prep183

陈唐越帅

Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to set dividends more conservatively than they were A.to set dividends more conservatively than they were B.to set dividends more conservatively than they have been C.to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends D.that they will be more conservative than they were in setting dividends E.that they will be more conservative than they have been to set dividends 请教一下C选项中they的指代对象怎么判断

alzn2765

C中they指代automakers.
去掉插入成分，整句为：analyst expect automakers to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends.
They前面有两个复数名词：automakers和analysts. 一个是主语一个是宾语，they都可以指代，但首先根据就近原则automakers离的近，其次they have been说明比较的对象后面也是be，如果对比的是analysts，They后面应该接have done，而不是have been; automakers后面是 to be。你说呢？