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Difficulty: HardPronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Case

Although many astronomers anticipated that the recently discovered binary system would yield breakthroughs in stellar evolution, neither of the two candidate stars observed by the astrophysics team in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way has exhibited the expected variations in spectral intensity that would confirm ______ classification as a yellow hypergiant.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

  1. itsAnswer
  2. B
    their
  3. C
    they're
  4. D
    it's

Answer

its
The correct option is the singular possessive pronoun 'its', which properly agrees in number with the singular indefinite pronoun antecedent 'neither' and correctly indicates possession without an apostrophe.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the pronoun needed for the blank.
The antecedent is the indefinite pronoun 'neither'.
The prepositional phrase 'of the two candidate stars...' acts as an intervening modifier, but the subject and antecedent remains the singular pronoun 'neither'.
2
Determine the grammatical number and case of the antecedent.
The indefinite pronoun 'neither' is singular and requires a singular possessive pronoun to modify the noun 'classification'.
In standard English, 'neither' is singular, and the relationship to 'classification' is possessive.
3
Select the choice that matches these grammatical requirements.
The pronoun 'its' is singular and possessive, which matches both the singular number of 'neither' and the possessive context.
Other choices are either plural ('their', 'they're') or contractions ('it's', 'they're') rather than possessive pronouns.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement in Number
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Case

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