The tuatha dé dannan had recently descended upon ireland’s emerald shores. their name means “tribe of the gods,” and gods they were. the tuatha dé dannan came to the coast of connemara in clouds of mist. some say they sailed into the harbor like men and burned their boats, creating smoke that spread out across the land. others swear that they came down from the heavens on dark clouds like a fine rain. these supernatural beings brought with them three days and three nights of complete darkness, a harbinger of changes to come. no one knows the true story of how the tuatha dé dannan arrived in ireland. but everyone knows how they fought their way across the land until it was theirs. from the sixth sentence, the word them, is what type of referring pronoun? a. possessive pronoun b. subject pronoun c. reference pronoun d. object pronoun

The correct answer is C. Reference Pronoun.

Explanation:

The pronoun is used to replace the noun in a sentence. The pronoun can be placed as a reference when the noun was previously mentioned. In this particular case, the word "Them" is a reference to the words " Supernatural beings". So, in order to avoid the repetition of these words, we use the reference pronoun.

These supernatural beings brought with them three days and three nights of complete darkness, a harbinger of changes to come.

C. Reference Pronoun

A reference pronoun is a pronoun that refers to (or stands in for) a noun or noun phrase, also called an antecedent. In the sentence, "them" refers to the noun phrase (which also functions as the subject): "These supernatural beings", whose personal pronoun is "they".

The other options are incorrect because

the purpose of the heading in the passage is to identify who is telling the story.

this excerpt is part of the book sugar changed the world (2010) written by marc aronson and marina budhos. as the book has been written by two people, the heading "marc" indicates that this specific excerpt is being narrated by aronson. in the fragment, marc describes his grandfather's story after hearing it from his cousin. however, there are other excerpts where budhos is the one that tells the story of her family.

aronson and budhos, who are husband and wife in real life, decided to write sugar changed the world when they found out how sugar, which had an important role in slavery and economy, changed their ancestors' lives.