og43

In the minds of many people living in England, before Australia was Australia, it was the antipodes, the opposite pole to civilization, an obscure and unimaginable place that was considered the end of the world.

(A) before Australia was Australia, it was the antipodes

(B) before there was Australia, it was the antipodes

(C) it was the antipodes that was Australia

(D) Australia was what was the antipodes（A）

(E) Australia was what had been known as the antipodes

In B, it has no logical referent, because the previous clause describes a time when there was no Australia.

一事不明，b选项中同样出现了australia，为什么就不能视为it的指代呢？

(B)是存在结构, 换句话说, "在澳洲存在之前" , 就没有东西让 it 指代

一個小技巧請參考

我發現在ETS的觀念中， there be(包括there will, there are, there is )都很少成為標準答案，ETS似乎認為，there be是一個很模糊不清的用法，所以少選為妙

回到你的問題，個人認為，a項中的it 是代第一個 Australia，那麼既然 B選項的there 不知是指誰，那麼it就也變得很曖昧，那麼就不如A選項好。

請指教

australia:

n 1: a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony

2: the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean

所以我觉的before australia was australia中,第一个australia是指澳洲大陆,第二个是指国家;而it所指的是第一个australia 就是澳洲大陆

很迷惑,答案E我的理解是:

澳大利亚是(曾经被认为Antipodes), ....

哪里错了？请指教．．．

又理解一下：如Ｅ中围划线部分改为 ..., an obscure and unimaginable place that had been considered the end of the world. 是否可以?

B中it没有指代，我觉得不是因为there be 的存在结构，而是因为before there was A，就是说A还不存在，it当然就不可能指代A了。一家之言。

又理解一下：如Ｅ中围划线部分改为 ..., an obscure and unimaginable place that had been considered the end of the world. 是否可以?

同问！！

另对楼上的问题，应该不是时态问题，而是缺少了修饰Australia was the antipodes的时间状语，改变了句义。