it was confirmed...

[navi tasan]

Is this correct:
1) When Jeff gave me the puzzle, I knew immediately that it had no solution. It was confirmed by the way Sally was looking at me.

By seeing the way Sally was looking at me, I knew that the puzzle had no solution. My belief that the puzzle had no solution was confirmed by Sally's look.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[emsr2d2]

"By seeing the way Sally was looking at me, I knew that the puzzle had no solution" suggests that you did not realise there was no solution until you saw how Sally was looking at you. That's not what the sentence in red says.

"My belief that the puzzle had no solution was confirmed by Sally's look" retains the same meaning as the sentence in red (although it leaves out the fact that Jeff gave you the puzzle).

I would use "This" or "That" instead of "It" in the red sentence.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you very much, Emsr2d2,

You are quite right. I apologize. I asked the question pretty badly. I wrote:
By seeing the way Sally was looking at me, I knew that the puzzle had no solution.

I should have written:
By seeing the way Sally was looking at me, I became absolutely certain that the puzzle had no solution.

I would have used 'that' in the red sentence instead of 'it' as well. I just wanted to see if 'it' could work in that sentence.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Tdol]

I would have used this. I don't like it much.