A part of the following sentence is underlined. Choose the option that can replace the underlined part to improve the sentence. If you feel Options A, B, or C do not improve the sentence, then choose Option D: "No improvement required."
After failing the exam, he realised there was no one to blame but oneself for not preparing better.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Correct Answer
there was no one to blame but himself
Explanation
The question asks for the correct replacement to improve the underlined part of the sentence. The sentence features an error in pronoun agreement. The main subject of the sentence is the third-person singular masculine pronoun "he". Therefore, any reflexive pronoun referring back to this subject must match it in gender and person. The impersonal pronoun "oneself" must be replaced with the masculine reflexive pronoun "himself".
Option 3 perfectly corrects this pronoun mismatch while keeping the proper prepositional idiom "no one to blame but...". Option 1 incorrectly uses "nothing" instead of "no one," which does not make sense when talking about placing blame on a person. Option 2 removes the conjunction "but," changing the meaning completely and making the sentence ungrammatical. Option 4 is incorrect because the original sentence contains a clear pronoun error and requires improvement.
Key Points
Pronoun agreement questions on your exam paper often test your ability to trace a reflexive pronoun back to its original anchor subject. When a sentence begins with a specific personal subject like "he" or "she", you can quickly eliminate impersonal options like "oneself" in favor of matching gendered reflexive pronouns.