Directions: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the correct…

Concept

English separates possessive ADJECTIVES (my, your, his, her, our, their), which must be followed by a noun, from possessive PRONOUNS (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs), which stand alone in place of a whole noun phrase and never take an apostrophe. In a comparison introduced by "than" or "as", the second term usually stands in for a longer noun phrase, so it must be a form that can stand alone.

Application

"My college is farther than ________" compares "my college" with a female possessor's college. Since the noun "college" is not repeated after the blank, the blank must be a possessive pronoun that can stand alone for "her college" — that pronoun is "hers." The complete sentence reads: "My college is farther than hers."

Cross-check

Testing each option against the same rule confirms the choice — the pronoun must stand alone (no following noun) and match this item's keyed possessor.

• her — a possessive adjective; it needs a following noun ("her college") and cannot stand alone here.

• his — a possessive pronoun that can ALSO stand alone, structurally parallel to "hers," but it marks a male possessor rather than the female possessor this item keys.

• she — a subject pronoun, used as the subject of a verb; it cannot express possession or replace a noun phrase.

Final sentence: My college is farther than hers.