Sentence Correction

As per Ron's reasoning provided at the https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... 4622,nouns that are modified by prepositional phrases can still be the referent of 'which' even if they are a few words distant from it.
For example: "The picture of my brothers, which was taken last year in Mexico, is one of my favorites."

Here, which can refer to the picture.

However, if I look at the below question, D-40 of OG 12, a doubt appears in my mind..

In 1995 Richard Stallman, a well-known critic of the
patent system, testified in Patent Office hearings
that, to test the system, a colleague of his had
managed to win a patent for one of Kirchhoff's laws,
an observation about electric current first made in
1845 and now included in virtually every textbook of
elementary physics

A) laws, an observation about electric current first
made in 1845 and
(B) laws, which was an observation about electric
current first made in 1845 and it is
(C) laws, namely, it was an observation about
electric current first made in 1845 and
(D) laws, an observation about electric current first
made in 1845, it is
(E) laws that was an observation about electric
current, first made in 1845, and is


Here, OG says that in option B-
Which is ambiguous because it could refer to
one or to laws; it is violates the parallelism of
first made and now included.

But according to Ron's comment, which can refer to one unambiguously. Please let me know what I am missing.

Thanks !

Good point. Bringing such points to this forum helps people like me too learn.

Let's see if the experts here reply. But according to me, in your example of the brothers, you do not use which to refer to brothers. So it can refer only to the picture. brothers (who)?

In the other example, which can be used to refer to laws too. So it is not clear what it is referring to.

PS: I am just giving it a shot. I am interested in an expert reply.

In your example, you would use who if you meant to refer to brothers rather than which. Which can only mean the picture.

The greater the distance, though, the less clear a pronoun like which becomes.

Would request Ron to reply to this issue..

Thanks a lot for confirming , Ron!

Hey Ron,

I have another doubt about this particular question. I had below stated idea in my my. Instead of considering "an observation ..." part as an appositive, I mistook an observation for an abstract noun thus considering (A) option wrong. Can you help me to find a difference between these two concepts.

COMMA + ABSTRACT NOUN is allowed to stand for the ENTIRE IDEA OF THE PRECEDING CLAUSE.

Thank you.