SC关于comparison的困惑！请CDer解惑！

盖里橙

有个困惑已久的问题想请教，关于comparison的，请见OG18的758和772这两道题。同样涉及了price+时间+than的比较，为什么两题的比较对象不一样的呢？在comparison的题里面怎么确定比较的对象呢？就是XX 和that of XX区别。772官方解释C选项说the possessive year's is not parallel with the adverbial phrase this year，为什么不能理解为the oil prices this year is higher than those of last year(last year's)

lixiqi123

这里面，this year 是做状语。没有介词啊。所以不是重属。前后的形式要统一啊。

cheer115

个人理解是这样的：


Prices at the producer level are only 1.3 percent
higher now than a year ago and are going down,
even though floods in the Midwest and drought in the
South are hurting crops and therefore raised corn and
soybean prices.
(A) than a year ago and are going down, even
though floods in the Midwest and drought in the
South are hurting crops and therefore raised
(B) than those of a year ago and are going down,
even though floods in the Midwest and drought in
the South are hurting crops and therefore raising

prices are 1.3% higher now than (prices) of a year ago——》类比：my salary is 50% lower than my salary of a year ago (这里不能用a year ago代替“my salary of a year ago"）——》这也是OG的解析里为什么说"The first part of this version of the sentence

illogically compares prices to a time"

Heating‐oil prices are expected to be higher this year

than last because refiners are paying about $5 a barrel

more for crude oil than they were last year.

(A) Heating‐oil prices are expected to be higher this

year than last because refiners are paying about

$5 a barrel more for crude oil than they were

Heating‐oil prices are expected to be higher this year than last ——》类比：my salary is higher this year than my last year's salary （这里my last year's salary可以换成last） ——》所以，OG解释是“The sentence connects a comparison between this year’s and last year’s heating‐oil prices with a comparison between this year’s and last year’s crude‐oil prices.”

以上都是“be higher than XX”结构里前后要对等的问题。“ a year ago”不能当名词用，但是“last”可以。

盖里橙

cheer115 发表于 2018-9-17 14:53
个人理解是这样的：

十分感谢你的回复。
你的意思是不是说，758这个a year ago是一个time period，要重写成pronoun+time period才能match比较的对象。
而772中last代替的是noun phrase(last year's prices)，不是time period（last year).
所以这里我疑惑的点是772中的last的referent问题，我一开始认为last 看作是last year的简写，而非last year‘s price的简写。

如果772改成than last year，那估计错误的原因就跟758一样了，那么解释的思路也是一致的。
我想应该是这样的解释吧。

cheer115

我也是赞同你的解读的。

我之前做这道题也查了很多资料。讲真，OG的解释（定语的这种）是一种，但是还有另外一种如下：

this year/a year ago这种也可以做状语：my salary is higher this year than last year; my IQ is higher now than a year ago
这两个例子里就是“时间状语”和“时间状语”平行了。
这种也是对的啊（你也觉得没有问题吧？！）。

最后总结：这两题的split的点都不是比较的问题，其实是用别的split的点解出来的。

盖里橙

cheer115 发表于 2018-9-17 20:49
我也是赞同你的解读的。

我之前做这道题也查了很多资料。讲真，OG的解释（定语的这种）是一种，但是 ...

哈哈哈当然一道题一般都有多个splits可以结合排除出答案，只是想在平时练习当中搞明白comparison这个splits，那么真正考试的时候就能多一个splits来快速排除了。

关于时间状语的比较，可以看另外一道题OG784，than的前后是preposition phrase的比较：in the six months from October 1995 through March 1996 & in a similar period a year earlier。可以看看A选项的官方解释，为什么要加介词in。

我自己做题的感觉是如果句子的开头是noun phrase，然后又涉及不同时间的比较的话，那么than后面的时间段要是that/those of-time phrase.就像是758那样，实质是noun phrase之间的比较。
PRICES XXXX are higher NOW than THOSE of A YEAR AGO。
PRICES XXXX are higher NOW than last year’s。

可以对比这三题，看看官方解释，培养一下语感～感觉comparison
这个点的比较对象还是要看meaning，只要不存在ambiguity就可以了。

cheer115

盖里橙 发表于 2018-9-18 10:18
哈哈哈当然一道题一般都有多个splits可以结合排除出答案，只是想在平时练习当中搞明白comparison这个spli ...

接着和你讨论，当作是学习笔记了。

老外讲比较级时的eclipse：看比较级后面缺了啥——》看能不能省略

其实可以解读为取共同项，共同项是可以省略的。

prices are higher now than ( prices) a year ago (correct)——》price now VS price a year ago——》共同项prices不用重复
另外一种写法，prices被those代替：prices are higher now than those of a year ago  (correct)——》prices可以用those替代

prices are higher than a year ago (incorrect)——》没有了now之后，就没有prices now VS prices a year ago的对比了，成了prices VS a year ago (错误）
prices are higher than those of a year ago  (correct)

你说的这道题：

Most of the country’s biggest daily newspapers had lower circulation in the six months from October 1995 through March 1996 than a similar period a year earlier.


(A) a similar period

(B) a similar period’s

(C) in a similar period

(D) that in a similar period

(E) that of a similar period

A has a low circulation in XX period.
A has a low circulation in YY period.
XX时期的circulation更低——》共同项（low circulation)改成比较级，in XX period VS in YY period留下做对比。（但是不能像选项D中那样加上that，因为that在这个句子里指代的是lower circulation，这就不对了。而下面的例子里，that/those保留是对的例句里，“those"指代“small cars“，而不是” small cars that are more efficient“，所以是对的。）


对比另外一道题：
Today's technology allows manufacturers to make small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their production history.
·       small cars more fuel-efficient now than at any time in their
·       small cars that are more fuel-efficient than they were at any time in their
·       small cars that are more fuel-efficient than those at any other time in
·       more fuel-efficient small cars than those at any other time in their
·       more fuel-efficient small cars now than at any time in
选项C中的结构是“small cars that are more ... than those at any other time"，即：small cars VS those (small cars) at any other time对比，those需要保留。

盖里橙

lixiqi123 发表于 2018-9-17 09:34
这里面，this year 是做状语。没有介词啊。所以不是重属。前后的形式要统一啊。 ...

你的意思是，this year在前半句作状语，因此than前后两个time period的比较吗？this year vs last(last year?）
那如果是这样，758为什么不能同样理解为now作状语，now vs a year ago？

Sibyllam

盖里橙 发表于 2018-9-19 09:58
你的意思是，this year在前半句作状语，因此than前后两个time period的比较吗？this year vs last(last y ...

国外论坛的一个解释是这样的，(A) compares now to a year ago. (B) compares prices now to those (prices) of a year ago. While it can be acceptable to compare timeframes (as in OG 2017 #772 / OG 2016 #104 “this year” and “last [year]”), the more precise comparison in this problem is between the two prices: prices now versus prices of a year ago. 我觉得讲得有道理，问题出在句意而不是语法上

盖里橙

Sibyllam 发表于 2018-9-19 13:47
国外论坛的一个解释是这样的，(A) compares now to a year ago. (B) compares prices now to those (pric ...

你的解释有道理，其实A和B都是acceptable。只要句意能表达清晰无歧义就是acceptable的。

==以下是我用曼哈顿的原则总结的感想，可以讨论一下哈。
这种A more THAN Y的比较结构其实遵循两条原则：
1.X and Y should have the same grammatical structure.
2.X and Y should be logically matched in meaning and structure.

应用到解题时就要注意X的表达结构是如何的。

例如时间在X是作为状语的，那么Y的time period也可以作为状语，compare the two adverbial phrase.

又例如时间在X是作为noun modifier，那么Y的time period也应该作为Y中的noun modifier，compare the two noun phrase.

总原则就是平行的原则下，表达清楚comparison的对象，不引起meaning ambiguity即可，comparison的写法可以灵活。