Question 152·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
Arctic terns migrate farther than any other bird species, traveling from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back each year; this remarkable journey allows ______ to experience more daylight than any other creature on Earth.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For pronoun agreement questions, first underline the noun that the pronoun refers to (the antecedent). Check its number (singular/plural) and type (person, thing, or animal), then decide whether the pronoun in the blank is functioning as a subject or an object. Quickly eliminate any choices that do not match the antecedent in number or type, and then remove any that are the wrong case (subject vs. object). Read the sentence with your remaining choice to confirm it sounds natural and is grammatically correct.
Hints
Identify the noun being replaced
Look back in the sentence and ask yourself: which noun is this missing word referring to?
Check number and type
Is that noun singular or plural? Is it a person, an animal, or a thing? The pronoun needs to match this information.
Check the pronoun’s role in the sentence
In the phrase 'allows ___ to experience,' is the blank acting as the doer of the action (subject) or receiving the action (object)? Choose a pronoun form that fits that role.
Step-by-step Explanation
Find what the pronoun refers to
Look before the blank to see which noun the missing pronoun is replacing. The sentence is about 'Arctic terns' and their migration. The blank is in the phrase 'this remarkable journey allows ___ to experience more daylight,' so the pronoun must refer back to 'Arctic terns.'
Decide if the antecedent is singular or plural
'Arctic terns' names more than one bird (it ends in 's' and refers to an entire group of birds), so it is plural. That means the pronoun must also be plural to agree in number with 'Arctic terns.'
Decide which pronoun case you need
In the phrase 'allows ___ to experience,' the blank comes after the verb 'allows.' Here, the pronoun is the object of 'allows' (what the journey allows), not the subject of a verb. So you need an object pronoun (like 'him/her/them'), not a subject pronoun (like 'he/she/they'). It also must be plural and can refer to animals.
Match a plural object pronoun to the choices
Now check the answer choices:
- 'it' is singular, not plural.
- 'her' is singular and usually refers to a female person.
- 'they' is plural but is a subject pronoun, not an object pronoun.
- 'them' is plural and an object pronoun that can refer to animals. Only 'them' matches a plural noun and works as the object of 'allows,' so the correct answer is C) them.