[E]OG-39，请指点！

excellent

39. For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and spears.
A.a method to protect
B.as a method protecting
C.protecting
D.as a protection of
E.to protect

答案没问题。OG解释上说，Choice C is best because the participle protecting begins a phrase that explains what the shields did.Choice E is incomplete; used to protect would have been acceptable.

假如E改为used to protect，那么这个过去分词短语是修饰animal-hide shields还是修饰essential items还是修饰military equipment呢？

halcyon

个人认为是items。

essential items of military equipment， + used to protect
essential items of military equipment + used to protect

的区别， 好像是前一句修饰 名词短语核心词， 后一句就近修饰，
个人推测，如有不对，请指正。

雪落无声

SC里碰到好多类似的修饰关系，加逗号和不加逗号有有这样的区别吗？

EASYSUMMER

修饰对象仍然是 SHIELDS