Contrary to financial analysts, who predicted last year that the market for home computers would dwindle, the personal computer industry continued to show strong growth in the first quarter of this year.
A.analysts, who predicted
B.analysts, whose predictions
C.analysts and their predictions
D.analysts’ predicting
E.analysts’ predictions
the answer is E.
But I don't get it! Why is D wrong?
I cannot detect the subtle difference betwee D and E.
1. from Longman, contrary to popular belief/opinion used to say that something is true even though people believe the opposite: Contrary to popular belief, a desert can be very cold.
所以 contrary to +N 當介係詞片語修飾全句時,那個名詞通常是某種意見.
2. 開頭的Contrary to 應該是相對的 所以A的相對於分析家......個人電腦業持續成長 (比較不同類) E的意思 相對於分析家的預期....個人電腦業持續成長(合理) 再請其他高手高手補充
choice (e) is the best of these five choices, but they are all bad.
first, "contrary" is an adjective, so the initial modifier that begins with this adjective must modify a NOUN. (this is what all adjectives do; they modify nouns.) therefore, the initial modifier actually modifies the following subject "the personal computer industry", which doesn't make sense as the referent for any of the options; the industry is not “contrary to analysts”, nor is the industry itself “contrary to analysts' prediction”.
if this problem showed up on the official test, then “contrary to analysts' prediction” would have to modify something like “the performance of the home computer market”, since that is actually what was contrary to the prediction.
second, "prediction" should be singular, since we are just talking about one prediction. it doesn't matter that this prediction was made by multiple analysts; it's still one prediction.