刚才做梦居然能做到解SC题(这要感谢babybearmm同学)……
我很为我自己感到自豪啊,今天要好好奖励奖励自己……
同学你和我的分歧主要有两点,1,去不去质疑正确选项, 2,是否所有的句子都有歧义
先说第一点
例子一:
在OG12 43 题中,C选项的完整形态为:43. Laos has a land area that is about the same size as Great Britain’s land area, but in Laos with a population of only four million people, many of them are members of hill tribes ensconced in the virtually inaccessible mountain valleys of the north.
OG说这是错的,因为The reference of them is unclear and the expression is generally awkward. 我们先不管后面的‘ the expression is generally awkward’ 就单说指代问题,them唯一可指代的复数名词为'four million people',既然说这个指代unclear就是说them此时不该修饰four million people,唯一可能的解释就是代词不能指代of 后面的东西。
同学,别这么理解哦,这题解释太破,误导人啊!容我吐嘈,必须吐嘈~这题暂不说别的,单说所谓"them"的问题,这个them语法上绝对错误啊!应该改称whom... people, many of whom are [ ].... people, many of them [ ].... people, and many of them are [ ].[ ] 表示noun modifier。注意,第一个句子必须有are,第二个句子必须没有are(独立主格结构)!如果你既想用them,又想保留are,那么你就必须加"and",否则就是run-on sentence.
我说的这个语法点,在Manhattan SC上面,忘了哪一章,还举了具体的例子,(欢迎补充),但我确定我没说错。然而,OG 12 46 中的正确选项:In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined.
最后they的可能的指代对象只有两个,1.Buddha images (符合逻辑) 2.the temples(不符合逻辑)
无论是哪个都在of后面...
OK,忘掉你刚才那个 "of后面不能被指代“ 的说法吧,那纯粹是误导!其实,你举的这个例子是非常典型的正确例子。见Manhattan SC p.70,关于"possessive poison" rule。看它那几个例句,说到A's B A通常不能被指代但是,我们改称 B of A 这时候A就可以被后面的代词指代你举的例子,就诠释了代词指代 "B of A" 其中的A另外,OG12 78中的原句Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.是错误的
OG对此的解释是:Because sloth is the object of a preposition and not the subject of the sentence, there is no reasonable antecedent for the pronoun it。
这题,我觉得OG还算说明白了:"To clarify the identification of the oldest known mammal, the noun the sloth must be explicitly identified." -from OG这里就说,表达的ineffectiveness,决定了这句话错。同时我也这么理解,当然这算个人理解——Fossils of the arm of a sloth found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and dated at 34 million years old, made it the earliest known mammal of the Greater Antilles Islands.读者读这句话,思维过程是这样的:fossils ( ) found ..., and dated ... , made 到这里都没问题,尽管作者没有指代,但读者都知道说的是fossils,思维能跟上,很连贯made it ..... 当当当当,这下突然来了个it,前面读者都知道在说fossils说了那么久,突然来了个it,转不过弯来了。回头看看,哦,原来是 "Fossils of the arm of a sloth" 这里面的sloth,埋在两个prep phrase里面,藏得如此之深,藕花深处啊!怪不得转不过弯来。然而,GMAT终究不是追求模糊美的文学,而是scholarly english,学术表达追求的就是清晰间接地表意,就需要你说明白。例子二:
Prep2-43. Although ice particles in the upper atmosphere benefit Earth in that they reflect and absorb solar radiation, acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth from either burning up or freezing over, they also accelerate the destruction of the ozone layer by reacting with chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's).
这题中的正确选项是有in that的,而OG12上面明确说in that ‘overly formal’(The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival’s month.)
OG12的Olympic Games这道题(Q 59),你说对了,OG解释不好,而这两道题的正确句子都没有问题,一个用so that,一个不用so that。以下引用RonSource: http://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/in-that-has-gone-out-of-use-t9034.htmlyeah -- we discovered that some of the og's explanations are just plain wrong. this is one of them; "in that" is a perfectly valid construction, and is often easily the best way to express a certain relationship.for more details on that relationship (especially in contrast to "because", with which it is most often confused), click here: post20133.html#p20133 in general, if the og's explanation gives some sort of GRAMMATICAL reason why something is in error, you can usually trust that explanation. however, we've noted consistent evidence that -- let's just say -- they don't have their best people on the task of writing answer explanations. therefore, if you get some explanation that sounds like a weak excuse -- such as "this is awkward" or "this is too formal" -- then, unfortunately, as we've learned the hard way, you can't always trust such explanations.从上面两个例子来说,假如我们对正确答案不采取谨慎的态度那将会有两个假设:
1.在前面有逗号分开时,逗号后面的代词可以指代逗号前面of后面的名词/组/短语
2.in that的确可以作为正确选项而存在
虽然这两个假设的确能适用于不少题,但这样的假设会在OG12中做错相应的两道题(或者在两个选项间struggle)
你或许还没明白,我所说的怀疑正确选项就是指对正确选项中出现的东西我们不能假设是他就是对的,因为在不同的context,不同的语法准则所适用的方式不同。例如:In that 或许在某些context ‘overly formal’但会有context它不‘overly formal’。问题的关键在于由于SC的出题者决定哪些情况‘overly formal’,我们门无法判定in that这个词在一种情况下合适在另一种情况下也合适。(当然了,除了那些牛到和出题者的思维一致的人)
这也是为什么我在之前的帖子里强调’open mind’,因为只有这样我们才不会做一些错误的假设(我们的错误的确源自于对语法准则所适用的方式没有了结全面,又或者SC出题者有他们自己的准则进而导致我们根本无法了结全面)
现在说第二点
你说的没错,我和你纠结的关键点不同,你纠结的是在符合语法结构时的歧义而我纠结的是歧义本身
所以我才说所有句子都有歧义,其中包含了‘colloquial speech’
所以我以之前所说‘做SC时注意一点:所有句子都会有歧义’的确不准确,应该说:‘做SC时注意一点:很多正确选项的句子都会有歧义’
在这里我要向饭饭道歉
SC的正确答案的歧义还是普遍存在的,就像我举出的那个例子,你可以说我的那种interpretation不符合正常写作习惯或不符合逻辑,但这并不意味着绝对性语法错误
再举两个prep中的正确句子为例:
prep2-21Before scientists learned how to synthesize the growth hormone, it had to be painstakingly removed in small amounts from the pituitary glands of human cadavers.(这里我们可以理解成growth hormone的removal可以在small amounts里完成,至于small amounts是什么东西我们可以假设是sth from the pituitary glands of human cadavers)
这句话,你把small amounts理解成某个东西,然后你认为"from the pituitary glands of human cadavers"是作为一个prep来修饰small amounts的,这个曲解是unjustified。
因为,"small amounts", by itself, is nothing. 就如同Manhattan SC p.234, "80 percent of ..." 那个句子,说独立的"80 percent"什么都不是,必须有个定义。这里,如果按你的曲解,就相当于独立的"small amounts"(类似"80 percent"),而按原话理解,应该是前面"growth hormone ... removed in small amounts",这样就定义了是"small amounts of growth hormone"。一个不合逻辑的歧义不能叫做歧义,一个语法正确意思清晰的句子不能叫做错误。prep2-25There is a widespread belief in the United States and Western Europe that young people have less of a commitment to work and a career than their parents and grandparents had and that the source of the change lies in the collapse of the "work ethic."
虽然这里的that是跳过in the United States and Western Europe进而修饰widespread belief的,但我们完全可以把that从句拿来修饰Western Europe,很明显后者不合逻辑,但它在语法上并没有错误,只是句子结构上的另一种释义造成的歧义
你说得很对,“很明显后者不合逻辑”,而“不合逻辑”的歧义GMAT可以tolerate。换句话说,一个逻辑清楚、意思明确(不考虑“不合逻辑”的歧义)的句子,怎么能说是错的?其实这题要深究起来,见Manhattan SC p.234, Exceptions to Touch-Rule, 这里属于2) A very short predicate falls between, shifting a very long modifier back.其实你只要按照这种‘钻牛角尖思维’去看OG或prep的正确句子,相当一部分正确选项都会这种‘钻牛角尖’错误,牛角尖再钻狠一点的话大部分正确答案都会有歧义
当然,这点你是对的,即不符合语法规则所产生的歧义在SC中不予考虑。
最后说一些感触,心情好就没有过这种讨论的‘兴奋’了,记得上次有这种感觉还是好几个月前在和朋友争论传说中的
one piece到底是个什么东西,是很多财宝,是100年空白的世界历史,是很牛的恶魔果实,还是草帽团到达终点后的宝贵的人生经历呢?
我觉得是一种人生经历
anyway...很高兴能和你讨论
-- by 会员 justabeginning (2012/1/31 16:00:35)