For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and spears.
17. For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, *a method to protect* warriors against enemy arrows and spears. (A) a method to protect (B) as a method protecting (C) protecting (D) as a protection of (E) to protect
I know the answer should be C.
Here in the sentence, “Animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment,protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears.”
“protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears” is “animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment” 的状语。
But how to make sentence changes so that “protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears” is “animal-hide shields with wooden frames”or“animal-hide shields” 的定语.
let me try: For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears were essential items of military equipment.
以下是引用tocean0222在2003-7-13 1:20:00的发言: let me try: For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields protecting warriors against enemy arrows and spears were essential items of military equipment.
Thanks tocean0222,
But where to put the "with wooden frame "
The question is
How to arrange the "定语"s when there're two or more "定语"s, and still kepp clear the meaning of the sentence.
How to arrange the "定语"s when there're two or more "定语"s, and still kepp clear the meaning of the sentence.
[此贴子已经被作者于2003-7-16 7:28:43编辑过]
I think the problem here is caused by the defect of english to descrilbe a key word with two or more modifiers in only one sentence . Having difficulty in arranging a adverb phrase and a participal phrase to describe "animal-hide shield" simultaneouly, the author put the phrase introduced by "protecting" at the end of the sentence as an adverbial modifier.And for me, the case is the same.Only if we ues a relative clause led by "that" to substitute for the participal phrase, the key word can be modified by two modifiers grammatically. eg: For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frame that protect warriors against enemy arrows and spears were essential items of military equipment.
But the structure above is not best one to convey the orginal sense of the sentence clearly, since the relative clause can modify either "frame" or "shields",especially when two nouns are both single.So i think we'd better choose the structure which contains little or no unambiguiity under such circumstances.And indeed, choose the better one if there isn't the best.