请教OG251

yingliuhe

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .
A. extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than
B. extinction; its numbers are now five times more than
C. extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were
D. extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had
E. extinction, now with numbers five times greater than
A, the best choice, uses a singular pronoun, its, to refer to the singular antecedent The gyrfalcon, and it properly uses the construction its numbers are now ... greater than. In B, the construction its numbers are ... more is not idiomatic: there are more birds, but not more numbers. Choices C and D use a plural pronoun, their or they, to refer to a grammatically singular antecedent, The gyrfalcon. Choices D and E wrongly use a phrase introduced by now with to modify The gyrfalcon. In both choices, the phrase confusingly seems to parallel with extinction; a new clause with a present tense verb is needed to state what the gyrfalcon's numbers are now.
答案我没问题，不过its numbers are  greater than when .. .这个不是不平行吗？难道不应该是numbers are greater than numbers吗？

feizhou

now-----when的比较

yingliuhe

I see. Thanks a lot!

dormousedzc

1.我选择E.  以为能回避开its numbers这种看上去心慌慌的表达方式.  结果两次都栽了.

现在回过头来看, 虽然its numbers是有些奇怪,但是在their缺乏指代的情况下,its numbers就很可能是正确的选项,没有必要再进一步回避了,否则单复数这个考点就白考了.     NN看这种考试思路可行么?

2.有人摘录OG10对E.选项的解释,说逗号后面的with numbers与前面的with extinction会形成平行结构.所以不正确,对此我是这样理解的,请NN指正:

鉴于a close brush with(该词组通常带有敌意或警告性的接触)extinction 意思是"一度面临绝种"的意思,那么后半句(a close brush) now with numbers five times greater than的意思就成了"一度曾面临数量是1970年代5倍的局面".-------数量大幅度增长显然是好事,不应该含有敌意或警告的意思,所以一定不能用now with...,而必须另起炉灶,构建完全独立的一套句子结构.    所以A.对.

55555, 我在做这题时,根本不知道a brush with的意思,  必定,肯定,一定会追求平行对称, 所以也必定,肯定,一定会错. 只能感叹一句:母语TMD就是有优势呀!

现在OG11中的解释说:E. Comma usage introduces a confusing phrase seeming to modify extinction.   新的解释到是让我糊涂了,with...结构什么时候可以修饰前面的宾语了?    不是一向都优先修饰主语么,怎么现在挑错都如此自然,和谐?

这日子没法过了.   S.O.S

 

seafly_diao

没有人对OG11的解释做什么更进一步的解释吗？

我也不是很明白，以为有了逗号，就修饰了前面的主语了呀，看来不一定。还是要小心。

lxr027

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's. .
首先，这个句子的主干是：The gyrfalcon has survived （a close brush with extinction;）而后面的numbers则是对前面句子的补充，说明gyrfalcon不仅从濒临绝迹中生存下来了，而且数量还扩大了5倍。如果把它理解成平行的句子，就是比较，和has survived 表达的意思不一样。其实，如果在its numbers 前面加个and，这个句子就很好判断了