请教 OG146, 因为以前的讨论没有定论, 继续请教

146. A patient accusing a doctor of malpractice will find it difficult to prove damage if there is a lack of some other doctor to testify about proper medical procedures.

(A) if there is a lack of some other doctor to testify

(B) unless there will be another doctor to testify

(C) without another doctor’s testimony

(D) should there be no testimony from some other doctor（C）

(E) lacking another doctor to testify

Only C, the best choice, manages to convey the meaning of the sentence efficiently and idiomatically. Choices A and D are plagued by awkwardness and wordiness. Choice A also introduces the unidiomatic phrase lack of some other doctor. Choice B incorrectly uses a future-tense verb (will be) in the if clause; the if clause must use the present tense if it is preceded, as here, by a result clause that uses a future-tense verb (e.g., will find). Choice E introduces a dangling modifier: the lacking... phrase cannot logically modify damage, the nearest noun.

我的问题:

(1) Why ETS 认为 " lack of some other doctor" is unidiomatic ?

(2) Choice E introduces a dangling modifier: the lacking... phrase cannot logically modify damage, the nearest noun.  容易理解. 但正确答案 C 中的介词短语 without another doctor’s testimony 为何不被认为可能修饰 damage 而造成歧义. 而被肯定认为是壮语呢?

按我原来的理解, 如果名词后紧跟分词短语或介词短语( 中间没有逗号隔开), 那么该分词或介词结构应被优先视为名词的定语, 照此题看来, 这种理解错误, 或者说 without 结构是特例?

with的用法，近来比较晕

但是这里用排除法的话，e肯定是被先排除的

先谢谢 bon!

紧跟一题 OG 148

148. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is required either to approve individual state plans for controlling the discharge of wastes into underground water or that they enforce their own plan for states without adequate regulations.

(A) that they enforce their

(B) for enforcing their

(C) they should enforce their

(D) it should enforce its（E）

(E) to enforce its

此题中, without 结构紧跟名词 states , 而被视为定语, 难道是ETS 翻手为云, 覆手为雨?

你这个例子举得很对

我也有这样的例子

19.   In addition to having more protein than wheat does, rice has protein of higher quality than that in wheat, with more of the amino acids essential to the human diet.

with修饰the rice(主）

40.   In metalwork one advantage of adhesive-bonding over spot-welding is that the contact, and hence the bonding, is effected continuously over a broad surface instead of a series of regularly spaced points with no bonding in between.

with修饰regularly spaced points （宾）

90。Since 1986, when the Department of Labor began to allow investment officers’ fees to be based on how the funds they manage perform, several corporations began paying their investment advisers a small basic fee, with a contract promising higher fees if the managers perform well

with修饰 a small basic fee.（宾）

这三个就不同，偶的想法是ETS对于with也没有确定的用法

这里我想ETS的解释是合理的，原义要表明的是缺少医生的证据，而非医生

用lack of some other doctor的话，后面的to testify只是修饰doctor的，lack of 只能管到doctor,而没有lack of sth to do sth 的用法

至于with 和without的用法 我的理解是

（1）后面跟复合结构（名词或代词+分词）时，很明确是副词性结构，不能用来修饰名词， 如：

192. Cajuns speak a dialect brought to southern Louisiana by the four thousand Acadians who migrated there in 1755; their language is basically seventeenth-century French to which has been added English, Spanish, and Italian words.

(A) to which has been added English, Spanish, and Italian words

(B) added to which is English, Spanish, and Italian words

(C) to which English, Spanish, and Italian words have been added

(D) with English, Spanish, and Italian words having been added to it（C）

(E) and, in addition, English, Spanish, and Italian words are added

D offers an awkward adverbial construction, which cannot be used to modify nouns.

（2）后面跟短语时，经常用作状语，说明方式

如146

without another doctor’s testimony ---修饰difficult to prove(动作）

19.   In addition to having more protein than wheat does, rice has protein of higher quality than that in wheat, with more of the amino acids essential to the human diet

修饰has（动作）

90。Since 1986, when the Department of Labor began to allow investment officers’ fees to be based on how the funds they manage perform, several corporations began paying their investment advisers a small basic fee, with a contract promising higher fees if the managers perform well

修饰pay  (动作）而非fee，否则不需要逗号

从这个意义上说，with /without 的用法和第一种一样，是修饰动作的，不是修饰名词

即使跟在宾语后面不加逗号也不会造成歧义

sb do sth with/without .....（不会有就近修饰产生歧义，因为它与do 动作很连贯）

而当sth前有介词隔开

如

40.   In metalwork one advantage of adhesive-bonding over spot-welding is that the contact, and hence the bonding, is effected continuously over a broad surface rather than at a series of regularly spaced points with no bonding in between.

148. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency is required either to approve individual state plans for controlling the discharge of wastes into underground water or that they enforce their own plan for states without adequate regulations.

这时候sb do sth1 prep sth2 with /without ....

with/without 很难与DO 动作连贯，而与之前的sth2更加紧密，此时它就是修饰名词的

不知道这样说是否合理

1, "lack of sth/sb" is a idiom, it's quite strange that ETS thinks of it as unidomatic. However, "there is" wants a concrete noun while "lack" is an abstract noun.  This may be the reason.

2, The phrase beginning "without" logically modifies "prove".

各位好,

根據本題句意，可以大致翻為，如果無法取得另一位醫師的證明，要控告一位醫生的不當醫療是很困難的，換言之，這裡有所謂的假設用法在其中，就選項來說，就只有A與C有假設的概念隱藏其中，而without，又正是"if there is no...."的簡潔用法，基於以上推論，當然選C，可以同時兼顧假設及簡潔的概念。

進一步看ETS的解釋，A,D太囉嗦,B選項又用錯時態，E則是改變句意（從E看不出假設的感覺），畢竟是”如果沒有另一位醫生的證明”，而非缺少醫生

我覺得本題還是從句意看比較適當，原題既已暗示有假設的概念，而剛好本題句意又確實需要這樣的概念，因此只要是比A更為簡潔，我認為可以大膽的選C

ETS的意思不是说lacking 的问题，是lacking修饰谁的问题

我们可以比较一下这两个选项的结构

C  prove damage without another doctor’s testimony
E prove damage lacking another doctor to testify

prove是谓语，damage是宾语

C中，without another doctor's testimony是介宾短语做状语，它修饰的是主句的谓语动词prove

E中, lacking another doctor to testify 是现在分词做定语，修饰的是其先行词damage

所以ETS才说 Choice E introduces a dangling modifier: the lacking... phrase cannot logically modify damage, the nearest noun