Stonehenge Blocks

[Milanproda1]

Quarried from a site over five miles away, scientists are still puzzled as to how the prehistoric Britons managed to transport the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge over such a great distance without machinery.

A-scientists are still puzzled as to how the prehistoric Britons managed to transport the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge over such a great distance without machinery.

B- the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge are still puzzling to scientists because of how the ancient Britons managed to transport them over such a great distance without machinery.

C-scientists are still puzzled by how the prehistoric Britons managed the transportation of the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge without machinery over such a great distance.

D-the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge still puzzle scientists, who wonder how the prehistoric Britons managed to transport them over such a great distance without machinery

E-the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge are still a puzzle to scientists due to being transported over such a great distance without machinery.



The answer to the question is D.

D-the massive stone blocks of Stonehenge still puzzle scientists, who wonder how the prehistoric Britons managed to transport them over such a great distance without machinery.

To me, "them" seems to be an ambiguous pronoun. Can potentially refer to the stone blocks or to the scientists?

The other choices are not pretty, but I leaned more towards B, because the sentence had no pronoun ambiguity and the subject of the modifier comes right after the modifier.

[messi10]

Hi Milanproda,

That pronoun is not ambiguous. As per Ron's many posts and in his video dated 31st March 2011 on Ron's Thursdays you will learn that pronoun ambiguity is a very rare error. We tend to make it too big an issue than it actually is.

Just by looking at the context, we can see that the stone blocks still puzzle scientists. These scientists wonder how prehistoric Britons managed to transport them....

Scientists cannot possibly be the antecedent because the word "still" shows that it puzzles the present day scientists. Prehistoric Britons cannot transport scientists who are alive today.

You mentioned that you were inclined towards B but I see the same same pseudo pronoun issue in B, based on which you ruled out D.

Regards

Sunil

[Milanproda1]

Sunil,

Thank you very much for the post, you make alot of sense.

[jnelson0612]

Great Sunil!

[rustom.hakimiyan]

Hi Milanproda,

That pronoun is not ambiguous. As per Ron's many posts and in his video dated 31st March 2011 on Ron's Thursdays you will learn that pronoun ambiguity is a very rare error. We tend to make it too big an issue than it actually is.

Just by looking at the context, we can see that the stone blocks still puzzle scientists. These scientists wonder how prehistoric Britons managed to transport them....

Scientists cannot possibly be the antecedent because the word "still" shows that it puzzles the present day scientists. Prehistoric Britons cannot transport scientists who are alive today.

You mentioned that you were inclined towards B but I see the same same pseudo pronoun issue in B, based on which you ruled out D.

Regards

Sunil

Hi Sunil,

I had the same issue with D -- the antecedent for D was rather ambiguous.

I understand the point in bold above. If somehow this statement's full context was present day, then the "them" would have been ambiguous. Correct?

[RonPurewal]

"- There is no ambiguity at all. There is only one interpretation; the notion of "transporting scientists" is complete nonsense.

"- The GMAT does not test "pronoun ambiguity".
If a pronoun ...
... stands for a noun,
... matches the noun (singular/plural),
then the pronoun is OK.
End of story.