请大神讲解关系代词的TOUCH原则的例外

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OG13-SC-29

Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering her letters to anyone else.

(A) Dickinson were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumbering
(B) Dickinson were written over a period that begins a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ended shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber
(C) Dickinson, written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and that ends shortly before Emily's death in 1886 and outnumbering
(D) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother, ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, and outnumbering
(E) Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber


正确答案是E，但是如果是E的话，which的先行词是letters，中间间隔了“to Susan Huntington Dickinson”，这样是不是违背了TOUCH原则。
Manhattan中的TOUCH原则例外一共有四个(manhattan SC 5th P238)，但是并不包括这一个，这个怎么解释呢？
1.A “mission-critical” modifier falls between. This modifier is often an "Of-phrase"that defines the none.The less important modifier refers to the noun plus the first modifier.
   RIGHT:He had a way OF DODGING OPPONENTS that impresses the scouts.
2.A very short predicate falls between, shifting a very long modofier back.
3.A short non-essential phrase intervenes and is set off by commas.
4.The modifier is part of parallel modifiers, one of which touches the noun.

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关于这道题目，今天看到了RON大神的一段非常的经典的论述，in our observation, the gmat has been VERY goodabout this.
whenever i've seen a "which" thatrefers to "X + preposition + Y" rather than just Y, it has ALWAYSbeen the case that X was singular and Y was plural (or X was plural and Y wassingular), and the verb had a form that matched X and didn't match Y.
这里letters才可以用were,而D这个人只是单数，所以这里应该是修饰的letters ，语法上是对的

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Amber.C 发表于 2014-8-4 17:10
Manhattan Page238 1. A "mission-critical" modifier falls between. 楼主看下后面的例子。
He had a way  ...

我明白你说的意思，可是我第一次做的时候，直接把这个排除，这个是比较特殊，但是有了一个of，已经够例外的，现在又来一个to,比较纠结

Amber.C

Manhattan Page238 1. A "mission-critical" modifier falls between. 楼主看下后面的例子。
He had a way of dodging opponents that impressed the scouts.
that从句修饰的是a way of dodging opponents，同理Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson

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jackhzy521 发表于 2014-8-4 09:10
非NN。说一下自己的看法。
1.这个to SHD（人名）是介词短语作后置定语，这个词组的core还是letters，所以用 ...

太感谢了，对啊，我怎么没有想起来，which只能指物，不能指人

jackhzy521

非NN。说一下自己的看法。
1.这个to SHD（人名）是介词短语作后置定语，这个词组的core还是letters，所以用which并没有错。其实这一点和你说的“mission-critical”的例子有些相同。为什么that不是修饰opponents的呢？因为of doding opponents是来修饰a way的，这也是gmat考试里常见的干扰项。我觉得做gmat不单单要从语法的角度看，也要从语义的角度看。
2.gmat语法里，which不能用来修饰人，只能指代物