The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.
have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
attribute it variously to causes that include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, or
have variously attributed them to causes which include military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, as well as
variously attribute them to causes including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
In this SC problem we have a pronoun IT that refers back to the subj. of the principal clause in the first part of the sentence ( the one before the semicolon ). I was very doubtful when first I saw this pronoun usage -very ambiguous-, because I thought that, since the semicolon indicates the beginning of a new independent
clause, pronouns such as 'the deadly five' cannot have an antecedent that is before a semicolon.
Can, please, a GMAT instructor explain me what is going on in such a situation ( pronouns and antecedent before the semicolon )?
Thanks a lot!