PREP 2 29

Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal point of urban life, the river in

San Antonio winds through the middle of the business district, and the River Walk, or Paseo del Rio,

is the city's most popular attraction.

(A) Unlike many United States cities, where a river is no longer the focal point of urban life, the river

in San Antonio

(B) Unlike the river in many cities in the United States, which is no longer the focal point of urban life,

in San Antonio the river

(C) Today the river in many cities in the United States is no longer the focal point of urban life,

unlike San Antonio, where it

(D) In few United States cities today, a river is the focal point of urban life, but the river in San

Antonio

(E) No longer do many cities in the United States have a river as the focal point of urban life, but in

San Antonio the river

解析说是D去掉no longer把全部否定改成部分否定，为什么啊？那个few不是表示否定的意思了吗？

我也有同样的疑问, d感觉意思并没有改变, 而且还简洁

这难道是no longer 是强调的意思,去调了改变了强调??

意思有变。

GMAT里面双重否定等有强烈语气的词是不能改的。。。

因为本来有no longer含有“以前是但是现在不是了”的意思。

但是d选项里面这个意思去掉了~

我有问题……

我想问E中的选项前面是many cities是个复述名词，后面用have a river是个单数名词，这里有没有很多城市共同拥有一条河流的歧义啊？

up

一开始我也有这个问题，但是所有的选项中都是复数。后来想起来一道题，见prep2-14，也是og上的题，这是GMAT的习惯用法

252. Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.

(A)  Three out of every four automobile owners in the United States also own a bicycle.

(B)   Out of every four, three automobile owners in the United States also owns a bicycle.

(C)  Bicycles are owned by three out of every four owners of automobiles in the United States.

(D)  In the United States, three out of every four
                    automobile owners owns bicycles.

(E)   Out of every four owners of automobiles in
                    the United States, bicycles are also owned
                    by three.

A, the best choice, is concise, idiomatic, and maintains subject-verb agreement. In B, Out of every four, three is unidiomatic. The singular verb owns does not agree with its plural subject, three ... owners. The passive construction in C (Bicycles are owned by) is cumbersome and does not contribute meaningfully to the sentence. The shift to plural Bicycles detracts from clarity by suggesting that multiple bicycles are owned by each person in question. In D, the singular owns does not agree with its plural subject three... owners. Furthermore, the plural bicycles detracts from clarity by suggesting that multiple bicycles are owned by each person in question. In E, the phrase beginning Out of every four ... cannot properly modify bicycles, and the passive construction (bicycles are also owned) is awkward and does not contribute meaningfully to the sentence. The plural nouns bicycles and automobiles suggest imprecisely that each person owns more than one of each.