Multiple Pronoun referents

[vivid_guy_007]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the CIA broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of info.


Above statement is considered correct. But I have a doubt on this. I feel that 'it' can refer to Supreme Court or CIA. I have come across several such questions where I feel that a pronoun has multiple referents but in reality it does not.

MGMAT staff can you please throw some light on how to identify correctly whether a pronoun has multiple referents or its usage is correct.


Many Thanks,
Amit

[Shweta]

Even I am very confused about multiple pronoun references.

Any input from MGMAT staff!

[GA]

Even I am very confused about multiple pronoun references.

Any input from MGMAT staff!

Hi guys,
Here goes my opinion.

This sentence has only one clause so it shall definatley refer to the " direct object of the verb", which is of course CIA board so there is no confusion.

[RonPurewal]

nope, it has to be the cia.

since the supreme court is the subject of the sentence, you'd need the reflexive pronoun "itself" to refer to the supreme court.

--

this is difficult because there are a lot more words in the way, but it relies on the same principle that guides the following:
i looked at me in the mirror --> wrong
i looked at myself in the mirror --> correct

[arpanchandra]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers that enable them to withhold from public disclosure the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

Hi MGMAT Staff,
I am ok with pronoun usage but i have doubt regarding - The Subjunctive Mood-
Here the verb is awarded which must be followed by THAT and a verb (without s).

Please correct me if I am wrong in selecting The Subjunctive Mood.

[rohitowe99]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers that enable them to withhold from public disclosure the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

Hi MGMAT Staff,
I am ok with pronoun usage but i have doubt regarding - The Subjunctive Mood-
Here the verb is demanded which must be followed by THAT and a verb (without s).

Please correct me if I am wrong in selecting The Subjunctive Mood.

Hi,

The command subjunctive is used with "Bossy verbs" only. For example: propose, order.
In my opinion the verb "AWARDED" is not a bossy verb and that's why the subjunctive usage will be incorrect. Hence, "ENABLED" is the correct form of verb to be used here.
Also the pronoun "THEM" must be replaced by "THE BOARD" so that sentence has no pronoun ambiguity.

[RonPurewal]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers that enable them to withhold from public disclosure the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

where did you get this choice? it's not posted in the thread.

Hi MGMAT Staff,
I am ok with pronoun usage

^^^ are you sure about that?
the use of "them" in the sentence above is wrong, so perhaps a review of pronouns is in order.

but i have doubt regarding - The Subjunctive Mood-
Here the verb is awarded which must be followed by THAT and a verb (without s).

Please correct me if I am wrong in selecting The Subjunctive Mood.

this sentence has nothing to do with the subjunctive.
if you have "... that enable" here (again, i don't know where this answer choice came from), that's just a modifier that describes "powers".

[arpanchandra]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers that enable them to withhold from public disclosure the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

where did you get this choice? it's not posted in the thread.

Hi MGMAT Staff,
I am ok with pronoun usage

^^^ are you sure about that?
the use of "them" in the sentence above is wrong, so perhaps a review of pronouns is in order.

but i have doubt regarding - The Subjunctive Mood-
Here the verb is awarded which must be followed by THAT and a verb (without s).

Please correct me if I am wrong in selecting The Subjunctive Mood.

this sentence has nothing to do with the subjunctive.
if you have "... that enable" here (again, i don't know where this answer choice came from), that's just a modifier that describes "powers".

Hi MGMAT Staff,

This is one of the option and def not the answer.
My doubt was regarding the verb AWARDED. Can it be use in Subjunctive Mood?
And yes, THEM is not the correct pronoun in above sentence.


Thanks for replying.

[jlucero]

No. Awarded is not a verb that is used in the subjunctive form. Subjunctive is used to express a wish/opinion/judgement of some action (verb). Awarded is a verb that has an object (noun).

I wish that "you would study"
I awarded you "a Nobel Prize"
The Supreme Court awarded the CIA "powers" (w/ a modifier to talk more about those powers)

[ricardocs84]

Hello!

I'm a bit confused about this one... and specifically want to find these type of questions to drill on, because I sincerely don't see big meaning or grammar issues.

Please your advices are very welcome!

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public
(B) for it to withhold from the public
(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of
(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure
(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of


OA A. But I felt that 'it' in A can refer to Supreme Court or CIA.

My questions on the OA

I have come across several such questions where I feel that a pronoun has multiple referents but in reality it does not.

My pick was (C) I don't understand WHY is awkward?
I don't see idioms involved....

GMAT CLUB ANALYSIS:

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public -correct
(B) for it to withhold from the public -does not sounds correct to me
(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of - awkward
(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure - wrong pronoun
(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of - wrong pronoun
In choices B and C, the preposition for is used unidiomatically in place of the "-ing" modifier to introduce the phrase describing powers


WHY HAS TO BE IN (A) - AN -ING MODIFIER THAT MODIFIES POWERS
The supreme court awarded to the CIA some powers..... so?
powers FOR (intended to) withholding disclosure to the public of the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

Don't get the rationale logic of this question... and why option (B) is so awkward.
Where to find questions like this one to drill this issue?
Have the hard MGMAT problems from the advanced sentence correction workshop but I didn't encounter questions with this type of annoying questions for me.

(Sorry if I sound a little frustrated, maybe is time to go to bed =))

Thanks in advance!

Ricardo

[RonPurewal]

OA A. But I felt that 'it' in A can refer to Supreme Court or CIA.

I have come across several such questions where I feel that a pronoun has multiple referents but in reality it does not.

DO NOT think about whether a pronoun is "ambiguous".

If you see a pronoun, then, if the following 3 conditions are met...
1/ In context, it's clear what the pronoun is talking about / representing
2/ There's a noun for that concept
3/ The pronoun matches the noun in terms of singular/plural
... then the pronoun is fine.


Here, all 3 conditions are met.

1/ In context, it's obvious that "it" is the CIA. (If the Supreme Court were awarding the powers to itself, then there would be no reason to mention the CIA in the first place.)

2/ "CIA" is a noun.

3/ "CIA" is singular, and "it" is singular.

Done.

[RonPurewal]

My pick was (C) I don't understand WHY is awkward?
I don't see idioms involved....

Don't worry about "awkwardness".
* "Awkwardness" is not tested on the exam. Every wrong answer will have something actually wrong with it.
* "Awkwardness" is essentially impossible for non-native speakers (of any language, not just English) to detect. (This is why GMAC doesn't test it; it would be unfair to the sizable number of non-Americans who take the test.)

In choice C,

* "Powers for __ing" isn't idiomatically correct.
* "Withholding disclosure" is redundant, since "withhold" already means "not disclose".

[RonPurewal]

WHY HAS TO BE IN (A) - AN -ING MODIFIER THAT MODIFIES POWERS

It's hard to understand exactly what you're asking here. My impression is that you think the __ing modifier is necessary for some reason.

If that is what you're saying, then, no -- this sentence (like just about every other sentence in any language) could be written in many other ways that would also be correct.
Of the five given choices, though, it's the only one that is not wrong.

[thanghnvn]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public
(B) for it to withhold from the public
(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of
(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure
(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of

why B is wrong? it is clear that the meaning in b is different from meaning in a. but we need a clear reason to eliminate b.

[mondegreen]

By a vote of 9 to 0, the Supreme Court awarded the Central Intelligence Agency broad discretionary powers enabling it to withhold from the public the identities of its sources of intelligence information.

(A) enabling it to withhold from the public
(B) for it to withhold from the public
(C) for withholding disclosure to the public of
(D) that enable them to withhold from public disclosure
(E) that they can withhold public disclosure of

why B is wrong? it is clear that the meaning in b is different from meaning in a. but we need a clear reason to eliminate b.

Is it the presence of "for it" that makes B incorrect?

X awarded Y powers to do Z. This makes sense right?

Also, I get a slightly different meaning from B.It reads to me as if the powers were given to CIA making it mandatory to withhold all the information. However, A seems to suggest that the powers made it possible for CIA to withhold information whenever the CIA wanted to.Just a provision, not a mandate.

Thanks