Mozart and his father

[kerlium78]

At age four, Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents.


Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, in order to demonstrate his musical talents
Mozart's father began taking the boy on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his musical talents
Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate his own musical talents
Mozart began accompanying his father on tours of Europe's capitals, to demonstrate his musical talents
Mozart's father began taking him on tours of the capitals of Europe, to demonstrate the boy's musical talents

----------------

the above is the 15th question in MGMAT SC quiz bank. According to the soulution, the reason choice "d" is wrong is because the pronoun "his" may refer back to Mozart or to Mozart's father. However, since "his" is a repeated pronoun it seems to unambiguously refer back to Mozart.

Please guide me on this :)

[StaceyKoprince]

It is true that the general expectation is that a repeated pronoun refers to the same thing. However, if it is entirely plausible, both logically and structurally, that the pronoun could refer to something (or someone) else, then there is ambiguity.

And we do have such ambiguity in this case: it is equally as possible that the father is demonstrating musical talents as the son. (After all, we're not supposed to bring in outside knowledge - knowing who Mozart is!)

I'll also mention that, as a general rule, if you see a split in the answers between a pronoun and spelling out whatever the noun is, the correct answer is far more likely to be one of the noun options than one of the pronoun options. You still need to check the remaining text for errors, of course, but it is always less ambiguous to use the actual noun than to use a pronoun in place of the noun. :)

[kerlium78]

It is true that the general expectation is that a repeated pronoun refers to the same thing. However, if it is entirely plausible, both logically and structurally, that the pronoun could refer to something (or someone) else, then there is ambiguity.

And we do have such ambiguity in this case: it is equally as possible that the father is demonstrating musical talents as the son. (After all, we're not supposed to bring in outside knowledge - knowing who Mozart is!)

I'll also mention that, as a general rule, if you see a split in the answers between a pronoun and spelling out whatever the noun is, the correct answer is far more likely to be one of the noun options than one of the pronoun options. You still need to check the remaining text for errors, of course, but it is always less ambiguous to use the actual noun than to use a pronoun in place of the noun. :)

:) Thanks a lot Stacey. However, the correct answer is "C" (just an FYI to you)

[tim]

Exactly. Stacey was guiding you toward C as an answer if you read her post carefully.. :)

[kiranck007]

Hi,
What makes "his own" refer to Mozart and not "his"? Could you please help me here. I am unable to differentiate between the two - his and his own.

[tim]

"his own" just provides a little more clarity so we know it was Mozart's talents that were on display and not his father's. With "his" we couldn't be 100% sure. :)