Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sejpdw]

1. The minds of children may not be as developed as those of adults, but they are far more imaginative.

- What do they refer to?

1) The minds of children
2) Children

2. The manufacturers claim toys like Pokemon help to prepare children for life in the real world. But, in fact, they simply teach children how to become consumer.

- What do they refer to?

1) the manufacturers
2) toys

[CP]

1 means the minds of the children and 2 means the toys. But it's always possible that the writers meant the other choice, so in that way these are a little ambiguous.

The children are more imaginative than adults, in fact, and it does sound a little funny to call their minds, rather than them, imaginative. If that is what the writer meant, he or she might have written it as, "The minds of children may not be as developed as those of adults, but the children are far more imaginative."

The writer of 2 could have cleared it up with, "The manufacturers claim that toys like Pokemon help to prepare children for life in the real world. But, in fact, those toys simply teach children how to become consumers."
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