老题新问og12 sc 78 they指代问题

endsakura

OG12 No.78
Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991. and dated at 34 million years old, made it the
earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.
(A) sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known
mammal of
(B) sloth, that they found in Puerto Rico in 1991, has been dated at 34 million years old, thus making
it the earliest mammal known on
(C) sloth that was found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, making this the
earliest known mammal of
(D) sloth, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, have been dated at 34 million years old, making the sloth
the earliest known mammal on
(E) sloth which, found in Puerto Rico in 1991, was dated at 34 million years old, made the sloth the
earliest known mammal of
想问个小白问题，为什么B中的they不能指代fossils? 是因为离指代对象太近了吗？我记得manhattan中说过代词不能指代太近的对象，是因为这样吗？还是因为they是插入成分不能指代前面句子的主语？
其他的问题都解决了，可是没有找到这个问题的答案，可能太小白了，希望大家帮忙解释一下，谢谢！

wsjustin

they指代fossils，意思不通吧？

endsakura

为什么意思不同呢？they指代fossils, fossils found in Puerto Rico in 1991, 原文的意思也是说fossils在某个地方被发现，我知道如果没有they的话，根据文意推断found是修饰短语的核心词fossils, 但是为什么说they没有指代对象呢？

qiongle

that不用再nonessential在GMAT里面吧

maobaobao800

我认为并不是they是否能真正指代fossils的问题，that 要紧紧follow先行词，而且“，that”肯定不对，that不引导非限。在之前的帖子有大牛说过，OG里解释的without reference，多数时候不是没有指代，而是指代的不正确~
附：非主句主语代词一般优先指代主句主语，而且一般位于主句之后。
应该是酱紫的，如果那句说的不对，希望楼主确认后告我~