Sentence Correction

Heirloom tomatoes, grown from seeds saved from the previous year, only look less appetizing than their round and red supermarket cousins, often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but are more flavorful.

(A) cousins, often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but are

(B) cousins, often green and striped, or with plenty of bumps and bruises, although

(C) cousins, often green and striped, or they have plenty of bumps and bruises, although they are

(D) cousins; they are often green and striped, or with plenty of bumps and bruises, although

(E) cousins; they are often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but they are

[spoiler]OA: E
My question is what does they refer to "Heirloom tomatoes" or "round and red supermarket cousins"?
I have a feeling, since "their" is used in the non underlined part to refer Heirloom therefore "they" must refer to Heirloom. Will the above logic work with [E] because there are two independent sentences separated by semi colon.
Experts can you please confirm. [/spoiler]

dustystormy wrote:Heirloom tomatoes, grown from seeds saved from the previous year, only look less appetizing than their round and red supermarket cousins, often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but are more flavorful.

(A) cousins, often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but are

(B) cousins, often green and striped, or with plenty of bumps and bruises, although

(C) cousins, often green and striped, or they have plenty of bumps and bruises, although they are

(D) cousins; they are often green and striped, or with plenty of bumps and bruises, although

(E) cousins; they are often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises, but they are

[spoiler]OA: E
My question is what does they refer to "Heirloom tomatoes" or "round and red supermarket cousins"?
I have a feeling, since "their" is used in the non underlined part to refer Heirloom therefore "they" must refer to Heirloom. Will the above logic work with [E] because there are two independent sentences separated by semi colon.
Experts can you please confirm. [/spoiler]

Often, when a clause begins with a subject-pronoun, this pronoun will refer to the subject of the previous clause. That's the case here, but you can also use logic to determine that "they" refers to heirloom tomatoes rather than their supermarket cousins.

Analyze the clauses:
Heirloom tomatoes only look less appetizing than their round and red supermarket cousins; So the heirloom tomatoes are different than their red supermarket cousins.

How are they different? They are often green and striped, or have plenty of bumps and bruises... So the cousins are round and red. The heirlooms are green and bruised. Therefore "they" must refer to the "heirlooms."

Check my explanation here:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/og-13-132-t168495.html