Question 224·Medium·Form, Structure, and Sense
When honeybees locate a new food source, a single bee performs a "waggle dance" that communicates the distance and direction of the flowers to the rest of the hive, enabling ______ to gather nectar efficiently.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For pronoun-agreement questions, first locate exactly which noun the pronoun stands for by asking, "Who or what is doing this action?" Then decide whether that noun is singular or plural and what role the pronoun plays (subject, object, possessive, or reflexive). Finally, eliminate any choices that don’t match both the number and the grammatical role; don’t be distracted by meaning alone—check the form carefully to move quickly and accurately.
Hints
Find the noun the blank refers to
Ask yourself: in the phrase "enabling ______ to gather nectar efficiently," who is actually doing the gathering? Look back earlier in the sentence for that noun.
Check singular vs. plural
Is the group that gathers nectar just one bee, or multiple bees? Your pronoun must match that number.
Check the pronoun’s job in the sentence
The blank comes right after "enabling" and before "to gather." Do you need a pronoun showing possession, a pronoun reflecting back on the subject, or a simple object pronoun that receives the action of "enabling"?
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify who is being enabled to gather nectar
Read the whole sentence: the dance "communicates the distance and direction of the flowers to the rest of the hive, enabling ______ to gather nectar efficiently."
Ask: Who is gathering nectar? It is not the single bee doing the dance; it is the rest of the hive—the other bees. That is a group of bees, so the idea is plural (many bees).
Decide what kind of pronoun is needed
The blank follows the verb "enabling" and is the thing being enabled to do something: "enabling ______ to gather..." That means the blank must be a pronoun used as an object, not a possessive form and not a reflexive form.
So we need a plural object pronoun that can stand for the other bees in the hive.
Match the pronoun type and number to a choice
Check each option:
- "it" and "itself" are singular, but we need plural.
- "their" is possessive, but we need an object pronoun.
Only "them" is a plural object pronoun that fits grammatically and logically: it refers to the other bees in the hive.
Answer: B) them.