og263 - 大全364 歧义的问题

263. In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria, later generations lost all but the Iliad and Odyssey among Greek epics, most of the poetry of Pindar and Sappho, and dozens of plays by Aeschylus and Euripides.

(A) resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria,

(B) the destroying of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria resulted and

(C) because of the result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,

(D) as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,（D）

(E) Alexandria’s largest library of the ancient world was destroyed, and the result was

D, the best choice, uses the idiomatic as a result of and conveys information unambiguously. In A, the phrase that begins resulting from cannot properly modify later generations. The word order of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria generates ambiguity: one possible reading is that the ancient world was located at Alexandria. Choice B is incorrect. Although an “-ing” verb such as destroying can sometimes act as a noun, in this case the usage is strained. Again, at Alexandria is ambiguous (as in choice A). Choice B also uses resulted ungrammatically and produces a run-on sentence (In A.D. 391, the destroying... resulted and later generations lost). In C, the phrase because of the result of is unidiomatic as well as redundant. The structure of E illogically suggests that there was more than one largest library of the ancient world and that only Alexandria’s was destroyed. Furthermore, the result was should instead be the result was that.

D答案应该不难排除得出，但是怎么看都觉得D有歧义。
D.as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
其中the largest后面到底省略了什么？可以补充的选项太多了，the largest destruction （虽然逻辑意思不通，但确实可以这样省略）the largest region/city (修饰Alexandria)，甚至the largest groups(修饰后面的generations)，虽然这样的补充都有点怪。有人说是省略了library，可是library所处的位置，刚好是最没有理由成为省略部分的位置。哪位NN给个解释。

TOEFL中有考 the＋形容词最高级＋n1+of+集合名词，中的n1一定要省略，n1表示后面名词的一部分。 不知道本题是不是同样的语法。如果是的话，那就修饰Alexandria的啦？ 疑惑中....

以前不是很清楚的讨论如下，http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=23&ID=48975

有什么理由不是上面提到的其它词的省略形式呢？

主要是我觉得，这里需要在后面补足library来避免歧义，否则，我觉得还没有说是其它三种省略形式更有说服力。

今天又发现OG139中this most bland and circumspect of men，就是这种语法。

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