请教一道 23. GWD26-Q23

23. GWD26-Q23

Trans World Entertainment Corporation, which owns
        the Record
                Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains,
        announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A.      that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores
        are poor, they will be closed.无指代

B.       it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which
        accounted for its poor sales

C.      it was closing up to one fourth of its stores
        because of poor sales.

D.      to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores.

E.       having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed.

A\C

我知道A选项的代词指代有问题，可是我不明白为什么正确选项(C)it前没有that呢，anounced引导的明显是一个宾语从句的么！请NN指教，谢谢！

省略里面讲过宾语从句省略that的情况：在及物动词后面所接的宾语从句中，连词that 一般可以省略；但如果及物动词后面是由that引导的两个或两个以上的并列的宾语从句，那么只有第一个that可以省略。

同问

Gmat中宾语从句的that不能省略，这在很多题都里都是解题的方法，为什么在这里不适用了？

我也同意 A。 不记得在哪里有过，A of B 结构中 B是可以被指代的，如果这里的they 可以指代up to one-fourth of its stores  不就可以了吗？但是我实在不觉得C是对的，因为引导宾语从句的 that 很少被省略，特别是较长的句子

候NN赐教。

不是NN,A OF B 结构中A是核心词，they优先指代SALES

如，a friend of my father,核心词是friend

LONGMAN的解释还有一条，可能有用，

2
to say something, especially something that other people will not like, in a loud and confident way
ￚsynonym state'I'm not going to their party,' Maggie announced.
announce (that) that可以省略
He stood up and announced that he was ready to go.

http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/52784-transworld-stores.html

老外咋也讨论这题呢？  我google 到这个 website