OG-262

262. Initiated five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992, Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

(A) Initiated five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992, Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

(B) Initiated on Columbus Day 1992, five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence was pledged by Project SETI.

(C) Initiated on Columbus Day 1992, five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, Project SETI pledged a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

(D) Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the initiation of Project SETI five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992.（C）

(E) Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, on Columbus Day 1992, the initiation of Project SETI took place.

Choice C, the best answer, is a complete sentence, and its initial structures correctly modify Project SETI so that there is no ambiguity regarding when events took place. Choice A is faulty because its construction illogically suggests that Europeans arrived in the New World on Columbus Day 1992 and that Project SETI was initiated five centuries thereafter. In B, Initiated on Columbus Day... illogically modifies a $100 million investment, suggesting that it was the investment itself, not Project SETI, that was initiated. In D and E, the initial phrase beginning with Pledging in both cases illogically modifies the initiation of Project SETI; it is not the project’s initiation, but the project itself, that pledged a certain investment. Furthermore, D is a sentence fragment, while E may be faulted for ambiguity. The phrase five centuries after could modify either Pledging or the search, and on Columbus Day 1992 could refer to the date of either the initiation of Project SETI or the arrival of Europeans in the New World.

B为什么不对呢？投资开始于...年有什么问题？投资和项目都是没有生命的事物呀，为什么项目就可以做逻辑主语，投资就不行？

In B, Initiated on Columbus Day... illogically modifies a $100 million investment, suggesting that it was the investment itself, not Project SETI, that was initiated.

It's the the project that initiated on..., not the the $100 million investment. It has nothing to do with whether it's a living creature; instead, it depends on which subject initiated on that day.

仅供参考：

1、句子中心是强调这个project；

2、ETS prefers 主动；

3、单独看B，从语法上理解，我觉得也没什么错；

我想问问OG对E的解释：

(E) Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, on Columbus Day 1992, the initiation of Project SETI took place.

while E may be faulted for ambiguity. The phrase five centuries after could modify either Pledging or the search,

这里的five centuries after..作什么成分？为什么即可以修饰search，又可以跳跃修饰pledging?请帮帮忙！

我想ETS之所以这么说,可能对five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World修饰的对象有两种可能:

一.(Pledging a $100 million investment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World, on Columbus Day 1992

二..Pledging a $100 million investment (in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence five centuries after Europeans arrived in the New World), on Columbus Day 1992