SC Guide 4th edition - Modifiers - In action problem #4

[nilohit]

"Ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, Angola is now one of Africa's success stories: "its" economy grew by 21% last year, and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week"

the above is the CORRECT answer given in the guide.

I am confused that why is it that the "its" cannot be said as a pronoun usage that is ambiguous, i.e., it could refer to Africa's (since both are in possessive case) rather than angola.

It would be of great help if you could sort me out here please.

[tim]

pronouns are only truly ambiguous if there are two technically eligible antecedents (which we have here) AND there is no way a reasonable person could tell which one is intended by the author of the sentence. if you think "its" refers to "Africa's" here, the issue is that you have misunderstood the meaning of the sentence, not that the pronoun is ambiguous..

[nilohit]

Hello Tim

Thank you for your update.

Pronouns as a subject on the GMAT (not usual writing or speech) are my weakest link, almost to the extent that i am paranoid about them. I guess that is what came out here!

Will continue this thread if i find an example similar to the above but where the reference of the pronoun is to an antecedent that can not be normally assumed.


Thanks

Nilohit

[tim]

sounds good, and good luck with your studying..

[AnkitA852]

Can it not be assumed that 'which is now one of Africa's success stories' modifies this sentence 'which was ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal' rather than only 'Portugal' ?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Confusingly, you're referring to a different edition. I infer that this is the sentence that you're discussing:
Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, which is now one of Africa's success stories, has an economy that grew by 21% last year, where parliamentary elections are due to be held later this week. (Sentence Correction Strategy Guide 6th edition Chapter 4 drill set)
In GMAT, 'which' is used to modify nouns, not whole clauses. Please check out the relevant section in the modifiers chapter.

[abhisheks901]

correct answer is :

"Ravaged by civil war for many years after IT gained independence from Portugal, Angola is now one of Africa's success stories: its economy grew by 21% last year, and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week"

My query:

1) here we have used colon in answer, about which nothing is mentioned in chapter 4. can you please explain the usage of colons? or tell another way of writhing this without using colons?
2) i know that IT represents Angola in answer, but some people by mistake may assume that IT is referring to "civil war". this may not happen in this problem but in other problems with different context. so is there any other good way of writhing this so that all chances of confusion may get eliminated?

Thanks

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

1) can you please explain the usage of colons? or tell another way of writhing this without using colons?

Take a look at chapter 10 of the 6th edition for usage of colons.

2) i know that IT represents Angola in answer, but some people by mistake may assume that IT is referring to "civil war". this may not happen in this problem but in other problems with different context. so is there any other good way of writhing this so that all chances of confusion may get eliminated?

When we see a pronoun such as "it" in an SC problem, we need to check if it's logical and clear. There's really no way that "it" could refer to civil war: the sentence would then say "Ravaged by civil war for many years after civil war gained independence...". Clearly that's absurd it would be unreasonable to interpret the sentence in that way. If there's any doubt about the clarity of a pronoun, then GMAT will give an answer that repeats the noun or provides some other construction to make sure that the sentence is clear.