OG 235 逻辑主语问题

shellsnow

235. Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Miiller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned soci­eties could bestow.

(A)  Miiller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(B)  Miiller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(C)  Miiller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(D)  Miiller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(E)   the career of Miiller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

logical subject

The best answer, B, uses the logical and grammatically correct construction. Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Miiller's career began . . . and culminated. Note that the noun phrase appearing after the comma is modified by Spanning and serves as the subject of began and culmi­nated. Choice A produces an illogical statement by placing Friedrich Miiller in this subject position. Choice C corrects this error but produces an unidiomatic construction by using apprenticeship of being instead of apprenticeship as. Choice D repeats both this error and the subject error of A.

这里ETS说主语应该是fm's career,可是这里入很能看出来？spanning是跨越的意思，为什么不能说，跨越了50年，fm开始了他的career in.....

我的理解肯定错了，可是到现在也想不通。。。请大家指点。谢谢

shellsnow

还有，解释说，主语还修饰后面的动词 began and culminated...那也可以理解为使FM 开始了这个。。。career, FM终于获得。。。Honour 阿：（

头晕阿

leighyao

spanning是跨越的意思，为什么不能说，跨越了50年，fm开始了他的career in.....

You cannot use Chines translation to understand English.

this is the English interpretation of "SPAN" from Merriam-Webster:

1 a : to measure by or as if by the hand with fingers and thumb extended  b : MEASURE
2 a : to extend across  <a career that spanned four decades> b : to form an arch over  <a small bridge spanned the pond> c : to place or construct a span over
3 : to be capable of expressing any element of under given operations  <a set of vectors that spans a vector space>

shellsnow

leighyao解释得好清楚啊。我又钻牛角尖了。思路又不对了。又拿中文来考虑了。

还是得补补对词汇的理解阿。谢谢：）