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Determine whether or not there is an error in the underlined portion of the sentence above. If there is no error, select answer choice "A".
(A)one that they believe to be a trigger for
(B)...
(C)...
(D)...
(E)...
(F)...
*This question is included in Nova Press: Set A - Pronoun Errors, question #5

The solution is

Posted: 04/05/2012 15:38
Please explain the usage of the pronoun 'one' in the correct option. Also, how is this 'one' pronoun generally used ?
Posted: 04/17/2012 14:07
Anshul, thank you for posting this question. I contacted the author, who provided the explanation: Usually, "that" refers to a whole concept, and "one" refers to an item or thing. Here, "that" is referring to the concept of discovering the fault, and "one" is referring to the fault.

The author also found two errors in the explanation for Choice (D):
"second sentence" should be "second clause"
"appropriate" should be "inappropriate"

I hope this helps.
Posted: 03/21/2013 16:01
Please explain, why "one" is not preceded by the definite article and also why "that" is redundant in the case of answer choice (A) if, for example, Longman Dictionary states that "the one(s) that..." is a common colloquial structure in the English language...?

Thank you!
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Contributor
Posted: 03/21/2013 18:01
Ben, "one" is not preceded by the definite article because it is not definitive that it is THE fault that triggered major quakes on the San Andreas.

As for your second question, even though a form may be an acceptable and common colloquial structure, the problem is asking for the best answer.
Posted: 03/22/2013 07:05
Hmmm, Joel, I believe that the case of definite article preceding "one" is suggested by the fact that the noun related to "one" has already been mentioned in the sentence before rather than the author of the sentence doubting the surety of the role of that noun... Moreover, "the one(s) (that/which/who)" can be found in the dictionary as the only way of using "one" (with definite article and optional "that" etc.) in a sense such as that of the question sentence.

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