置疑一道OG的官方解释

ibm1999

OG4. The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns.
(A)    to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns
(B)    if they are quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns to rot them
(C)    for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns
(D)    if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns
(E)    to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit



For parallelism, the linking verb is should link two infinitives: The only way to salvage ... is to process. Choice A begins with an infinitive, but the plural pronouns them and they do not agree with the singular noun citrus. Choices B, C, and D do not begin with an infinitive, and all present pronoun errors: the plural pronouns cannot grammatically refer to citrus or fruit, nor can they refer to farmers without absurdity. The best choice, E, has parallel infinitives and uses fruit to refer unambiguously to citrus. E also expresses the cause-and-effect relationship between the return of warmer weather and the rotting of the fruit; A, C, and D merely describe these events as contemporaneous.


ETS官方解释A不对的理由是 citrus是个单数名词，不能用they和them，但我们看各种词典，包括老美的W_M，上面都说citrus的复数形式有2种，citrus或者citruses，因此citrus在这里完全可以被理解为复数。
当然E是没有任何问题的，尤其是最后用了fruit指代非常清楚。
个人认为A的错误主要不再citrus的单复数问题，而在rot应该用被动语态，citrus被动语态，是warmer weather rot citrus，从E中就可看出。不知各位意见如何？

jnlvo

我认为og说过citrus是个单数名词，那么说明ETS认为这种情况下通常单数表达就行，无需复数。如果以后再遇到citrus，我想还是先当它是单数，要是未划线部分有暗示如they/them等，再当复数不迟。不过此题的解题思路应该从后入手，这点我跟你一样。

cranberry

rot在作腐烂讲时，既有vi,是“腐烂”之意，又有vt 是“使腐烂“之意，所以认为此处应为被动，大概是不足取的。

dreadpower

http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=23&ID=42849