Answer:
I think the answer is C.
Explanation:
(If i'm wrong, sorry!) The paragraph is mostly just opinions of the author.
The expression<em> "the map is not the territory", </em>was first said by the Polish scientist, <em>Alfred Korzybski.</em>
It is a metaphor. There is the reality of something (as perceived by the senses). And there are labels, symbols, abstraction of that reality created by the mind/thought for the sake of convenience, communication, or to make undersanding easier. We are often looking at maps rather than the territory, without realising it. Mind is an expert at doing this.
Korzybski held that many people do confuse maps with territories, that is, confuse models of reality with reality itself. In other words, the description of the thing is not the thing itself. The model is not reality.
The correct answer is option d: merchants
In grammar rules, an antecedent can be identified in a sentence because it is later replaced by a pronoun. An antecedent also refers in a sentence to something that happened in the past.
In the sentence provided as an example, the Venetian 'merchants' is the noun that is later replaced by its respective pronoun (theirs). The verb brought also tells us it was something that happened in the past.