Since 1990 the global economyhas grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950.
(A) Since 1990 the globaleconomy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture (B) Since 1990 the growth of the global economy has been more than that during 10,000 years, from when agriculture began (C) The growth of theglobal economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture (D) The growth of theglobal economy since 1990 exceeds what it has been for 10,000 years, from when agriculture began (E) The growth of theglobal economy since 1990 exceeds what it did for the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture
A是正确答案,我错选了B。后来搜了各种资料和RON大神的指导,我想了一想各种B错的可能:
1. From when错误。这是各大中文论坛上大牛们指出的一个错误原因,但是Ron大神又说了: there's nothing ungrammatical about 'from when', because the clause starting with 'when' is a perfectly legitimate noun clause (i.e., 'when agriculture began' serves as a noun. however:
- it's possible that the gmat does consider such constructions wrong; the only way to tell is to see if they say so in any official answer choices
- regardless of where the gmat stands on the issue, 'the beginning of agriculture' is unquestionably better than 'when agriculture began' (i.e., an actual noun is almost always superior to a circuitous noun clause, when possible)
这样看起来,From when倒是可以先忽略,放一下,如果有大牛指出错误,非常欢迎。
2. that的用法 Ron指出这里最大的问题在于that指代错误: if the second half says 'that during 10,000 years', then the preceding half must say 'the growth of ___ during something else' (or some other time preposition, such as before or after, in place of during).
但是同时,后来他又让同学去看另一题,正确的句子是这样的(相信大家也做过这题): If current trends continue, by the year 2010 carbon emissions in the United States will soar to a level more than one-third higher than that in 1990, according to official projections.
这里明显的两个对比对象就是标红的两个词,虽然不是和上题中’Since 1990 the growth of the global economy‘以及’that during 10000 years'一模一样,但也没有任何Level in 2010之类的字眼。那这就费解了,我也觉得Ron说的那个that格式的方法有问题,估计这个也不是排除的方法。
3.More的用法 我感觉这是最合理的说法了。在这边如果是两个时间段内growth的对比,应该不能用more,而是要用greater。Ron大神后来在一个回复贴中也说了: In fact, I think the usage of "more" without a following noun, adjective, or adverb will be highly suspicious in most circumstances.
In other words, if you see something like "X is more than Y", versus alternatives such as "X is higher than Y" or "X is greater than Y", you should in general be able to trust the latter.
这样看起来,只有用第三个论证来否定B选项了。当然,我后来也发现了,逻辑上来说,这句话应该对比还是动作,Grow more更符合句意。况且A选项简洁明了,指代清晰。只是这几个问题还是想和各位大牛们讨论一下,小弟第一次发长贴,还希望大家多多海涵!
在此谢过!
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