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Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Determine the pronoun that correctly completes the sentence below. Type the pronoun in the blank to ensure correct pronoun-antecedent agreement.

Answer:When the board of trustees finally published the long-awaited financial report, the university administration quickly realized that the document had failed to address 【its】 primary concerns.

Answer

its
The pronoun must agree in number and gender with its antecedent. The antecedent 'university administration' is a singular collective noun acting as a single entity, requiring the singular possessive pronoun 'its' to modify 'primary concerns'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent that the missing pronoun refers to.
The antecedent is 'university administration'.
A pronoun must agree in number, person, and gender with the noun it replaces or refers to.
2
Determine the grammatical number (singular or plural) of the antecedent.
The antecedent 'university administration' is a singular collective noun.
Collective nouns that operate as a single unit are grammatically singular.
3
Select the grammatically correct possessive pronoun.
The singular possessive pronoun is 'its'.
'Its' matches the singular, gender-neutral antecedent 'university administration', and functions as a possessive modifier for 'primary concerns'.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Collective Nouns
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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