OG 110 - cost

1110. It has been estimated that the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy in lost industrial output and tax revenues is at least $20 billion a year.

(A)  the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy in lost industrial output and tax revenues is at least $20 billion a year

(B)  the annual cost of illiteracy to the United States is at least $20 billion a year because of lost industrial output and tax revenues

(C)  illiteracy costs the United States at least $20 billion a year in lost industrial output and tax revenues

(D)  $20 billion a year in lost industrial output and tax revenues is the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy

(E)   lost industrial output and tax revenues cost the United States at least $20 billion a year because of illiteracy

In choices A, B, and D, the combined use of annual and a year is redundant. Choices A, D, and E are awkward and confused because other constructions intrude within the phrase cost... of illiteracy: for greatest clarity, cost should be followed immediately by a phrase (e.g., of illiteracy ) that identifies the nature of the cost.Choice E is particularly garbled in reversing cause and effect, saying that it is lost output and revenues rather than illiteracy that costs the United States over $20 billion a year. Choice B is wordy and awkward, and idiom requires in rather than because of to introduce a phrase identifying the constituents of the $20 billion loss. Concise, logically worded, and idiomatic, choice C is best.

提亮的地方不是很清楚，请大家帮忙讲解一下

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=23&ID=81938&page=1

mm,我是先查了网上的链接的哦！

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=23&ID=54000

但是大家关于cost在这题里的用法并没有说清楚

而且那个帖子里提问题也提的很乱，有credit、句意逻辑、cost三个问题，所以我才单独开贴提问的

如果能帮忙解释一下，真的是非常的感谢！

我对cost的用法也很是疑惑：

OG里说：Choices A, D, and E are awkward and confused because other constructions intrude within the phrase cost... of illiteracy: for greatest clarity, cost should be followed immediately by a phrase (e.g., of illiteracy ) that identifies the nature of the cost

也即cost of sth to sb应为正确用法

可是在大全840中cost的用法却有出入：

大全840.        The United States petroleum industry’s cost to meet environmental regulations is projected at ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum by the end of the decade.

(A) The United States petroleum industry’s cost to meet environmental regulations is projected at ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum by the end of the decade.

(B) The United States petroleum industry’s cost by the end of the decade to meet environmental regulations is estimated at ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum.

(C) By the end of the decade, the United States petroleum industry’s cost of meeting environmental regulations is projected at ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum.

(D) To meet environmental regulations, the cost to the United States petroleum industry is estimated at ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum by the end of the decade.（E）

(E) It is estimated that by the end of the decade the cost to the United States petroleum industry of meeting environmental regulations will be ten percent of the price per barrel of refined petroleum.

the cost to sb of doing sth这里的顺序改变是不是因为of doing sth太长而移至后面？

这里其实是个状语修饰的问题.

状语修饰的原则: 越本质的特性越就近.

OG110:cost to the LACE w:st="on">United StatesLACE> of illiteracy  翻译一下就知道of illiteracy 是cost 的定义, 最本质.

但是, 文无定法. 大全840只能遵从优选法来解题, 这就是GMAT的根本, 同样也是她的挑战所在.

谢谢hylrd，这样就明白了！

感觉实际上110的A并不是不对，如果排除annual的问题，只是不是最好。

110是综合来考的，不要仅仅卡在cost上。840倒是考cost的用法更多一些，都是名词形式。

cost 后面不是要紧跟of的介词短语，主要是说清cost的作用和目的。immediately稍微有些绝对，考试时要多看看其他选项了。

这题没什么可说的了, 大全里面的例子让ETS自己打自己...

唯心一点说, 如果遇到cost of, 我还是会优先想到这两个不能分开, 毕竟, OG里面明确的提出这个问题两次.

cost of 要紧紧连着不能拆开