Question:medium
Directions for questions 107 to 111: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The Celts may be taken as a starting point for a study of the long series of people whose arrival and settlement in Britain have contributed to its history. They provide a link between the prehistoric period, at the end of which they had emerged ...
(Passage of 230 words, from "The Celts" by Nora Chadwick, Penguin edition.)A line was taken and the pronoun "our" was underlined. Whom did the pronoun refer to?
Directions for questions 107 to 111: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
The Celts may be taken as a starting point for a study of the long series of people whose arrival and settlement in Britain have contributed to its history. They provide a link between the prehistoric period, at the end of which they had emerged ...
(Passage of 230 words, from "The Celts" by Nora Chadwick, Penguin edition.)
The Celts may be taken as a starting point for a study of the long series of people whose arrival and settlement in Britain have contributed to its history. They provide a link between the prehistoric period, at the end of which they had emerged ...
(Passage of 230 words, from "The Celts" by Nora Chadwick, Penguin edition.)
A line was taken and the pronoun "our" was underlined. Whom did the pronoun refer to?
Show Hint
Ask who the author is writing for. Pronouns like "our" usually mean the author's own group.
Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
- Europeans
- British
- Celts
- Romans
Show Solution
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Understanding the Question.
We are told a line from the passage had the word "our" underlined, and we need to work out who this pronoun stands for, using only the framing of the passage.
Step 2: Key Approach.
In a passage about "the long series of people whose arrival and settlement in Britain have contributed to its history," the pronoun "our" is a first-person plural form. It can only refer to the group the author identifies with while writing, signalled by phrases like "its history" (Britain's history) rather than the history of the Celts themselves.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation.
The Celts, Romans, and other early settlers are all described in the third person as people who "arrived" and "settled," the language used for outsiders being studied, not for the writer's own group. The word "our" instead describes the people the passage is written for and by, present day Britain, whose history has been shaped by all these earlier arrivals, including the Celts. Options like "Europeans," "Celts," or "Romans" are all groups discussed from the outside in the passage, so none of them fit a first-person pronoun used by the author.
Step 4: Final Answer.
The pronoun "our" refers to the British, since the passage is a British historian's account of the peoples, including the Celts, who shaped British history. The answer is option (b) British.
We are told a line from the passage had the word "our" underlined, and we need to work out who this pronoun stands for, using only the framing of the passage.
Step 2: Key Approach.
In a passage about "the long series of people whose arrival and settlement in Britain have contributed to its history," the pronoun "our" is a first-person plural form. It can only refer to the group the author identifies with while writing, signalled by phrases like "its history" (Britain's history) rather than the history of the Celts themselves.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation.
The Celts, Romans, and other early settlers are all described in the third person as people who "arrived" and "settled," the language used for outsiders being studied, not for the writer's own group. The word "our" instead describes the people the passage is written for and by, present day Britain, whose history has been shaped by all these earlier arrivals, including the Celts. Options like "Europeans," "Celts," or "Romans" are all groups discussed from the outside in the passage, so none of them fit a first-person pronoun used by the author.
Step 4: Final Answer.
The pronoun "our" refers to the British, since the passage is a British historian's account of the peoples, including the Celts, who shaped British history. The answer is option (b) British.
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Top Questions on Reading Comprehension
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