{"id":285,"date":"2011-05-19T16:53:37","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T23:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/e-gmat.com\/blogs\/?p=285"},"modified":"2022-11-15T17:34:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T12:04:21","slug":"ambiguous-pronoun-fossils-of-the-arm-of-the-sloth-og1278","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e-gmat.com\/blogs\/ambiguous-pronoun-fossils-of-the-arm-of-the-sloth-og1278\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambiguous Pronoun – Fossils of the arm of the sloth…OG12#78"},"content":{"rendered":"A <\/span> 2<\/span> min read <\/span><\/span>\n

Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand the meaning of the sentence and determine the logical antecedent<\/span><\/strong><\/address>\n\n\n\n

Per the sentence:
Certain fossils were found in Puerto Rico in 1991 and are 34M years old.
The presence of these fossils indicates that sloth is the earliest known mammal of GA islands.
Thus, it will only make sense if \u201cit\u201d refers to \u201csloth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determine if there are any other antecedents that can be referred to by this pronoun<\/span><\/strong><\/address>\n\n\n\n

Since pronoun \u201cit\u201d is singular, here are the possible antecedents \u2013 the singular nouns
\u2022 Arm
\u2022 Sloth
Notice here that both nouns play similar roles in the sentence \u2013 they describe the fossils. Thus, structurally they are at the same level in the sentence. Thus, even though it does not make logical sense for \u201cit\u201d to refer to \u201carm\u201d since arm cannot be the mammal, structurally it still creates an ambiguity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Select the Correct Answer Choice<\/span><\/strong><\/address>\n\n\n\n

Since the pronoun analysis shows an apparent pronoun ambiguity, we will eliminate the answer choice based on other more objective errors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n