Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.
(A) due to their enhancement of reproduction or survival, but that they are
(B) due to the reproduction or survival they enhance, but they are
(C) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but
(D) because they enhance reproduction or survival, but are
(E) because of enhancing reproduction or survival, but are
I am not clear why the answer is D. "~are not ~, but are~" doesn't seem parallel. Rather, "~are not ~, but ~" in C seems better. Thank you.
Ron 的解释是歧异Good question.RonPurewal wrote:
there are two ways of reading the sentence if choice c is inserted. here they are, with the boldface in each indicating exactly what is construed as a modifier:
1) Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored because they enhance reproduction or survival, but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments. --> this is the most obvious reading
2) Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection, favored because they enhance reproduction or survival, but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments. --> counterintuitive if you know anything about evolutionary biology, but grammatically ok -- and therefore a competing interpretation, which is fatal to clarity.
Hi Ron, I still have trouble understanding the second reading.
I believe that if we remove the part "favored because they enhance reproduction or survival" the ambiguity disappears
Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has argued that many biological traits are not the products of natural selection,but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments.
Correct me if I'm wrong please. Therefore "but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments" cannot refer to natural selection in the second reading. Also I don't know what kind of modifier it would be
"natural selection (noun) ,but simply random by-products (noun)
what does "but simply random by-products of other evolutionary developments" then refer to?
thank you in advance.
Your first thought here probably was - and should be - parallelism. However, you're right that 'are not ... but are' and 'are not ... but' would both be legitimately parallel constructions in this context. So, the reasoning goes, we should take the one with one fewer word. Right?
Here's the problem: In the context of this longer, more complicated sentence, the 'but' (without 'are' after it) is, unfortunately, ambiguous. Consider this sentence:
Jimmy was not the typical class president, loved by most of the students, but hated by a fair number as well.
The most probable reading here is that all of the words 'loved by most of the students, but also hated by a fair number as well' are a description of 'the typical class president.' However, it's also possible that just "loved by most of the students" describes that phrase. So there are 2 interpretations:
1) Jimmy was not the typical class president, loved by most of the students, but hated by a fair number as well. --> in which the entire colored description attaches to “the typical class president”
2) Jimmy was not the typical class president, loved by most of the students, but hated by a fair number as well. --> in which “the typical class president” is described as someone who is loved by most students; in this instance, jimmy is contrasted with the typical class president because some people also hate him.
If you look at choice C, it can be read this way; one could (probably should, even) take ALL the words '...favored because they enhance reproduction or survival, but simply random byproducts...' as an elaboration on the phrase 'products of natural selection'.
It's harder to see than in the example of Jimmy, above, for two reasons:
(1) Because of the way the original sentence is written, you're biased toward reading the sentence the way it's 'supposed' to be written. (In the example with Jimmy, there's no prompt sentence, so you're free to read it as you like.)
(2) It's longer.
Hope this helps.
。但我和这个孩子的疑惑一样：
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发表于 2013-7-6 16:44:29
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