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Difficulty: MediumPronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Complete the sentence below by supplying the pronoun that maintains strict pronoun-antecedent agreement in formal standard English.

Answer:The investigative panel submitted 【its】 comprehensive report to the ministry after six months of inquiry.

Answer

its
The collective noun 'investigative panel' functions as a single unified body taking a collective action (submitting one report). In formal standard English, a singular neuter possessive pronoun 'its' is required to agree with a singular collective antecedent.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the missing possessive pronoun.
The antecedent is the collective noun phrase 'The investigative panel'.
A pronoun must agree in number, person, and gender with its antecedent.
2
Determine the syntactic nature of the collective noun in this context.
The panel is acting as a single, unified entity producing one single report.
Collective nouns taking singular action require singular neuter possessive pronouns.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement with Collective Nouns
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Pronouns and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

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