Question when-t
When they were first discovered in Australia in 1798, duck-billed, beaver-tailed platypuses so defied egorization that one scientist assigned them the name Ornithorhynchus paradoxus: “paradoxical bird-snout.” The animal, which lays eggs but also nurses blank young with milk, has since been classified as belonging to the monotremes group.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
they’re
their
its
it’s
When they were first discovered in Australia in 1798, duck-billed, beaver-tailed platypuses so defied egorization that
Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Words in Context — Commonly confused words. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice C is the best answer. The singular possessive pronoun "its" agrees with the singular antecedent "the animal" and indies that the "young" belong to it.
Choice A is incorrect. This choice creates a pronoun-antecedent agreement error. "They’re" is a contraction of "they are," a plural pronoun and verb, but the antecedent "the animal" is singular. Also, we don’t need the extra verb "are" — we already have a main verb in this clause, so adding "are" would be confusing and ungrammatical. Choice B is incorrect. This choice creates a pronoun-antecedent agreement error. "Their" is a plural pronoun, but the subject of the sentence is "the animal," a singular noun. Choice D is incorrect. This choice creates a confusing and ungrammatical sentence. "It’s" is a contraction for "it is." We already have the verb "nurses" in this clause, so we shouldn’t add the verb "is."
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