pronoun doubt

[ashish.jere]

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

A. Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

B. The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid- 1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

C. Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United Sates.

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Ron,

I picked the right answer in the test. But, I have a doubt in (A).

1. Does its decline in (A) refer to Britain's economic growth?

2. Why is there no apostrophe?

[victorgsiu]

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

A. Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

Ron,

I picked the right answer in the test. But, I have a doubt in (A).

1. Does its decline in (A) refer to Britain's economic growth in (A)?

2. Why is there no apostrophe?

1. Britain appears as part of a possessive phrase, so we can refer to Britain with the pronoun "its"
2. "it's" would mean it is

[botirvoy]

you copied the question wrongly.

[mangipudi]

I have a couple of questions on the same topic and so will take the liberty to post them in this thread.

OG questions rephrased below -

1. [i]The physical structure of the new hard disk enables it to store data up to 1TB; mega-data, however, cannot be stored because its size is too big to be stored in the new hard disk.[i]

In this example, how does
a. 'its' clearly refer to 'mega-data'
b. 'it' refer to 'new hard disk'
c. the same pronoun 'it' has different antecedents, is this acceptable ?

2. X will sometimes fail to detect Y when it exists and will indicate that it exists when it does not.

a. In the sentence above does 'IT' unambiguously refer to Y or can 'IT' also also refer to X ?
b. If a sentence is like this : clause1 ,<conjunction> clause2. The subject pronoun in clause2 refers to the subject of clause1. Is this correct ?

[selva.e]

Hi mangipudi,

i see your problem.

well, in most this case, i would go with "Meaning" of the sentence.

If you see your question no:1

1. The physical structure of the new hard disk enables[i] it to store data up to 1TB; mega-data, however, cannot be stored because its size is too big to be stored in the new hard disk.[i]

data can stored only to hard disk not to physical structure.

2. X will sometimes fail to detect Y when it exists and will indicate that it exists when it does not.

X will sometimes fail to detect Y when it<Y> exists , only Y can be referred by it not X because it distorts the meaning.

[RonPurewal]

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

A. Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

B. The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid- 1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

C. Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United Sates.

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Ron,

I picked the right answer in the test. But, I have a doubt in (A).

1. Does its decline in (A) refer to Britain's economic growth?

2. Why is there no apostrophe?

hi -

first, the OA for this question is (d), right?

as for your questions:
(1) this is one of the problems with this answer choice: "its" is ambiguous. worse, the apparent antecedent for this ambiguous pronoun - i.e., the one that's grammatically parallel to the pronoun** - is "britain's". that's not the sensibly correct antecedent.

(2) the possessive form "its" DOES NOT contain an apostrophe.
if you write an apostrophe - i.e., "it's" - then that's a contraction of "it is". (contractions don't appear on the gmat.
i guess i should've written "do not".
i guess i should have written "should have".
heh.)

[RonPurewal]

hey mangipudi.

sorry to take so long to get to this question -- we've been swamped with questions lately.

I have a couple of questions on the same topic and so will take the liberty to post them in this thread.

OG questions rephrased below -

1. The physical structure of the new hard disk enables it to store data up to 1TB; mega-data, however, cannot be stored because its size is too big to be stored in the new hard disk.[i]

In this example, how does
a. 'its' clearly refer to 'mega-data'
b. 'it' refer to 'new hard disk'
c. the same pronoun 'it' has different antecedents, is this acceptable ?

2. X will sometimes fail to detect Y when it exists and will indicate that it exists when it does not.

a. In the sentence above does 'IT' unambiguously refer to Y or can 'IT' also also refer to X ?
b. If a sentence is like this : clause1 ,<conjunction> clause2. The subject pronoun in clause2 refers to the subject of clause1. Is this correct ?

don't post the OG question itself here, BUT -- could you tell me WHICH OG question you're trying to imitate here?
that way, i could take a look, tell whether there are any substantive differences, and then report back to you. but i like the fact that you wrote an imitation version, rather than copying the original question.

--

by the way:
the rules on ambiguous pronouns are NOT absolute.

there are only two ABSOLUTE RULES for pronouns:
(1) the pronoun must stand for a noun that is actually PRESENT in the sentence;
(2) the pronoun and the noun must MATCH IN TERMS OF SINGULAR/PLURAL.

the other "rules", such as those that govern ambiguity of pronouns, are more like "guidelines" or "suggestions".
therefore, you should leave those criteria for last - i.e., until [i]after you've narrowed down the choices based on all other criteria that you can find.

[ashish.jere]

thanks.

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

A. Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

B. The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid- 1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

C. Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United Sates.

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Ron,

I picked the right answer in the test. But, I have a doubt in (A).

1. Does its decline in (A) refer to Britain's economic growth?

2. Why is there no apostrophe?

hi -

first, the OA for this question is (d), right?

as for your questions:
(1) this is one of the problems with this answer choice: "its" is ambiguous. worse, the apparent antecedent for this ambiguous pronoun - i.e., the one that's grammatically parallel to the pronoun** - is "britain's". that's not the sensibly correct antecedent.

(2) the possessive form "its" DOES NOT contain an apostrophe.
if you write an apostrophe - i.e., "it's" - then that's a contraction of "it is". (contractions don't appear on the gmat.
i guess i should've written "do not".
i guess i should have written "should have".
heh.)

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome

[subbiah.an]

Hi,
I have a doubt in this question. According to the question, Britain's economy declined rapidly during the united states recession. But it doesn't tell us that United state's economy also declined during this period. In answer choice D, are we not assuming this?

Thanks!

thanks.

Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

A. Britain's economic growth was slower in the mid- 1970's and its decline much more rapid in the subsequent recession in the United States.

B. The economic growth of Britain was slower in the mid- 1970's and it declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

C. Britain's economy, which grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's, also had declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the United States did.

D. The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than did the economy of the United Sates.

E. Britain's economy grew more slowly in the mid- 1970's and its decline was much more rapid during the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States.

Ron,

I picked the right answer in the test. But, I have a doubt in (A).

1. Does its decline in (A) refer to Britain's economic growth?

2. Why is there no apostrophe?

hi -

first, the OA for this question is (d), right?

as for your questions:
(1) this is one of the problems with this answer choice: "its" is ambiguous. worse, the apparent antecedent for this ambiguous pronoun - i.e., the one that's grammatically parallel to the pronoun** - is "britain's". that's not the sensibly correct antecedent.

(2) the possessive form "its" DOES NOT contain an apostrophe.
if you write an apostrophe - i.e., "it's" - then that's a contraction of "it is". (contractions don't appear on the gmat.
i guess i should've written "do not".
i guess i should have written "should have".
heh.)

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

What is the problem with choice E?
Is it because in D we are comparing actions, while in option E we are comparing the economies?

[RonPurewal]

What is the problem with choice E?
Is it because in D we are comparing actions, while in option E we are comparing the economies?

choice (e) features the following nonparallel comparison:

...and its decline was much more rapid ... than the economy of the United States.

you can't compare a decline to an economy. therefore, wrong.

[RonPurewal]

Hi,
I have a doubt in this question. According to the question, Britain's economy declined rapidly during the united states recession. But it doesn't tell us that United state's economy also declined during this period. In answer choice D, are we not assuming this?

Thanks!

choice (d) is the only one that's grammatically correct.

correct grammar always supersedes clarity issues.

[weihe0904]

Could anyone pls explain why the 'Did' in choice of (D) is not placed at the end of that sentence?

(D) The economy of Britain grew more slowly in the mid-1970's and declined much more rapidly in the subsequent recession than the economy of the United States did.

thanks!

[mikrodj]

hi weihe0904

In comparisons you can put the helping verb either before the subject or after it.

I run faster than Michel does
I run faster than does Michel

Both are fine. I think the second one is preferred in formal written English.