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Difficulty: MediumPronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Case

A recent investigation into the subglacial lakes of Antarctica revealed that a unique community of extremophilic bacteria thrives in complete darkness, obtaining ______ energy from chemical compounds dissolved in the water.

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

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

Answer

its
The singular possessive pronoun 'its' correctly refers to the singular collective noun antecedent 'community'. The intervening plural prepositional phrase 'of extremophilic bacteria' does not change the singular nature of the main antecedent.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the antecedent of the pronoun needed in the blank.
The noun phrase serving as the antecedent is 'a unique community of extremophilic bacteria'. The head of this phrase is the singular collective noun 'community'.
Determining the grammatical number of the antecedent is necessary to choose a pronoun that agrees with it.
2
Determine the correct case and grammatical category for the pronoun.
Since the pronoun modifies the noun 'energy', it must be possessive. Since the antecedent 'community' is singular, the pronoun must be singular possessive ('its').
Pronouns must agree in number (singular vs. plural) and case (possessive vs. subject/object) with their antecedents.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the singular possessive pronoun.
The word 'its' is the singular possessive pronoun. The word 'their' is plural, and the options 'it's' and 'they're' are contractions rather than possessives.
Eliminating grammatically incorrect options leaves the correct answer.

Key Concept

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Case
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Topics

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Case

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