The furniture produced by Scandinavian manufacturers in the mid-twentieth century has been praised for its minimalist elegance. Drawing inspiration fr...

PHASE 2: STUDENT-FACING SOLUTION

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• The furniture produced by Scandinavian manufacturers in the mid-twentieth century
• has been praised
• for its minimalist elegance.
• Drawing inspiration from natural forms,
• Danish designer Hans Wegner
• reimagined traditional chairs,
• simplifying their wooden frames and
• making (?) lighter and more functional.
  • [them/it/those/one]

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning to understand what this passage is about.

The first sentence sets the scene:

• 'The furniture produced by Scandinavian manufacturers in the mid-twentieth century has been praised for its minimalist elegance.'
  • We're talking about Scandinavian furniture from the mid-1900s
  • It's known for being minimalist and elegant

Now the second sentence focuses on one specific designer:

• 'Drawing inspiration from natural forms, Danish designer Hans Wegner reimagined traditional chairs'
  • Hans Wegner is a Danish designer
  • He took traditional chairs and reimagined them
  • He was inspired by natural forms

The sentence continues to explain HOW he reimagined these chairs:

• 'simplifying their wooden frames and making ______ lighter and more functional'
  • First action: simplifying their wooden frames
  • Second action: making ______ lighter and more functional

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices - they're all pronouns: them, it, those, one.

To see what works here, let's understand what this pronoun needs to refer back to.

What do we notice about the structure?

• Wegner 'reimagined traditional chairs' by doing two things:
  • simplifying their wooden frames (the frames of the chairs)
  • making [something] lighter and more functional
• What's being made lighter and more functional?
  • The chairs themselves!
  • These parallel actions both describe what Wegner did to the chairs
• The pronoun needs to refer back to 'traditional chairs'
  • 'Traditional chairs' is plural
  • So we need a plural pronoun

Looking at our options:

• 'them' is a plural pronoun that perfectly refers back to 'traditional chairs'

So we need them - it matches the plural antecedent 'traditional chairs.'

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Matching Pronouns to Their Antecedents

When you use a pronoun, it must match the noun it refers back to (called the antecedent in grammar terms) in number. This means:

• If the antecedent is plural, use a plural pronoun
• If the antecedent is singular, use a singular pronoun

Pattern:

• Plural antecedent → Plural pronoun
  • 'The students finished their homework, and the teacher praised them.'
  • 'students' (plural) → 'them' (plural) tick mark
• Singular antecedent → Singular pronoun
  • 'The student finished her homework, and the teacher praised her.'
  • 'student' (singular) → 'her' (singular) tick mark
• Would create mismatch:
  • 'The students finished their homework, and the teacher praised it.' cross
  • 'students' (plural) but 'it' (singular) = disagreement

In this question:

• Antecedent: 'traditional chairs' (plural)
• Correct pronoun: 'them' (plural)
• Hans Wegner 'reimagined traditional chairs... making them lighter'