GWD 里面一道关于 their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because 的题目

ruochennnn

楼主在GWD SC 看到这样一道题目，正确答案为D， 想请教各位大神D相较E正确的原因是什么？

Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.

• Aof their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that
• Bof their sales a year earlier having been as bad as because
• Cof their sales a year earlier being as bad as because
• Dtheir sales a year earlier had been so bad as because
• Etheir sales of a year earlier were as bad as that
• 我对于这道题目的理解是“a year earlier” indicates the time sense that it should happened before the past。另外E选项中的as bad as后面应该加比较的内容，在这里“shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts”应该是bad sales的原因。如果理解有误，请大家帮忙解答！
• D选项中的so bad as是不是与原句中标黄的as much有关系， so bad as的含义是什么？原句中出现as much 表达的是什么？
  

蟹黄味蚕豆

1. 你的理解是对的！"a year earlier" 确实暗含了一个更早的时间，鉴于主句前面用了retailers reported 这样的一般过去时，在更早，用过去完成时会更好一些。用were也谈不上语法错误，只是说，用了完成时，强调的是过去的过去，对于reported这个时间点上发生的影响，句意上要比用were的一般过去时要更加饱满。

2. 你的理解也是对的，as bad as后面确实应该接比较的内容。但就算as bad as后面接了比较的内容，依然是不对的。注意题目第一个逗号那，有as much，这里也需要补充一个as来是的as much XXXX as 这个比较变得完整。

3. shoppers were getting这个不是so bad的原因，而是retailers reported moderat gains的原因。句意上是这样的
零售商们说他们今年11月的销售额有温和增长，一方面是因为去年销售很差（所以容易产生增长），另外一方面是因为购物者们提前开始购买他们的新年礼物了。

4. 是的，so bad as是跟as much有关系，但是只是as 有关系，so bad没有关系。
原句应该这么看
retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because [ their sales a year ealier had been so bad] as because [shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts].
也就是说：发生了一件事情，as much because A as because B。 A和B这两个都是同样重要的原因。