再问prep2-96的it指代问题

卮言浅夏

prep2-96 There  are hopeful signs that we are shifting away from our heavy reliance in fossil fules : more than ten times as much energy is generated through wind power  now than it was in 1990.
A generated through wind power now than it was
B generated through wind power now as it was
C generated through wind power now as was the case
D now generated through wind power as it was
E now generated through wind power than was the case
答案c,根据gamt对as be the case (with)这个短语的偏好貌似可以得出答案
但是不是特别清楚B错在哪,语法笔记上说B中的it指代的是"现在通过风能产生的电力" ,但是个人觉得虽然it的用法是特指,但仅仅是包括名词和其修饰成分,但是句子中的energy与generated though wind power now并不是修饰与被修饰的关系,所以我认为it指代的应该是energy,这样的话B就不存在指代问题了呀...
请NN帮助

zhisnoopy

还想请问下，it的指代，是优先指代句子（主句或者从句）的主语，还是优先指代离它最近的单数名词，我记得我在XDF上课时，那个老师说的是就近？但是最近最近又听说指代主语了……

卮言浅夏

谢谢解答~
with后面接sth，用于主语的比较，如果像这题是比较状语的话，应该用合适的介词就可以了吧

zhisnoopy

prep上还有一题是as was the case with，据说是固定用法，想问下，这个with可以不用一定跟在后面的是吗？？

helenlife

The pronoun 'it' is inappropriate, because 'it' must refer to the ENTIRETY of the noun phrase serving as an antecedent.

For instance, the following is an improper sentence: last year's attendance was ten thousand greater than it was this year

In the above sentence, the pronoun 'it' must necessarily refer to last year's attendance, not just attendance.

The problem in this post has the same issue: the pronoun 'it' must refer to more than ten times as much energy, NOT just energy - an interpretation that makes no logical sense. therefore, all answer choices containing the pronoun 'it' are wrong.

If you don't like '...as was the case', you should learn to like it; this is one of those phrases that the gmat writers use to refer to concepts that don't fit under the usage constraints of traditional pronouns. (another popular one of these constructions is 'do so'.)