请教一下PREP笔记section1中的一道语法题,多谢啦!

gloria_xin

题目是: Employment costs rose 2.8 percent in the 12 months that ended in Septemer, slightly less than they did in the year that ended in the previous year.
A. less than they did
B. less than it did
C. less than they were
D. lower than
E. lower than they were

正确答案选择A, 说明是"less"为副词,修饰"did-rose".但根据我的理解, E选项也是可以说的通的,其中的"they"指代"employment costs", lower为形容词, employment costs were slightly lower than they were in the year...,求教哪位大牛可以帮我答疑结惑, 倍加感谢!!!

zxkingsey

did是替代前面的rose，less也是修饰rose的

gloria_xin

感谢楼上的快速回复! A选项我是看懂了,我的问题是E为什么不对? 为什么一定要用"did"代替前面的"rose"? 为什么不能直接用employment costs的现在和过去比呢?

songer_xj

E选项不对是因为 Employment costs 是uncountable的，而lower一般用于可计数或可测量的。

mycontrol01

E里were 后面没词