A pronoun question tests who or what a word stands for and which form the sentence needs. Sort the choices by number, and expand pronouns with apostrophes to put back the missing letters. For ownership, ask who owns the noun, then read back past nearby nouns to find that owner. Check whether a noun follows: an ownership form such as my goes before a noun, while a form such as mine stands alone in its place.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look in the first part of the sentence for who made the prediction. That tells you which noun the pronoun stands for.
- Hint 2
Check the word right after the blank. Is the missing word supposed to name an owner before a noun, or replace the noun altogether?
Step-by-step
Find the owner and choose the form
Step 1Sort the forms
Sort the choices by number: each refers to one person or thing, so number alone won't settle this pronoun question. The blank sits before projections, so what does the missing word need to do? It must show who owns the projections. She's means she is or she has, rather than an ownership word.
- Step 2
Find the owner
Whose projections are these? Demographer Ellen Ritchie predicted the population increase, so the forecast belongs to Ritchie. The city and its population are what the forecast is about, not who made it. Ritchie is one person, and its is an ownership word for a thing, so it can't name this owner.
- Step 3
Choose the form before a noun
How do we show Ritchie's ownership before a noun? The sentence already gives the pattern in her subsequent report. Hers stands alone, as in the projections are hers, while her comes directly before a noun. That makes her the form to use before projections. Choice D.