A pronoun question with a description after a noun tests how the pronoun refers back and connects the sentence. Find the noun being described, and check whether it's one thing or more. Then ask whether the word replaces a noun, shows ownership, or joins a clause, a group of words with a subject and verb. Match both number and job, then test how the parts connect. A pronoun that refers correctly can still leave the sentence unfinished.
Hints
- Hint 1
Reread the plans to replace the equipment and resurface the courts. Find the noun that names both planned jobs.
- Hint 2
Look at the words right after the blank. What is the relationship between the projects and the estimated costs?
- Hint 3
Check how the words after the comma connect. How does the cost description attach to the noun immediately before the blank?
Step-by-step
Find the noun and the pronoun's job
Step 1Find what the pronoun refers to
Start with the planned work: replace the playground equipment and resurface the tennis courts. What does projects name? It names both jobs, so the missing pronoun refers to the plural projects, not the singular park district. But number alone doesn't tell us the pronoun's job in the cost description.
- Step 2
Check what belongs to what
The words estimated costs already name what exceeds the stated amount. What must the missing word add? It must show that the costs belong to the projects, rather than name another thing that exceeds the amount. That and which can introduce descriptions, but neither shows ownership directly before this cost phrase.
- Step 3
Check the grammatical link
How does the cost description connect to projects? A relative clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb that describes a noun. Here, the cost clause must link back to the projects so it can describe them within the sentence. Their shows ownership, but in “projects their estimated costs exceed,” no word connects “projects” to the clause about its costs.
- Step 4
Use the word that does both jobs
Whose means belonging to the person or thing named before it, and it works with singular or plural nouns. It's a relative pronoun, a word that links a describing clause to a noun, so it connects projects with estimated costs exceed while showing the costs belong to those projects. Choice D.