[求助]PREP2-9

sandy07627

9. (24819-!-item-!-188;#058&001693)
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.
(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

对于答案是B我没有问题，只是我不明白这里为什么要用Little。

不是little 只可以修饰不可数名词吗？这里的risk 应该是可数的吧，否则也不会在 (D) 和 (E) 里出现 a risk 了。

我想这里的little 是不是small 的意思吧。

可能我的问题有些蠢了，大家不要笑话。

aeoluseros

一点都不蠢，很不错的问题

查了一下LOCDE里risk的意思：

发现risk既是可数名词，也可以做不可数名词。不管是few risk还是little risk，google和answer上都可以搜到 

[attachimg]66394[/attachimg]

希望可以给你帮助

sandy07627

后来我仔细想一下，这里可能是说这个risk 很小，不是来形容数量来着，是形容risk 的性质。是一个大risk 还是一个小risk. 所以和risk 是可数还是不可数没有关系。

[此贴子已经被作者于2008-8-1 12:43:45编辑过]

smartsky11

的

alibaba_2009

up

Boot

risk我记得是可数和不可数都可以的

judyenglish

ding

泾渭不凡

risk可数不可数都可以哈~

即便用risk to，to 也是介词哈~

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.