1998 saw several new ventures promoting online distance

[RonPurewal]

Hi， Ron.

I got a problem here about the contrast shown here

in choice B:
the contrast is : ventures were promoting ....., but it was a year ......

in correct choice:
the contrast is : although 1998 (the year) saw ......., it was also a year.....

can I use illogical contrast to eliminate choice B？

yes.

[harika.apu]

Hello ,
In option B ,
the subject of first clause is several new ventures .
after but , "it" refers to 1998 .
Can anyone confirm that there is no requirement that both subjects refer to same word .
Also ,is anything wrong with "it" referring to 1998 ( from prepositional phrase "in 1998") ?

Thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

the meaning of "it" is obvious in context, and "1998" is singular, so, "it" is fine.

[RonPurewal]

choice B has other MAJOR problems:
• non-parallelism ("for both X and for Y")
• nonsense meaning ("it was a year for certain people" -- suggesting that it wasn't a year for other people?)
• and other issues discussed on the first page of this thread.

[jabgt]

the meaning of "it" is obvious in context, and "1998" is singular, so, "it" is fine.

Dear Ron Sir,

Can I say "it" has no antecedent when 1998 appears in the form of "in 1998" ? Since I think "In 1998" the whole thing is one adverb, I wonder whether we can use pronoun only to refer to part of one modifier. So to speak, can I treat this as the same logic that pronoun cannot refer to one noun in adjective form?

Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

a pronoun can stand for any noun that exists in a sentence.