<p>Surface mining is safer, quicker, and cheaper than deep mining, but (the greater is its toll in human misery.)</p>
<p>E. it has a greater human misery toll</p>
<p>B. its toll in human misery is greater</p>
<p>Explanation for Correct Answer E : </p>
<p>Choice (E) is correct. It avoids the error of the original by removing unnecessary words.</p>
<p>Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : </p>
<p>Choice (B) involves unclear pronoun reference. It is not clear whether the pronoun "it" refers to "surface mining" or "deep mining."</p>
<hr>
<p>I don't understand how "its" in answer choice E is not an ambiguous pronoun while "it" in choice B is considered as an ambiguous pronoun.
Could anyone please explain this situation? :)</p>
<p>Kind of confusing but…I’d think of it this way.</p>
<p>In the first one, you’re describing stuff about how surface mining is better than X, and then you say it has Y.</p>
<p>In the second one, you’re describing stuff about how surface mining is better than X, and then you introduce this new noun, “its toll” and think, what the heck is that?</p>
<p>Well, E definitely sounds better, but I see both as borderline sentences…</p>
<p>because in “Surface mining is safer, quicker, and cheaper than deep mining, but its toll in human misery is greater,” it is said that X is Y (a [noun] is [adjective]), BUT X’s toll is Z</p>
<p>the structure of the description is consistent, so “it” is proper in placement of a noun that was previously used in the same format</p>
<p>you can assume that “its” applies to “surface mining” because of BOTH the grammatical structure and the meaning of the sentence</p>
<p>“Surface mining is safer, quicker, and cheaper than deep mining, but it has a greater human misery toll”</p>
<p>in this, however, you can ONLY assume that “it” applies to “surface mining” by the sentence’s meaning, not its structure, which means the sentence is grammatically wrong in intent</p>
<p>Disregard the meaning of the sentence. By grammar ONLY, how do you explain “it has a greater human misery toll” being a reference to surface mining and not deep mining?</p>
<p>You can explain “its toll in human misery is greater” because the structure is parallel.</p>
<p>Not Parallel:
The teacher said that he was a poor student because he WAITED until the last minute to study for the exam, COMPLETED his lab problems in a careless manner, and his motivation was low.</p>
<p>Parallel:
The teacher said that he was a poor student because he WAITED until the last minute to study for the exam, COMPLETED his lab problems in a careless manner, and LACKED motivation.</p>
<p>By being consistent with forms/clauses, the subject noun is assumed, but when you break the parallelism, the flow is broken, and the subject has to be reintroduced and unambiguated (lol not a word)</p>
<p>Admittedly, this is just what I assumed on the grounds that the book’s explanation was true.</p>