available for comment" is the way somebody would typically say this, but I'm not 100% sure that "available to make comments" is necessarily wrong -- it would just be a little bit unusual to say it that way.

And I think it's very, very unlikely that you'll ever see this particular idiom in an actual GMAT question, so don't worry about it too much!

tamal99 · Answer

Hello  EducationAisle ,
Is the issue - possessive poison : pronoun referring back to possessive - still unacceptable?
If its acceptable then I believe Option D would be correct.
Please let me know whether I am thinking correctly?

Regards,
Tamal

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Tamal, I see that Brett posted this back in 2010.

Since then, GMAT  does  seem to have shown  flexibility  in this regard. There is at least one  correct  official example from more recent times ( Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed... ) where the  subject pronoun   she  only has a   possessive   noun to refer to.

So, while this usage is acceptable now, it might still be a good idea to keep such options as #2 and revisit such options if no better option is available.

Skywalker18 · Answer

One of the examples of "possessive poison" error given by MGMAT instructor in the above post-

1. "I bought  Jose's  birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to  his  party." -  Isn't the pronoun 'his' that precedes 'party' a possessive pronoun? 
So, even with the possessive pronoun rule, this example is correct since possessive noun Jose's can refer to his

2. While the second example about Steve (Jobs I think) is incorrect as per possessive poison rule.

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  ,  MartyMurray  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  daagh  ,  generis  , other experts - please enlighten

a12bansal · Answer

I also have same doubt regarding the 1st one.

Can any expert please comment?

AjiteshArun  ,  GMATNinja  ,  MagooshExpert  ,  GMATGuruNY  ,  VeritasPrepBrian  , @MartyMurray ,  DmitryFarber  ,  daagh  ,  generis  .

Thanks

DmitryFarber · Answer

Hi folks! This has become a moot point, because the GMAT no longer uses the "possessive poison" rule! But yes, my colleague made an error on #1. Even if we were enforcing the rule, "his" is possessive and would not violate the rule. As for #2, the GMAT might say this another way, but we can't eliminate it just because the only available antecedent for "he" is a possessive noun.

khera · Answer

if instead of "governor’s team of advisors", "only governor's advisors" was written , then we would use the plural form of verb ?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  khera ,

We hope this finds you well.

Your reasoning is correct here; the phrase "governor's advisors" needs the plural verb form, as it does not contain a collective noun ("team" in the original sentence); rather, it refers to the plural noun "advisors" directly.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GMATCoachBen · Answer

stclair  "has" is correct.

The GMAT loves to disguise the subject with lots of modifiers. We have to cross off all the modifiers in our head to find the subject here, which is the singular "team":

The  governor’s   team   of advisors, including her education and political strategists,   has .

A few more examples:

The team is great.

The players are great.

The team  of players  IS great.

garbinder · Answer

Hey Brett, wouldnt "I bought Jose's birthday present yesterday, but I never got an invitation to his party." be the correct usage of his as it acts as a possessive pronoun (Joe's party) and is not referring to Joe as such.

Thanks

The governors team of advisors, including her education and political

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The governors team of advisors, including her education and political

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