Sixty-five million years ago, according to some scientists, an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into North America, which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks the end of the geologic era known as the Cretaceous Period.
Sixty-five million years ago, according to some scientists, an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into North America, which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks the end of the geologic era known as the Cretaceous Period.
(A) which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks
(B) which caused the plant and animal extinctions and marks
(C) and causing plant and animal extinctions that mark
(D) an event that caused plant and animal extinctions, which marks
(E) an event that caused the plant and animal extinctions that mark
答案选E,给出的解释是这个地方,that caused 和 that mark 是修饰an event 的同位语。我的疑惑是:E直接用that,前面不加一个and,不会误解为that mark是修饰 animal extincions的么?况且,这里mark还用的是复数形式,an event是单数呢。个人感觉D会比较好。求解惑。
此处只能用限定性定语从句。
限定性定于从句plant and animal extinctions that mark the end of the geologic era意为有很多个plant and animal extinctions,特指that mark the end of the geologic era的那个。
非限定性定语从句which marks the end of the geologic era指代前面整句话an event that caused the plant and animal extinctions的话,不符合GMAT对非限定性定于从句不能指代整句话的要求;如果指代the plant and animal extinctions,则marks的单复数不符合;如果指代an event句子逻辑意思有误:此时which marks the end of the geologic era是泛指,只有一个event,就是marks the end of the geologic era这个event,这显然逻辑意思错误。所以不管which指代什么,此处用非限定性定于从句都是错误的。
Sixty-five million years ago, according to some scientists, an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into North America, which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks the end of the geologic era known as the Cretaceous Period.
(A) which, causing plant and animal extinctions, marks
(B) which caused the plant and animal extinctions marking
(C) and causing plant and animal extinctions that mark
(D) an event that caused plant and animal extinctions, and it marks
(E) an event that caused the plant and animal extinctions that mark
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由于PREP07应该没有官方解释,所以你的解释出处应该有点问题。
此题
A、B的排除最主要的原因是Which无法指代整个前句所代表的“an asteroid clammed into XXX”这件事。是Formal Writing中典型的错误使用。
C 是因为 SVO, and causing. 是一个fragment,句子结构不完整。绝对性错误。
D an steroid slammed into North America, an event ..., and it marks the end of ...
- it 和 which 是同样不能指代一句句子所代表的事件的,所以这里唯一legitimate explanation is that it refers to an asteroid. but as you know, an asteroid itself CANNOT mark an end of an era.
只有asteroid slammed 这件事,或者更为准确的说,是Slammed这件事造成的Extinctions才能标志一个时代的结束。
E an steroid slammed into North America, an event that caused extinctions that mark the end of an era
- 此处一整个 comma + an event that clause 都是一个完整的“独立主格修饰成分”,aka. abosolute phrase. Abosolute Phrase就是一个Adverbial Modifier,用于修饰前面整个事件。只有这种时候,才能用某一个“名词+修饰成分”的结构去作为副词成分修饰面方整个句子所代表的“事件”。
然后重点谈一下LZ所问的"that mark"的修饰问题。
1. 首先,that clause 作为Noun modifier有一个原则,Only modifies the preceding noun phrase. 也就是根据全球通用的语法规范,the clause of that mark ... can only modify the very one preceding noun of plant and animal extinctions.
2. 其次,一个原因击破那个错误解释的漏洞。
如果that mark修饰的是an event,mark必须是单数动词,it should be that marks instead of being that mark, which is totoally wrong!