[求助]请问929

bipedalism

929.While larger banks can afford to maintain their own data-processing operations, many smaller regional and community banks are finding that the cost associated with upgrading data-processing equipment and with the development and maintenance of new products and technical staff are prohibitive.
(A) cost associated with
(B) costs associated with
(C) costs arising from
(D) cost of
(E) costs of
OG219
这道题答案是B,我选了A.OG的解释是: The correct option must offer a noun that agrees in number with the plural verb are, the second-to-last word in the sentence, to produce the grammatical sequence costs ... are prohibitive.

我想问,A错在cost不和are一致???但是后面的are前有好几个and,也可以说这样导致用are啊,请问为什么不能用cost,或说A错在哪里?

请大家指教,谢谢

bettyofarim

are 是that 从句的谓语呀，应该是和主语costs 一致的。至于那些and连的，是修饰costs的。化简的结果是：that the cost （associated with upgrading data-processing equipment and with the development and maintenance of new products and technical staff ）are prohibitive.

bipedalism

哎,清楚了,谢谢berryofarim