<p>1) Pain doesn't show up on a body scan and can't be measured in a test, and as a result, many chronic pain sufferers turn to art in an effort to depict that.
*why is "that" incorrect? when do we use "that"?</p>
<p>2) Although the jury spent many hours arguing over the details of the trial, it was ultimately unable to reach a consensus.
*I had a hard time with this one... I knew that "it" was referring to "jury" in my mind, but I didn't know if it was recognized as having the pronoun-antecedent relationship.... I thought since "it" came right after "trial", it would modify/refer to "trial"...</p>
<p>Pain doesn’t show up on a body scan and can’t be measured in a test, and as a result, many chronic pain sufferers turn to art in an effort to depict that.</p>
<p>What does “that” refer to? Here “that” is ambiguous. “that” can refer to pain, or body scan, or test. The author intends for “that” to refer to the some aspect of the claim “pain doesn’t show up etc.”. In spoken English that may work, although I expect that the listener would often ask “what do you mean?”. I can’t quickly think of valid examples of the complexity of the above sentence in which “that” would be right.</p>
<p>A corrected version of the sentence is:</p>
<p>Pain doesn’t show up on a body scan and can’t be measured in a test, and as a result, many chronic pain sufferers turn to art in an effort to depict pain.</p>
<p>Your second sentence:</p>
<p>Although the jury spent many hours arguing over the details of the trial, it was ultimately unable to reach a consensus. </p>
<p>is common usage.</p>
<p>Consider:</p>
<p>Although John had a great deal of homework, he still found time to go to the mall with Ellen.</p>
<p>I expect that you wouldn’t have any doubt with the above sentence regarding the antecedent of “he”.</p>
<p>Jury is a singular collective noun, and the applicable pronoun that refers to jury is “it”. That the pronoun is “it” can lead to some uncertainty, as in your sentence. But the only other candidate for the antecedent is trial. And a trial is not a living body of people. A trail can’t do anything! Apply common sense rather than a recipe. The use of “it” here is both common and correct.</p>
<p>Ehr!!! @Fogcity I don’t quite agree with you on the second one, the jury didn’t come to a consensus, meaning each individual disagreed, it wasn’t collectively. So I think it should instead be they not it. If you are still skeptical go to page 277 of the Barron’s Book, there’s a similar example but it has to do with verbs.</p>
<p>“It” is correct. Whether it is “reach a consensus” or “not reach a consensus,” it is still the collective singular jury that is either doing so or failing to do so. The “not” does not change the result. Consider: “Congress met and it passed the law.” If it does not pass the law, it would be “Congress met and it did not pass the law.” Changing it to the failure to reach consensus does not suddenly change it to “they.”</p>
<p>“In his novel, Skinner invents a world IN WHICH emotions such as envy have become obsolete because people are conditioned as children to reject them.”
*This sentence is correct… I thought it should be WHERE instead…
(Where is for places; in which is only to refer to events!) but why in this case?</p>
<p>You are likely to get more attention to this and future grammar questions by starting a new thread for each.</p>
<p>The distinction between “where” and “in which” is not as simple as you’ve described. In the current context “in which” refers to the possibilities of the world that Skinner invented. These possibilities are not physical ones, and hence “where” is not as precise as “in which”. Indeed the “world” that Skinner invented is an imaginary one and hence not subject to the concept of “where”. But should the writer have used “where” instead of “in which” many readers would view the sentence as grammatically correct. The subtlety of the thought would however have been comprised by the use of “where”.</p>
<p>One of the definitions of “which” taken from the Webster’s New World Dictionary is:</p>
<p>that: used as a relative referring to the thing, group, or event specified in the antecedent word, phrase, or clause: which can be used in a restrictive clause [the war which had just ended, the class to which he spoke], in a restrictive clause preceded by the pronoun that[he sacrificed that which he valued most], in a nonrestrictive clause [my car, which is not running; my family, in which she found a warm welcome], or, archaically, of a person [Our Father, which art in heaven].</p>
<p>I’m curious as to where you’re getting this question. It feels much too subtle to be a College Board SAT question. It’s more of a GMAT question.</p>