请教Prep2-9

pelong

题号来自Prep_SC_notes_By findjuhl-4.12

The Environmental Protection Agency frequently puts mandatory controls on toxic substances that present as little risk as one in a million chances to cause cancer. (B)

 

 

(A) as little risk as one in a million chances to cause

(B) as little risk as one chance in a million of causing

(C) as little risk as one chance in a million that it will cause

(D) a risk as little as one chance in a million for causing

(E) a risk as little as one chance in a million for it to cause

B中 as little risk as的用法好怪异啊，没有见过啊。

我选的D，觉得D中as as的用法更合理一些啊。但D中for causeing的用法的确不如of causing来的好。

请NN指教。

[此贴子已经被作者于2008-6-8 12:25:09编辑过]

steve66

我在这里试着做了解释，参考一下；

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=23&ID=257489&page=1

pelong

谢谢楼上的，我在另一个帖子里也回复了。

judyenglish

ding

waterblue01

参考了所有网络上的回答和Ron大神的答复，我更倾向于Ron的解释，为了能让大家减少疑惑，我在所有这个问题的帖子里面都做了同样的回复。

Prep07上面的解释前半部分是错误的，其实 one in a million chances 和 one chance in a million其实没啥区别，as little risk as 和 a risk as little as也都可以用。问题其实就是idiomatic usage 的问题——risk of doing 而不能是其他选项那样。
比如
as small a collection as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.
这里 'collection', 而不是'albums', 是 'has drawn'的主语，导致用has而非have。
原句等同于:
a collection as small as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.
（个人觉得 as small as three pirated albums 其实只是对于collection的修饰而非比较）

另外Ron大神也额外提到（和本题无关，纯属别人讨论问到chance的搭配，因为本题不是修饰chance），
尽管有 chance to do 的用法。但是在GMAT中，涉及数学概率问题的修饰都要用chance of doing。

------------------------以下为Ron大神原文，重点已提炼放在上面-----------------------------------

whoa, you guys are missing the main point here: the word whose idiomatic usage is being tested is risk, not chance.

this is a bit hard to see in this particular sentence, so here's an analogy (which i'm making up on the spot - not part of an official question):
as small a collection as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.
in this case, 'collection', not 'albums', is the subject of 'has drawn' (which can be inferred from the fact that 'has' is singular).
this is the case because this sentence is equivalent to the following rearranged version:
a collection as small as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.

--

the same reasoning applies here; you're looking for idiomatic usage that agrees with 'risk', not 'chance'.

--

the last poster is correct in one sense, which is that there are correct idiomatic usages of 'chance to'.
HOWEVER,
the last poster is incorrect in this particular scenario, because 'chance to' is NOT used when 'chance' refers to a mathematical probability (as it does in this context). in the case of mathematical probabilities, you can only use 'chance of'.
for instance, you can't say this treatment has a 70% chance to cure the disease; you have to say chance of curing.