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Can you help me with this? Pronoun-antecedent agreement – 10 marks Five of the following word groups contain a problem with pronoun-antecedent agreement. Mark the correct sentences “OK,” and edit the incorrect ones to eliminate the problem. 1. After World War I, Amelia Earhart took flying lessons. She learned quickly, but the lessons cost her most of her salary. 2. She wanted those lessons, so she worked two jobs to pay for them: She clerked for the telephone company and drove a dump truck for a sand and gravel company. 3. Members of her family pooled their funds to buy a gift – a little yellow biplane – for her twenty-fourth birthday celebration; it was the perfect gift. 4. Amelia Earhart soon learned that when someone owns a plane, they need a lot of money. 5. She sometimes executed dangerous maneuvers before her teacher was sure Amelia could handle it. 6. At first everyone could not believe their eyes when she deliberately put her plane into a spin. 7. Each spectator would gasp when they heard her cut the engine off in a spin. 8. But Amelia Earhart repeatedly pulled the plane out of its spin and landed safely, delighting everyone. 9. When an aviator wants to break records, they will work very hard. 10. Aviation record keepers had to make a new entry in the record books: They had seen Amelia Earhart fly 14,000 feet high.

Corrections · 4

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Miland correctly identified the biggest issue -- whether to use gender-specific pronouns such as "he," "he and she," "his", "her", "his and her"), or use the gender-neutral pronouns "they" or "their".  The four sentences that some would call "incorrect" on account of the use of the pronoun "they" or "their" are sentences 4, 6, 7, and 9.  To read about this issue, you can try here:  http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/generic-singular-pronouns


The fifth error appears in sentence 5.  Because the antecedent "maneuvers" is a plural noun, the final pronoun should be "them": ".... could handle them."

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This assignment was given to my wife last week and apparently ONLY five of ten are correct, but whoever posted it has the answers by now...
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I personally don't think there is any problem with these sentences. A singular 'they' is politically correct and sounds good.
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No one knows the answers?

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