要考了！问：885-19-21

oldreaper

After gradual declension down to about 39 hours in 1970, the workweek in the United States has steadily increased to the point that the average worker now puts in an estimated 164 extra hours of paid labor a year.
(A) After gradual declension down
(B) Following a gradual declension down
(C) After gradual declining down
(D) After gradually declining
(E) Following gradually declining

why D is no good?

bigcamel

d就是正确答案

oldreaper

sorry I make a mistake: I mean why E is no good. thank!

bigcamel

根据gemj牛牛的说法following后面通常跟名词

oldreaper

有这等事？
那跟动名词算不算？

nauzer

小弟一些淺見...
此題應該是自下句簡化而來
After (the workweek) gradually (declined) to about 39 hours in 1970, the workweek in the United States........
省略重複主詞the workweek就變成答案:
After gradually declining to about 39 hours in 1970, the workweek in.......
由此看來, after在此, 表面上是作'介詞'用,事實上應是當'連接詞'使用

而following, 從來就只能用作"介詞", 故不若使用after適當

gemj

以下是引用bigcamel在2003-11-24 8:32:00的发言：
根据gemj牛牛的说法following后面通常跟名词

我也是猜测啊，不很肯定。

seanql

以下是引用nauzer在2003-11-28 15:43:00的发言：
小弟一些淺見...
此題應該是自下句簡化而來
After (the workweek) gradually (declined) to about 39 hours in 1970, the workweek in the United States........
省略重複主詞the workweek就變成答案:
After gradually declining to about 39 hours in 1970, the workweek in.......
由此看來, after在此, 表面上是作'介詞'用,事實上應是當'連接詞'使用

而following, 從來就只能用作"介詞", 故不若使用after適當

nauzer说得很对，after是连词，如果作状语就要求其逻辑主语与句子主语一致，而following是介词，没有这个要求。

joywzy

专门查了字典，following是只能当介词，after可以当连词，这题可以结案了。

ztlbox

why not A?

following是介词，B可以看成是介词短语在句首啊

这里为什么一定要用动名词呢？