SC - MGMAT CAT

[ritesh.bindal]

Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels; travelers to Egypt can still stay at the Old Cataract Hotel, the model for the hotel in one of Christie's most famous books.
A. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband inspired her to write several mystery novels
B. Agatha Christie used her travels with her archaeologist husband to inspire several mystery novels
C. Because her husband was an archaeologist, Agatha Christie was able to use their travels as inspiration for several of her mystery novels
D. Together with her archaeologist husband, Agatha Christie was inspired to incorporate their travel into several of her mystery novels
E. Agatha Christie's travels with her archaeologist husband served as inspiration for several of her mystery novels

Code: Select All Code

OA: E
My question is that as per MGMAT SC, an antecedent should be clear and be the subject of sentence. In sentence E, the subject is "Agatha christie's travels". How can "her" go inside "Agatha Christie's novels" and modify Agatha Christie?
To discard A, the OE is given as:

This sentence has a pronoun agreement error. Subject and object pronouns cannot refer back to possessive nouns; they must refer only to subject and object nouns. The subject in this sentence is "Agatha Christie's travels," not Agatha Christie herself. The first instance of "her" is correct because this pronoun is used as a possessive: "her [Agatha Christie's] archaeologist husband." However, the second instance of "her," an object pronoun, is incorrect: "inspired her [Agatha Christie, who is not an object in this sentence] to write..."

Will the same pronoun agreement error not valid for choice E where subject is "Agatha Christie's travels"?


[anoo.anand]

What is wrong with A ?

[ritesh.bindal]

Can any expert please help resolving this SC?

[gorav.s]

I think explanation is correct and OA should be E,

Whenever wr have possisive nouns then the pronoun cannot refer back to the possessive nouns.

A) here main subject - agatha christies's travel- is a possessive noun case.
lets only talk about second "her" occurence ( which is the point of contention)
here "her" is an object pronoun which should ideally refer to a noun ( absent in out case ). "her" is agatha christie ideally right ( and NOT agatha christie's travel)!!

E) here second "her" is used as possessive pronoun --- pay attention- ",,,served as an inspiration for her ( Agatha christies's) mystery novels - and hence it is correct.

To clarify more - PAY attemtion to following -
X serverd as an inspiration for Ys mystry novels.
X serverd as an inspiration for Agatha christie's mystery novels.
X served as an inspiration for her mystery novels.

RIGHT

Hope it helps.

[RonPurewal]

What is wrong with A ?

the only error in (a) is what is called "possessive poison" in our SC strategy guide: namely, you can't use a possessive noun as the antecedent for a non-possessive pronoun. (THE REVERSE IS NOT TRUE; it is perfectly ok to have a "normal" noun serve as the antecedent for a possessive pronoun.)

i.e., "agatha christie's" is possessive.
the first "her" is not a problem, since that's also possessive.
BUT, the SECOND "her" is an object pronoun, so it technically has no antecedent.

--

FYI

there has never, EVER, been a problem on the official test on which this rule has been decisive.
it has been cited - in the answer key to exactly one problem (#86 in the 1st edition verbal supplement) - but it's not required even by that problem.

[vikramspeaks]

I am not clear yet, pour some more light ...as to how option a n e differ, when I see both r struggling on account of possesive poison...??

[RonPurewal]

as to how option a n e differ

sorry? i don't really understand what you're asking here. in particular, i'm not sure what "ane" means.

in any case, note that the last option in this problem does NOT suffer from "possessive poison", as all of the pronouns in that choice are possessive as well.