OG11 4

A survey by the National Council of Churches showed that in 1986 there were 20,736 female ministers, almost 9 percent of the nation's clergy, twice as much
    as 1977.

这里的DOUBLE是做动词用的吗?那它的主语是不是20736呢,可是逗号能隔开两句句子吗

到底该怎么理解double the figure for 1977在整句句子中的作用呢?

请参阅牛津词典DOUBLE的词意和用法-某条说道: verb, become twice as much/many (eg. membership almost doubled in two years)

但是,这里的确是将DOUBLE用为VERB了么?好象不是耶~~~我认为这里应该是用的形容词形式啦.你还是看词典里的解释哈: adj. twice as much/many, 你看,A/B中twice as much/many完全可以被DOUBLE一个词搞定,那当然是DOUBLE优于twice as much/many了呀,于是这里根据你对DICTION of double的掌握就杀了A/B.

C/E都犯了awkward/wordy的冲,当然你硬套所谓"规则"也是保险的:

排除C: the figure(名词)优于what it was(名词从句)

排除E: a number double that of 1977's(唐僧到令人发指啊,就算我们不是NATIVE SPEAKER,我们也不要吝啬自己那点苍白的语感~~~把它杀了吧还是...)

A) twice as much as 1977     

B) twice as many as 1977

C) double what it was in 1977

D) double the figure for 1977

E) a number double that of 1977's

1) parallelism error of 'as.. as' in A B, compare figure or ministers with year
2) 'it' is not clear in C
3) E has grammatical error
4) D 'double the figure for 1977' act as 同位语 ，'double' is adj. here modify the noun 'the figure'

Ky86, you make me laugh...Kill it, P--lease...

Yet, still a little puzzled abou your explanation above. We all know from OG that the modified "twice as many as in 1997" is also a correct answer, while as per your quote from the dic that "double" equates to "twice as many/much", shall we build another answer by repalcing "twice as many" with "double" in the above correct answer, say "double as in 1997"? This phrasing sounds very awkward to me though...

i agree.

for more examples:

His income is double hers.

He earns double what she does.

We need double the amount we have.

Here, double means twice as much or as many.

ky86 is so interesting a guy..