OG Diagnostic Test Verbal #42 (Sentence Correction)

[Guest]

When the sentence is in the correct form, what does the their in "chosen without regard their views" refer to? In the answer explanation, the OG says: "Furthermore, they is followed by their views, and in this case their must refer to groups." Why? What is their supposed to refer to?

I am confused by the logic of the sentence. In the correct form (using answer choice D), the sentence reads:
The Supreme Court has ruled that public universities can collect student activity fees even from students who object to particular activities, so long as the groups given money are chosen without regard to their views.

I follow the logic all the way up to the comma, then I'm lost. Please explain, thanks!

[RonPurewal]

When you post problems, please post the ENTIRE problem. Not only is the post rather useless to other students without this context, but we (the instructors) aren't always armed with our OG's. Thanks.

[Guest]

The Supreme Court has ruled that public universities can collect student activity fees even with students' objections to particular activities, so long as the groups they give money to will be chosen without regard to their views.
(A) with students' objections to particular activities, as long as the groups they give money to will be
(B) if they have objections to particular activities and the groups that are given the money are
(C) if they object to particular activities, but the groups that the money is given to have to be
(D) from students who object to particular actitivities so long as the groups given money are
(E) though students have an objection to particular activities, but the groups that are given the money be

Logical predication + Rhetorical construction

The underlined portion of the sentence fails to establish a clear relationship among universities, students, and groups. To which of these three does they refer? It would appear that the universities must give the money, but they does not have a referent. Furthermore, they is followed by their views, and in this case their must refer to groups. Wordy and awkward phrasing as well as an unnecessary shift in the verb tense (will be chosen) compound the difficulty of understanding this sentence in its original form.

[RonPurewal]

I'm with you on not liking this question very much: the last 'their' could be seen as referring to the students who have objections. That reference would make the sentence's meaning very strange indeed, but 'common sense' can't normally be used to resolve ambiguous-pronoun issues.

In any case, the split at the very beginning of the choices is decisive here. Only choice D captures the intended meaning of the sentence - i.e., that the universities are still allowed to collect money from the students who object to certain activities - and does so in a grammatically correct way. Choices B and C seem to imply that the activity fees themselves have objections, choice A implies that they're collecting objections along with student fees, and choice E doesn't say anything that would imply that the students paying the fees are the same ones that have the objections.

[Guest]

ok, I understand why choices A, B, C, and E are wrong, but can you answer my original question as to what their is supposed to refer to and why the answer explanation says "in this case their must refer to groups"? Does their really refer to groups? If we substitute their with a noun, the sentence "The Supreme Court has ruled that public universities can collect student activity fees even from students who object to particular activities, so long as the groups given money are chosen without regard to the groups' views." doesn't make sense to me.

I'm guessing their should refer to the universities, so:
The Supreme Court has ruled that public universities can collect student activity fees even from students who object to particular activities, so long as the groups given money are chosen without regard to the universities' views.

This last sentence would make logical sense to me because it's saying that even though the universities can collect the money, they cannot choose which groups the money is given to. Please confirm. The answer explanation is throwing me off. Thank you.

[StaceyKoprince]

They do mean the groups' views.

In other words - the university has to be agnostic about giving out the money - it has to fund any group. It can't decide - oh, a group about cat lovers? Great, here's your money. Dog lovers? Sorry, we won't fund you if you like dogs.

So the university can't decide to refuse money if it thinks a particular group's views are bad or wrong or whatever.