While explaining the use of possessives on a thread in BeatTheGmat.com, Stacey once wrote the following:
(http://www.beatthegmat.com/olympic-games-t12944.html)
It isn't the case that non-living things can never be in possessive form. The issue is whether the particular combination of words makes sense / can be true.
"The car's leather seats are black" is fine because the car does "possess" the leather seats. The leather seats "belong" to the car.
"The car's proclamation that speeding is dangerous..." is not okay because the car cannot make a proclamation. "The car owner's proclamation that speeding is dangerous" is okay because a car owner can make a proclamation.
The above quote was in reference to SC 59 in OG12.
But in the question SC118 of OG12, the right answer consists of the following use of possessive:
"caused by human beings’ burning of fossil fuels"
After reading stacey's post, I thought that possessive must possess its object (im not sure about the actual technical term). But in this case I was unable to relate 'burning of fossil fuels' to 'human beings' in a simple line.
Now, since I have to accept what is ginven in OG, I related this as
> action (burning fossil fuels) of human beings
This use in OG's right answer suggests that using an action noun for a possessive is absolutely fine in GMAT.
Can you please tell whether I am right, and if possible give a better explanation for a possessive using action noun?
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Thanks,
Hemant