Defense attorneys have occasionally argued that their clients' misconduct stemmed from a reaction to something ingested, but in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior to some food allergy, the perpetrators are in effect told that they are not responsible for their actions.
这题一定要用语意解题,首先句意是:辩护律师跟他们的委托人说如果后果是因为A,不是因为B,那么被告有权说他们不负责任。 这题还有个要注意的地方是attribute的用法: 主动:sb. attributes X (an effect) to y (a cause) 被动:X (an effect) is attribute to y (a cause)
接下来就可以看A啦,in doing sth.中attribute的用法是主动的,逻辑意义上动作的发出者是attorneys,所以应该把“in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior to some food allergy” 这个verb modifier放在句子的最前面。若放在but之后,“in attributing”只能修饰perpetrators,与句子逻辑不符。
再看B,“attribute”此时的用法是被动,已不再是attorneys的modifier了,而是后面“the perpetrators are in effect told that they are not responsible for their actions”的条件状语从句,句子逻辑意思无误。
亲,我看了manhattan P90 这里强调的就是一些 preposition+gerund作verb modifier的时候,不仅仅applied to the verb,同时也要和这个动作的主语有合理的逻辑关系。比如书中给的例子BY concentrating,lifted the weight。因为只有I才能concentrating,所以这这个by才符合逻辑,这个by doing意思是”通过“,表达 的是方式的含义吧。 这个我同意地~
回到最初的问题,我们有疑问的是in doing sth,我个人没有专门考证过这个in doing,我一直是把这个in doing理解为”在做XX的过程中“,是不是应当也理解为verb modifier并且应当apply to the subject of the verb it modifies? 我觉得好像把这个in attributing理解成在某方面会比较好吧~因为attorney提出这个argument是以哪方面为论据的。我觉得这里的话就是verb. modifier,赞同zhongshanlh的。