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Difficulty: HardPronoun-Antecedent Agreement

A pronoun is missing from the sentence below. Which pronoun correctly completes the sentence to ensure proper pronoun-antecedent agreement?

Answer:Neither the main thrusters nor the auxiliary engine has lost 【its】 power source during the simulated launch.

Answer

The correct pronoun to fill the blank is 'its'.
The correct pronoun is 'its' because it agrees in number (singular) and gender (neuter) with the closer antecedent, 'auxiliary engine'. Under standard English conventions, when singular and plural antecedents are joined by 'neither... nor', the pronoun agrees with the closer antecedent.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedents joined by the correlative conjunctions 'neither... nor'.
The two antecedents are 'the main thrusters' (plural) and 'the auxiliary engine' (singular).
This step determines the nouns that could potentially determine the pronoun's number.
2
Apply the proximity rule for pronoun-antecedent agreement with correlative conjunctions.
The pronoun must agree in number and gender with the closer antecedent, which is 'the auxiliary engine'.
When compound antecedents are joined by 'or' or 'nor', the pronoun agrees with the noun closest to it.
3
Determine the correct possessive pronoun for the singular, inanimate noun 'engine'.
The singular possessive pronoun is 'its'.
The pronoun must be singular to match 'engine' and possessive to modify 'power source'.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Correlative Conjunctions
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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