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Difficulty: EasyPronoun Clarity and Reference

To prepare for the science fair, the biology students collaborated with the chemistry students to set up the laboratory. The biology students organized the microscopes, while the chemistry students calibrated the digital scales. Before leaving for the day, the teacher inspected them. This ensured that the equipment was safe for the upcoming experiments.

Which choice best resolves the pronoun ambiguity and ensures the sentence is clear and grammatically correct?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. the digital scalesAnswer
  3. C
    those
  4. D
    it

Answer

The correct answer is the option that replaces the pronoun with the specific noun phrase 'the digital scales' to resolve the ambiguity.
Replacing the pronoun with the specific noun phrase 'the digital scales' eliminates the ambiguity in the sentence. The original phrasing contains multiple plural nouns ('microscopes', 'digital scales', 'biology students', and 'chemistry students') that could serve as the antecedent for the pronoun, making it unclear what was inspected. Explicitly naming the object resolves this confusion.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the underlined pronoun and locate its potential antecedents in the preceding sentence.
The pronoun is 'them'. The preceding sentence contains multiple plural nouns that could serve as antecedents: 'microscopes', 'digital scales', 'biology students', and 'chemistry students'.
Determining if there are multiple possible referents helps identify whether the pronoun is ambiguous.
2
Evaluate the choices to find which one replaces the ambiguous pronoun with a specific, clear noun phrase.
The choice 'the digital scales' provides a precise noun phrase that removes all ambiguity about what the teacher inspected.
Replacing an ambiguous pronoun with a specific noun is the standard method for establishing clarity.

Key Concept

Pronoun Clarity and Reference
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Pronoun Clarity and Reference

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