【HELP】代词指代求救！！！

fannybeibei

Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, their
descendants, popularly known as killer bees, had migrated as far north as southern Texas.
(A) Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(B) In less than 35 years since releasing African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(C) In less than the 35 years since African honeybees had been released outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(D) It took less than 35 years from the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, when
(E) It took less than the 35 years after the time that African honeybees were released outside
Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then  

别的选项都知道了，可答案怎么可以是A？their无指代啊。。。因为在of的后面


同理，比如，
OG12- 43 Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are
(C)     that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them
指代不清

og-12-23  In a previous design, the weight of the discus used in Track competition is concentrated in a metal center,but now it is lined with lead around the perimeter
指代不清


求助了！

dzz_0611

Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, their
descendants, popularly known as killer bees, had migrated as far north as southern Texas.
(A) Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(B) In less than 35 years since releasing African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(C) In less than the 35 years since African honeybees had been released outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,
(D) It took less than 35 years from the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, when
(E) It took less than the 35 years after the time that African honeybees were released outside
Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then  

别的选项都知道了，可答案怎么可以是A？their无指代啊。。。因为在of的后面


同理，比如，
OG12- 43 Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are
(C)     that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them
指代不清

og-12-23  In a previous design, the weight of the discus used in Track competition is concentrated in a metal center,but now it is lined with lead around the perimeter
指代不清

-- by 会员 fannybeibei (2010/8/20 21:35:29)

我没理解their为啥在of后面就不能指代了。。。很明显their是指代的African honeybees. 无论是否是A of B的结构，their只能知道一个复数名词，对于他是处于介词短语的A位置还是B位置是没有要求的，也就是说，A如果是复数，thier可以指代A。A如果是单数，B是复数，their也可以指代B。但是A B都是复数，则their指代不清楚。

OG12- 43 Laos has a land area about the same as Great Britain but only four million in population, where many are
(C)     that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them
指代不清
这里首先套用了一个th same as的比较 比较对象是the land area 是需要一致的。C选项中的them指代是people啊。因为只有people这一个复数名词啊。。。没有其他的复数名词了 。

23  In a previous design, the weight of the discus used in Track competition is concentrated in a metal center,but now it is lined with lead around the perimeter
指代不清

这里it 的指代是不清楚的。因为这里有两个单数名词，weight 和 discus就是刚刚我说的A of B AB单复数无区分的情况，it指代就是不清楚的。而正确选项中，
Once designed with its weight concentrated in metal center, the discus used in track competition is now lined with lead around...
it很明显只能指代他的逻辑主语，因为在it之前只有一个单数的逻辑主语discus可以指代。虽然因为句子结构的原因并没有显示出有discus。

以上个人意见，欢迎指正。

fannybeibei

首先谢谢dzz，在我这么紧张的时候两次都回答我的问题～～～

OG 12 43的解释说them has no clear referent,所以我才以为不能指代的。


还望继续指教！

dzz_0611

首先谢谢dzz，在我这么紧张的时候两次都回答我的问题～～～

OG 12 43的解释说them has no clear referent,所以我才以为不能指代的。


还望继续指教！

-- by 会员 fannybeibei (2010/8/20 22:01:58)

大囧~！看差了一行- -之前我说的关于这题的好像有误。
仔细看一下OG还是可以发现。
C选项根据“寻找最相近的单复一致的指代对象”这个原则来看的确是not clear的。首先population这个词的单复数都是可以的。虽然原文中使用了a population这个概念。但是their的确是可以指代到population的。所以就和their的真正指代对象，people发生了冲突。所以后来用的whom来指代，避免了这一个问题。只可以用来指代people还不能指代population了。

呵呵，加油呀~！莫紧张。。。
(*^__^*) 嘻嘻……

fannybeibei

谢谢dzz！

fannybeibei

DORIS807

看到一个国外tutor的解释，是解释C选项的。希望有帮助，不是NN。
A few things:

First of all, we have some concision issues at the outset:
"that is about the same size..." unnecessarily inserts a new tensed version of "to be." This is a violation of our Concision Pattern #6.

We then have a repetitiveness issue. C repeats the words "land area." While this is certainly clear, it is repetitive. E replaces the second "land area" with the word "that," our "new copy" pronoun.

Finally, C repeats "Laos" again. This is unnecessary.

DORIS807

我觉得them在这里不能指代Population，只能指代People，Laotians, or Laotian people... but those words are not in the sentence.
还是放一个我看到的解释，我认为比较合理。go read that choice (c) again; the word "people" does not exist anywhere in that choice (or in the non-underlined part). a pronoun cannot refer to a word that is not actually there!
the closest you get in that sentence is “population”, but that's singular.
open to discuss。。。。