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Source: Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed. Sentence Correction; #99 Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed. Sentence Correction; #99

1

The stars, some of them at tremendous

The stars, some of them at tremendous speeds, are in motion just as the planets are, yet being so far away from Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime.

2 Explanations

1

Anirudh Daga

The "They" in the second half.. does it not cause confusion as to who is the "THEY" being referred to ? The Stars or the Planets?

Oct 17, 2016 • Comment

Sam Kinsman

Hi Anirudh,

With the correct answer (B), the sentence reads:

Like the planets, the stars are in motion, some of them at tremendous speeds, but they are so far away from Earth that their apparent positions in the sky do not change enough for their movement to be observed during a single human lifetime.

Here the word "stars" is the closest noun to the pronoun "they," so we know that "they" refers to "stars."

A a pronoun's antecedent should always be the last noun in the sentence before the pronoun. The word "planets" is farther away from "they" than the word "stars" is, so "they" cannot refer to "planets."

Oct 17, 2016 • Reply

Anirudh Daga

Thank you very much for your response!!

Oct 18, 2016 • Reply

2

Gravatar Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor

May 23, 2013 • Comment

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Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

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