(A) Formulas for cash flow and the ratio of debt to equity do not apply to new small businesses in the same way as they do to established big businesses, because they are growing and are seldom in equilibrium.

(B) Because they are growing and are seldom in equilibrium, formulas for cash flow and the ratio of debt to equity do not apply to new small businesses in the same way as they do to established big businesses.

(C) Because they are growing and are seldom in equilibrium, new small businesses are not subject to the same applicability of formulas for cash flow and the ratio of debt to equity as established big businesses.

(D) Because new small businesses are growing and are seldom in equilibrium, formulas for cash flow and the ratio of debt to equity do not apply to them in the same way as to established big businesses.

(E) New small businesses are not subject to the applicability of formulas for cash flow and the ratio of debt to equity in the same way as established big businesses, because they are growing and are seldom in equilibrium.

In A, the they after because is ambiguous; it seems illogically to refer to Formulas because they and Formulas are each the grammatical subject of a clause and because the previous they refers to Formulas.

我想问，Ａ中的they为什么说就是指Formulas的呢？解释有点不懂．怎么说they和Formulas都是grammatical subject了？难道是主句从句主语就必须一致吗？

难道they没有可能指businesses吗？　我觉得也是可以说的通的．．

指教～～

结构上有可能，但是逻辑上不可能。把they还原成你想指代的东西就可以知道了。

as (they) do to established big businesses

as (businesses) do to established big businesses这样就不可能了吧？

个人意见！

第一个they 由于后面有do这一照应的动词，所以肯定是代替主语。

至于第二个they,如果主语宾语和其他修饰成分主干都是复数名次，那马应该遵循先主语再宾语最后修饰语的法则判断they的修饰对象。

有点忘了，欢迎讨论。