The bowerbirds of Australia derive their name from

[agarwal.disha]

In this Option (b), what does 'that' refers to? elaborate bowers, or sticks and twigs ?

The bowerbirds of Australia derive their name from the elaborate bowers of sticks and twigs that the males build and decorate with flowers and other vegetation in order to attract females.


Also, if ' that ' is replaced by ', which' ( exclude any other errors, if created) what would which refer to ? elaborate bowers or sticks and twigs ?

Any rules that could help in such Qs.

[RonPurewal]

In this Option (b), what does 'that' refers to? elaborate bowers, or sticks and twigs ?

That's the correct answer. The beautiful thing about correct answers is that everything in them is correct -- so you can figure out how they work by yourself.
Just think about what the sentence is supposed to say, using a combination of the given context and your own common sense. Once you have that meaning in mind, you can figure out how every grammatical construction works -- because ALL of them have to work the way they're supposed to work. Otherwise you wouldn't have a correct answer.

So, just ask yourself:
* Do birds build sticks and twigs?
* Do birds build elaborate bowers?

You know which one wins.

[RonPurewal]

Also, if ' that ' is replaced by ', which' ( exclude any other errors, if created) what would which refer to ? elaborate bowers or sticks and twigs ?

"Which" would represent "bowers of xxxx", which is perfectly legitimate usage. (See OG12 #26, the "Emily Dickinson" problem.)

(It's always a bad idea to edit sentences from problems. Really, don't do it.)

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron, I have a question about option A.
I think we can not simply eliminate A because of the appearance of ' the fact that'. I remember that an OA from prep or OG has the phrase 'the fact that' .

"The fact" doesn't make sense here. The issue has nothing to do with whether "the fact" is an acceptable construction in general.

The sentence is talking about where the name "bowerbird" comes from.
This name comes from the bowers themselves, not from a fact about what the birds do with their lives.