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Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Read the sentence below and fill in the blank with the pronoun that correctly agrees with its antecedent.

Answer:The network of regional offices submitted 【its】 quarterly financial report to the corporate headquarters ahead of schedule.

Answer

its
The pronoun 'its' is correct because the singular head noun of the subject is 'network'. The prepositional phrase 'of regional offices' modifies the noun but does not affect its grammatical singular number.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the pronoun to be placed in the blank.
The antecedent is the noun phrase 'The network of regional offices'. The head noun of this phrase is 'network', which is singular.
Pronoun-antecedent agreement requires the pronoun to agree in number with the head noun of the subject, not with the noun inside the modifying prepositional phrase.
2
Determine the correct possessive pronoun form that is singular.
The singular possessive pronoun is 'its'.
Since the antecedent 'network' is singular and acts as an inanimate entity, the singular possessive pronoun 'its' is required to show possession of the report.

Key Concept

A pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent. In sentences where a prepositional phrase with a plural noun (like 'of regional offices') separates the singular head noun ('network') from the pronoun, the pronoun must still agree with the singular head noun.
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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