0
Stenka25 Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
Tricky pronoun problem
Tricky pronoun problem
The passage below comes from ‘THE BLANK SLATE.’
http://evolbiol.ru/blankslate/blankslate.htm
Finally, the denial of human nature has not just corrupted the world of critics and intellectuals but has done harm to the lives of real people. The theory that parents can mold their children like clay has inflicted childrearing regimes on parents that are unnatural and sometimes cruel. It has distorted the choices faced by mothers as they try to balance their lives, and multiplied the anguish of parents whose children haven't turned out the way they hoped.
In this passage I’m not sure about what the underlined ‘their’ stands for.
It seems to refer to ‘mothers’ in one sense, but also seems to be able to represent ‘children.’
In the sense of context, I think ‘children’ seems better answer, but I’m not 100% sure.
Thanks in advance.
The passage below comes from ‘THE BLANK SLATE.’
http://evolbiol.ru/blankslate/blankslate.htm
Finally, the denial of human nature has not just corrupted the world of critics and intellectuals but has done harm to the lives of real people. The theory that parents can mold their children like clay has inflicted childrearing regimes on parents that are unnatural and sometimes cruel. It has distorted the choices faced by mothers as they try to balance their lives, and multiplied the anguish of parents whose children haven't turned out the way they hoped.
In this passage I’m not sure about what the underlined ‘their’ stands for.
It seems to refer to ‘mothers’ in one sense, but also seems to be able to represent ‘children.’
In the sense of context, I think ‘children’ seems better answer, but I’m not 100% sure.
Thanks in advance.
Top answer
I read it as referring to mothers.
- I read it as referring to mothers.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
4 Answers
0
0
Thanks a lot for your immediate answer, GPY. For me it seems to refer to ‘mothers’ at first sight, I mean, intuitively, but on second thought, when I read it again in the sense of context, in the sense that ‘parents can mold their kids like clay’ it may be able to stand for ‘children.’ To me to figure out what the pronoun refers to is the trickiest thing in reading English Text.
00
I agree that it is potentially unclear. I'm basing my interpretation on the fact that it is more usual to "balance" one's own life than someone else's.
00
Related Questions