At age four, Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals

Question

At age four,  Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents .

A. Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents

B. Mozart's father began taking the boy on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his musical talents

C. Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his own musical talents

D. Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of Europe's capitals, to demonstrate his musical talents

E. Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate the boy's musical talents

It is easy to chose the final 2. But, explain : How to eliminate wrong one? OA soon

fameatop · Accepted Answer

At age four,  Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents. 
a. Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents
b. Mozart's father began taking the boy on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his musical talents
c. Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his own musical talents
d. Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of Europe's capitals, to demonstrate his musical talents
e. Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate the boy's musical talents

Mozart must be immediately followed by "At age four" to resolve misplace modifier error, so we can eliminate option A, B, & E. 
Option D is incorrect it uses Possessive pronoun "Europe's capitals" . Moreover, HIS creates ambiguity.

Thus answer is C. BTW what's the OA.

Fame

mvictor · Answer

Let's do the Error analysis:
"At age four" must be preceded by Mozart. 
Mozart's father took him on tours of the capitals of Europe to demonstrate Mozart's talent. Pronoun "him" does not have an antecedent. His is ambiguous since it can refer to either Mozart's father or Mozart.

POE
 A, B, and E  are eliminated because of the 1st error specified in error analysis.
 D  has the same ambiguous pronoun "his". It can be inferred 2 meanings:
Mozart began accompanying his father so that to demonstrate his own talents
Mozart began accompanying his father to demonstrate his father's talent.

only answer choice left is  C .

ConnectTheDots · Answer

+1 for C.

In D, I think "the" is needed before "Europe's capitals" and the possessive usage of Europe hinders the flow. The pronoun "his" in the trailing clause points to the subject of main clause - Mozart. So I don't think pronoun is a big determinant between C and D.

nks2611 · Answer

hii 
 expert, although i chose the right answer but can you clarify in option D, the line to demonstrate his own talent, isn't own redundant ?

please clarify 
thanks 
in advance

sayantanc2k · Answer

In many occasions "own" is redundant, but here it is not. The talents are his own, not his father's - to clarify this fact, "own" is required.

(Also note that the comma before "to" is not required - such a prepositional phrase at the beginning of a sentence requires a comma, but at the end or in the middle of a sentence, it does not.)

NimishaKrishna · Answer

Isnt there ambiguity in C also then?
c. Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his own musical talents

his can be Mozart or his father --> mozart's own musical talents or mozarts fathers own musical talents

XyLan · Answer

NimishaKrishna , I understand your valid concern.

The usage of 'his'  can be mapped  to both Mozart and his father.
However, when both the options seem similar -  strive  to look for a different split: A much efficient approach.

The possessiveness of  inanimate  things is not apt.  
  the capitals of Europe  is better than  Europe's capitals

Just to give a heads-up to the people on the GMAT-forum ( Notice, how it's  people on the GMAT-forum  NOT  the GMAT-forum's people   ) -
 The engine of the car is  preferred to  the car's engine. - It's a  preference , NOT a  rule .

However,  the F1 car of Michael Schumacher  is almost  similar  to  Michael Schumacher's F1 car .

Feel free to reach out to this  SC-question !

PS:  Summarised discussion

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

A:  This answer choice incorrectly modifies the noun"Mozart's father", rather than "Mozart", with the phrase "At age four", implying that Mozart's fathers toured the capitals of Europe at the age of four. A also suffers from a case of pronoun ambiguity, as it is not clear whether the pronoun "his" refers to Mozart or his father, and is needlessly wordy due to the use of the phrase "in order to". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

B:  This answer choice repeats the modifier and pronoun errors seen in Option A; it is unclear whether "his" refers to "Mozart's father" or "the boy". B is also needlessly wordy and awkward due to the use of the phrase "the boy", and it is unclear who "the boy" refers to. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

C:  This answer choice is concise, conveys the intended meaning of the sentence, and avoids pronoun ambiguity by using the phrase "his own talents", which conveys that the talents in question were Mozart's. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

D:  This answer choice repeats the pronoun error seen in Option A. D also incorrectly uses the possessive noun form for an inanimate entity, Europe, illogically implying that the capitals are the possessions of Europe. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

E:  THis answer choice repeats the modifier error seen in Option A. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Avoiding Pronoun Ambiguity on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGc9RgNXBZE

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

VerbalBot · Answer

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At age four, Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals

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At age four, Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals

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