Sentence Correction

Native to South America, when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth
century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture. probably because of being so similar to the
Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

(A) when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

(B) peanuts having been introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because of being

(C) peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were

(D) peanuts, introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were

(E) peanuts, introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and having been quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were


Though I got the right answer, I want to know what does "they" in option C refers to? - explorers or peanuts

anksm22 wrote:Native to South America, when peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century they were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture. probably because of being so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

(C) peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were

Though I got the right answer, I want to know what does "they" in option C refers to? - explorers or peanuts

They refers to peanuts. They can be used for any plural noun and not necessarily for persons only.

Thanks a lot .

But then it should be ambiguous and hence , not the correct answer.

anksm22 wrote:Thanks a lot .

But then it should be ambiguous and hence , not the correct answer.

Good point but ambiguous is not all that we are after! We want to find the best answer first. Through process of elimination we can eliminate the ones that are absolutely wrong. In other words, it is better to have an ambiguous sentence that it is to have an incorrect sentence.

Please note that Bambarra groundnut is compared to something. That something could be peanut or the explorers. We can eliminate the explores because it would not be parallel. Therefore with reasoning, we can see why the sentence is not ambiguous.

But then it should be ambiguous and hence , not the correct answer.

Note that when a pronoun is the subject of a clause, the most logical antecedent is often the subject of the previous clause. "Peanuts" is the subject of the clause, "Peanuts were introduced..." and "they" is the subject of the following clause "they were so similar..."

Native to South America, peanuts were introduced to Africa by Portuguese explorers early in the sixteenth century and were quickly adopted into Africa's agriculture, probably because they were so similar to the Bambarra groundnut, a popular indigenous plant.

anksm22 wrote:Thanks a lot .

But then it should be ambiguous and hence , not the correct answer.

Pronoun ambiguity is a low-priority error.
If an answer choice includes a pronoun that seems ambiguous, eliminate the answer choice only if one of the other answer choices avoids the ambiguity and is free of errors.