有个大问题，百思不得其解

Press Secretary:  Our critics claim that the President’s recent highway project cancellations demonstrate a vindictive desire to punish legislative districts controlled by opposition parties.  They offer as evidence the fact that 90 percent of the projects canceled were in such districts.  But all of the canceled projects had been identified as wasteful in a report written by respected nonpartisan auditors.  So the President’s choice was clearly motivated by sound budgetary policy, not partisan politics.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the press secretary’s argument depends? B

A Canceling highway projects was not the only way for the President to punish legislative districts controlled by opposition parties.

B The scheduled highway projects identified as wasteful in the report were not mostly projects in districts controlled by the President’s party.

C The number of projects canceled was a significant proportion of all the highway projects that were to be undertaken by the government in the near future.

D The highway projects canceled in districts controlled by the President’s party were not generally more expensive than the projects canceled in districts controlled by opposition parties.

E Reports by nonpartisan auditors are not generally regarded by the opposition parties as a source of objective assessments of government projects.

题目看得很乱，我的理解是总统把高速公路提案取消以惩罚反对党控制的选区，批评家说90%的提案的取消在这些选区。但是这些提案很浪费，所以总统不是报复。

问题就是逻辑上有点想不通，不知道90%的提案是谁取消的，如果是总统，那么谈不上报复，B不对。如果是反对党，那么是报复但是怎么提案增么能既被总统取消又被反对党取消呢？

这个题阅读是挺难的……

我试着解释一下，

critics认为president最近的取消高速公路的提案有一个很明显的意图是对对立党派的报复/惩罚。这些critics的证据是大部分被取消的地区都是由对立党派控制的。但是（注意这个但是），一个受人敬重的无党派的auditor写的报告中认为所有这些被取消的提案本身就是wasteful。（结论：）所以president的决定是建立在精确的预算基础上的还不是基于政治。

把题看懂了选起来就容易了。不过选项也有点绕，可以用not+weaken来看哈。

如果不看选项大盖分析一下，无党派的auditor的报告 推出 总统的决定不是基于政治

那么这个assupmtion肯定和auditor的报告有关系，先大概想到这里

然后看选项，与auditor的报告有关的选项只有B和E

B 报告中认为wasteful的提案的地区大部分不是总统所在的党派控制的。也就是说他的报告就认为对立的党派的提案本身就是wasteful，所以总统才取消提案。

或者我们用not+weaken来看，去掉这个选项中的not以后，变成那些wasteful的提案大部分都是总统的党派控制的，而不是对立党派控制的，然而总统取消的提案却是针对对立党派的，这恰恰说明总统是基于政治目的取消这些提案的。weaken了“（结论：）所以president的决定是建立在精确的预算基础上的还不是基于政治。”

希望我说明白了……