[求助]OG022的语态问题

22.   The voluminous personal papers of Thomas Alva Edison reveal that his inventions typically sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly from previous works.

(A) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

(B) sprang to life not in a flash of inspiration but were slowly evolved

(C) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but evolved slowly

(D) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but had slowly evolved

(E) did not spring to life in a flash of inspiration but they were slowly evolved

C, the best choice, places not and but in such a way that the distinction between springing to life in a flash of inspiration and evolving slowly is logically and idiomatically expressed. A and B are faulty because, for grammatical parallelism, not in a flash... must be followed by but in..., not by a conjugated form of the verb. Moreover, were slowly evolved is incorrect in B because evolve, in this sense of the word, cannot be made passive. Choices C, D, and E all correctly place not before spring. D, however, contains inconsistent verb tenses; E contains the faulty passive and an intrusive they.

这里说evolve不能用被动语态，但他的subject是his inventions啊，发明不是被发明出来的么？为什么不能用被动语态？

楼主好像有些误会：evolve是发展，进展，进化的意思（并不是发明的意思），本身含有主动成分。咱不能说这些发明是被“发展进化”而来吧？--如果翻译成主动就成了：某人进化了这些发明，这应该是个病句吧。同理，猴子进化成人类，不能说成是被进化成人类。

相似的词还有prove，也是GMAT中的一个考点。楼主可以再体会一下。

好像有些懂了，不过还是稀里糊涂的