1. I got into the room and found each boy was playing with a toy. I took him out.
[Can 'him' refer to 'each boy'? ]
2. Blow across each straw. Can you understand how it makes a sound?
[Can 'it' refer to 'each straw?]
3. He had to repair each desk.
It was broken badly.
[Does 'it' refer to 'each desk'? Can we use this way or do we have to use other expressions?]
1. No, you'd need to refer to one of the boys in some specific way: the taller boy or the noisier boy or ??
2. Yes, although as I wrote before, it's pretty hard to blow on only one straw in a musical pipe.
3. No, that'd be a strange reference. It's better to write it like this: He had to repair each desk which had been badly broken.
1. In this case, 'him' cannot refer to 'each boy.' The pronoun 'him' is singular and refers to a single male individual. Since there are multiple boys in the room, 'him' cannot be used to refer to each boy individually. To make it clear that you are removing each boy individually, you can say "I took each boy out" or "I took them out one by one."
2. Yes, 'it' can refer to 'each straw.' In this context, 'it' is a singular pronoun that can be used to refer to a single straw. Since each straw is being blown across individually, 'it' can be used to refer to each straw, for example, "Blow across each straw. Can you understand how it makes a sound? Try listening to it closely."
3. In this case, using 'it' to refer to 'each desk' may cause confusion because 'it' is typically used to refer to a singular noun rather than multiple ones. Instead, it would be clearer to use another expression such as "each one" or "every one" to avoid any ambiguity. For example, "He had to repair each desk. Every one was broken badly."