MGMAT SC Guide Pronoun Problems set

[Guest]

The following sentences have pronoun problems, MGMAT SC book doesn't have detail explanations.
I appreciate if someone can provide detail explanations


2. Kathy's suitcase was so stuffed that she decided to pack another one

4. The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they will be ready to be used at practise on sunday

6. some people believe that the benefits of a healthy diet outweigh that of regular exercise

7. we finally chose the coffee table towards the back of the store, which we thought would complement our living room furniture

8. At the end of the day, the chaperones took the fourth graders back to school, who were exhausted from running after the children.

11. we finally returned all the books to the library, which we left at the front desk

[Guest]

I'll try 2 and 4
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2. Kathy's suitcase was so stuffed that she decided to pack another one
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Rule 1. Possessive pronoun (PP) can refer back to possessive noun (PN). However subject and object pronoun (SP and OP) may *NOT* refer back to possessive noun.

i.e.
a. PP ===> PN (correct)
b. SP ===> PN (wrong)
c. OP ===> PN (worng)
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Kathy's => Possessive noun (PN)
she => Subject pronoun (SP)

Here subject pronoun (she) referring to possessive noun, which is wrong (Rule 1b). Hence subject pronoun need to be changed here.

Correct >> Kathy's suitcase was so stuffed that Kathy decided to pack another one.



4. The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they will be ready to be used at practise on sunday
=>"players' helmets" subject/noun talking about helmets (plural)
=> Pronoun "They" is subject pronoun and also plural correctly matching....



Best regards
Brijesh

[RonPurewal]

The following sentences have pronoun problems, MGMAT SC book doesn't have detail explanations.
I appreciate if someone can provide detail explanations


2. Kathy's suitcase was so stuffed that she decided to pack another one

4. The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they will be ready to be used at practise on sunday

6. some people believe that the benefits of a healthy diet outweigh that of regular exercise

7. we finally chose the coffee table towards the back of the store, which we thought would complement our living room furniture

8. At the end of the day, the chaperones took the fourth graders back to school, who were exhausted from running after the children.

11. we finally returned all the books to the library, which we left at the front desk

(2)
this is a little-known concept that we've nicknamed 'possessive poison': a nominative pronoun can't refer back to a possessive. fyi: we mentioned this because the gmat people do acknowledge it in the official guide (the purple verbal supplement, question # either 68 or 86 - i can't remember at the moment), so we feel like we should give you full disclosure.
that is the only place the gmat people acknowledge this 'rule',** though, and it's not even necessary to decide the question. therefore, if it troubles you, then just forget about it and you ought to be fine.

**quote marks because most grammar authorities don't even recognize this as a rule, and its earliest documented mention is within the past fifty years or so.

(4)
this one seems ok to me - a little wordy, perhaps, but not outright wrong.

(6)
'that' is singular, and therefore can't refer back to the plural 'benefits'

(7)
highly ambiguous referent for the modifying phrase.
at first glance it appears to modify 'store', which is ridiculous.
it could be taken to modify 'back' (also ridiculous) or 'coffee table' (reasonable) - but the #1 interpretation is that it modifies the closest noun, which is 'store'. remember, you can't appeal to common sense to resolve poorly written sentences.

(8)
hopefully you can see the problems with this one from a mile away!
this sentence declares that:
- school is a person ('who')
- school is plural ('were')
- school was exhausted from running after the children
any of these three errors is already fatal by itself, but the combination of the three is just egregious.

(11)
improper modifier - this sentence means that we left the library at the front desk.

[Ramesh]

2. Kathy's suitcase was so stuffed that she decided to pack another one

4. The players' helmets need to be repaired so that they will be ready to be used at practice on Sunday

In sentence 2 (Kathy's) is a possessive noun and a subject pronoun (she) should not refer to a possessive noun.

Similarly in sentence 4 (player's) is a possessive noun but a subject pronoun (they) is used to refer to a possessive noun.

Can you explain the reason behind this ????

Is it because in sentence 4 we are trying to refer to the player's helmet itself and not the player while in sentence 2 we are trying to refer to Kathy and not Kathy's suitcase

FYI : These two sentences are present in page 65 in the Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction guide

[rfernandez]

Ramesh, you are correct. In #4, "they" refers to helmets, not players. The agreement is logical and correct.