请教OG22的考指代的题

shangjiongj

Japanese researchers are producing a series of robots that can identify human facial expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating a robot that will empathize with us.  

(A) expressions, to which they will then respond; their goal is primarily creating  

(B) expressions, then responding to them; primarily to create  

(C) expressions and then respond to them; the researchers' primary goal is to create  

(D) expressions as well as giving a response to them; their primary goal is creation of  

(E) expressions and responding to them; primarily, the researchers' goal is creating

答案选对的，C。但我好困惑啊，那个C里面的them没有歧义吗？
我第一遍做就排除了。回过去再找答案那个pace明显是不对了。是因为identify expression and respond to them 并列就OK吗？
谢谢牛人


补充答案说上A里面因为THEY和their指代不同明显错误。但是分号隔开了两个句子了额？

bejamin1111

PRONOUN AMBIGUITY IS NOT AN ABSOLUTE RULE.
robots can identify human facial expressions and then respond to them. 不是没有指代robots的嫌疑，但是逻辑上更加偏向于指代human expressions。从语法的角度来讲facial expressions 和them都在句中做宾语，这么来说也是偏向于指代facial expressions

enkyklios

C怎么会有岐义呢？ them没有别的指代啊

xiaoshuo199183

基本同意2楼的说法（都是作宾语，所以them指代expressions），但是在这里them没有指代robots的倾向。

shangjiongj

bejamin1111 发表于 2013-7-15 21:05
PRONOUN AMBIGUITY IS NOT AN ABSOLUTE RULE.
robots can identify human facial expressions and then re ...

谢谢你啊。提的问题一直承蒙关照了（捂脸）
话说，那如果A把第一个they改成robots的话就对了吗？因为manhattan里说分号可以带两个平行的句子？所以their可以指代researchers的？