OG-48

joywzy

48. The golden crab of the Gulf of Mexico has not been fished commercially in great numbers, primarily on account of living at great depths-- 2,500 to 3,000 feet down.

on account of living
on account of their living
because it lives
because of living
being they live
As used in choices A, B, and D, the phrases on account of and because of are unidiomatic; because, which appears in C and E, is preferable here since because can introduce a complete subordinate clause explaining the reason why the golden crab has not been fished extensively. B and E also produce agreement errors by using the plural pronouns their and they to refer to the singular noun crab. Choice D, like A, fails to provide a noun or pronoun to perform the action of living, but even with its the phrases would be more awkward and less clear than it lives. C, which uses because and it as the singular subject of a clause, is the best choice.

为什么说the phrases on account of and because of are unidiomatic?一直没想明白.

braveMBA

on account of and because of 在GAMT认为+DOING是不好的形式，直接加名词或者名词短语。

joywzy

谢谢brave GG.
看来语法中,我还有好多不明白的.惭愧啊.

yuebill

Choice    D,    like    A,    fails    to    provide    a    noun    or    pronoun    to    perform    the    action    of    living,    but    even    with    its    the    phrases    would    be    more    awkward    and    less    clear    than    it    lives.


这个短语的逻辑主语，不是句子的主语吗？为何一定要补出？还是为了清楚？谢谢！    

jnlvo

在句末有避免歧义的好处。

babypace

B中改为on account of its living是不是就对了？

bunnier

以下是引用babypace在2004-5-27 3:20:00的发言：
B中改为on account of its living是不是就对了？

it's great that mm is thinking out of box! personally, i don't think its living (verb'ing) is considered proper by ETS. i'd say "on account of its habitat". still, it's not better than "because it lives," which clearly shows a cause-effect relationship.

多多讨论．．．

babypace

嗯。谢谢gg，这题ETS还是从比较法上提出'because it lives'是最好的。我同意。gg辛苦了，吃

ford424

ets真的让人搞不懂，这道题说从句加主谓表达清楚，但有的时候有说是wordy，到底怎么区分，有没有什么度的把握？

请教各位！！！！

而今迈步从头越

I agree with bunnier. In my opinion, on account of/because of + noun and because + noun+verb are preferable in GMAT test.  "Noun" focuses on result/fact but "verb" focus on the action and the relationship between other verb. "on account of/because of+doing sth" cann't deliver cause-effect relationship between "live" and "fish".