Can antecedents be in a prepositional phrase?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>The actuality of the sailing by the ancient Egyptians to South America remains uncertain, but Heyerdahl's Ra II expedition demonstrated that they could have done so.</p>

<p>My Question:
This sentence is grammatically incorrect (one of the incorrect options in a question in the improving sentence section), but I have a problem with the CB blue book's explanation:</p>

<p>Choice (C ) incorrectly ... with **no clear referent for "they."**</p>

<p>But isn't the clear antecedent for "they" the Egyptians? Is there some rule that states nouns in prepositional phrases cannot be an antecedent of a later pronoun in the sentence?</p>

2

<p>So if you just take the clause:</p>

<p>Heyerdahl’s Ra II expedition demonstrated that they could have done so.</p>

<p>What would you conclude “they” refers to?</p>

<p>In any case there are two possible references for “they”.</p>

<p>You’ve mentioned the “rule” about antecedents and prepositional phrases before. What’s your source for that?</p>

<p>My sense is that you’re over-thinking the questions involving pronouns, and that this will hurt you on the actual test. When you see “it” or “they” in a sentence and there are two or more possibilities for the antecedent in the text, it’s very likely an error. The real SAT rarely has “somewhat” ambiguous uses – mostly black or white.</p>

3

<p>What is the second possible option for which “they” could refer to? </p>

<p>Heyerdahl’s Ra II expedition is singular.</p>

<p>I probably am over thinking this lol</p>

4

<p>There are two independent clauses, as in…
1.The actuality of the sailing by the ancient Egyptians to South America remains uncertain.</p>

<ol>
<li>Heyerdahl’s Ra II expedition demonstrated that they could have done so.</li>
</ol>

5

<p>So a pronoun cannot refer back to a noun from the first independent case? </p>

<p>So this would be grammatically incorrect: Sally likes to eat oranges, and she is fond of hiking and bowling. </p>

<p>Are you sure?</p>

6

<p>So is the answer they? with replacing they with it?</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Not completely sure… that was from what I could gather (but I could be wrong). You do have a point with that example; but then again, the SAT could be “different” from the norm. Unfortunately, I am unable to offer any more assistance. ~ Wish you the best :)</p>

<p>P.S. Are you sure you got the question right? It seems similar to [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/443156-can-someone-help-me-writing-question.html]this...[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/443156-can-someone-help-me-writing-question.html]this…[/url</a>]</p>

8

<p>I would not relay much on the CB’s explanations. The correct answer to that question is:
That the ancient Egyptians actually sailed remains uncertain, but Heyerdahl’s Ra II expedition demonstrated that they could have done so.
No problem with “they” here, right?</p>

<p>“The actuality …” is wrong because of awkward wording.</p>

9

<p>It’s because they sounds like it might refer to the members of the expedition.</p>