Confusion: Prepositional phrase & pronoun

[srikanth.vedala]

Url:http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/on-earth-among-the-surest-indications-of-sunspot-cycles-are-t1833.html

Ex:1On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are believed to be the rate that trees grow, as seen in the rings visible in the cross sections of their trunks.

A. On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are believed to be the rate that trees grow
B. On Earth, among the surest indications of sunspot cycles are, it is believed, the rate of tree growth
C. On Earth, the rate at which trees grow is believed to be among the surest indications of sunspot cycles
D. Among the surest indications on Earth of sunspot cycles, believed to be the tree growth rate
E. Among the surest indications on Earth of sunspot cycles is believed to be the rate at which trees grow

In Ex1 only A&E are close but A is wrong because there is a sub-verb disagreement the rate(sing.) & are(pl.).1.We know the subject can't be "indications" Or "sunspot cycles", because both of those nouns are inside prepositional phrases (beginning with "among" and "of" respectively



Ex2: The results of the company's cost-cutting measures are evident in its profits, which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell over the last two years.
a. which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell
b. which had increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it had fallen
c. which have increased five percent during the first three months of this year after falling
d. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after falling
e. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after having fallen

using the reasoning highlighted in bold, Ex1, I eliminated a,b & c since 'in its profits' is a prepositional phrase so 'which' cannot refer to 'profits' which is object of the prepositional phrase
but then OA:C.

Experts pls help on this, I am striking-off many correct choices because of this confusion & finally lowering my score :(

[RonPurewal]

please follow the forum rules -- no more than one question per thread, and title the thread according to the first few words of the question. (if you are not familiar with the forum rules, they can be found on the first post in each folder.)

as for your question about the sunspot problem, the answer to that may be found here:
on-earth-among-the-surest-indications-of-sunspot-cycles-are-t1833.html

--

since 'in its profits' is a prepositional phrase so 'which' cannot refer to 'profits' which is object of the prepositional phrase

where did you get that idea?

if you have a construction of the type "X + prep + Y, which...", then the pronoun which should AUTOMATICALLY stand for Y, unless Y is grammatically ineligible to be the referent of that pronoun.
see here:
post31162.html#p31162

[srikanth.vedala]

please follow the forum rules -- no more than one question per thread, and title the thread according to the first few words of the question. (if you are not familiar with the forum rules, they can be found on the first post in each folder.)

since 'in its profits' is a prepositional phrase so 'which' cannot refer to 'profits' which is object of the prepositional phrase

where did you get that idea?


Actually I had only 1 query but to explain my point I used Ex1, the sentence from which I got the above mentioned concept.

Still the point remains that unanswered that how can a subject of prepositional phrase be the antecedent for 'which' in Ex2 because similar reasoning was used in Ex1 to eliminate ans choices which had nouns buried inside prepositional phrases (please confirm it from Ex1 explanation)
I am stuck on this so to explain my point I used 2 resources but never meant to break forum rules :(

[RonPurewal]

please follow the forum rules -- no more than one question per thread, and title the thread according to the first few words of the question. (if you are not familiar with the forum rules, they can be found on the first post in each folder.)

since 'in its profits' is a prepositional phrase so 'which' cannot refer to 'profits' which is object of the prepositional phrase

where did you get that idea?


Actually I had only 1 query but to explain my point I used Ex1, the sentence from which I got the above mentioned concept.

Still the point remains that unanswered that how can a subject of prepositional phrase be the antecedent for 'which' in Ex2 because similar reasoning was used in Ex1 to eliminate ans choices which had nouns buried inside prepositional phrases (please confirm it from Ex1 explanation)
I am stuck on this so to explain my point I used 2 resources but never meant to break forum rules :(

you're confusing two different tasks that are nothing like each other.

in the first example, you are trying to locate the subject of a verb. if that's what you're doing, then objects of prepositions are not allowed to be the subject.

in the second example, you are trying to locate the referent of a relative pronoun. this task has very little in common with the first task; the rules are entirely different.
as stated above, "which" generally refers to the noun immediately preceding it, unless that noun is grammatically ineligible to be the referent. indeed, this noun is often the object of some verb or preposition.