[讨论]OG 12-5, OG 11-3

这道题的答案能作对，但有个语法点不清楚，请各位大侠帮看一下。

5. Diabetes, together with its serious complications, ranks as the nation’s third leading cause of death, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer.

A. ranks as the nation’s third leading cause of death, surpassed only

B. rank as the nation’s third leading cause of death, only surpassed

C. has the rank of the nation’s third leading cause of death, only surpassed

D. Are the nation’s third leading causes of death, surpassed only

E. Have been ranked as the nation’s third leading causes of death, only surpassed

正确答案是A，题中标黄的过去分词surpassed修饰的是哪个名词呢？根据就近原则应该是cause of death，但似乎逻辑上它修饰Diabetes更合适，因为其后边跟的是两个病名：heart disease and cancer.我不是学医的，不知这么理解对不对，当然，这点并不妨碍找到正确答案，只不过想搞清楚是不是过去分词可以跳跃修饰？

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怎么才能知道“Diabetes together with its serious complications ”是单数啊？

很多这种题，搞个很生疏的单词，然后考单复数一致，是不是要记单词啊？

楼上，这种题一般都有技巧的，我的意见是学会做题方法，记单词是记不完的~

Diabetes together with its serious complications 中的its指代diabetes，说明它是单数名词