<p>Had the sound of children playing not AWAKENED HIM(a) when THEY DID(b), he would IN ALL PROBABILITY(c) HAVE MISSED(d) the plane by now. NE(e)</p>
<p>Why is the answer b?</p>
<p>Search for “awakened” brings this up:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1473479-please-help-sat-writing-problem.html?highlight=awakened[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1473479-please-help-sat-writing-problem.html?highlight=awakened</a></p>
<p>The subject of the sentence is “the sound of children” NOT the children so the pronoun that would follow the subject must be “it” (normative case) as the sound is a thing and not a person. They (people) refers to the children and the children aren’t really mentioned it’s their sound.</p>
<p>007 Science is correct. Always substitute the understood subject for the pronoun when reading aloud (in your head) to make sure the pronoun isn’t misleading.</p>