关于prep1-123笔记的疑问，请各位帮忙，不胜感激！

Avatar800

Prep1-123.(30997-!-item-!-188;#058&004357)

According to two teams of paleontologists, recent fossil discoveries in Pakistan show that whales, porpoises, and dolphins are more closely related to some of the oldest known even-toed ungulates a group of hoofed mammals that today includes cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--than to any other mammals.

(A) that whales, porpoises, and dolphins are more closely related to some of the oldest knowneven-toed ungulates--a group of hoofed mammals that today includes cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--than

(B) that whales, porpoises, and dolphins are more closely related to some of the oldest known even-toed ungulates--a group of hoofed mammals that today include cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--as

(C) whales, porpoises, and dolphins to be more closely related to some of the oldest known even-toed ungulates--a group of hoofed mammals that today include cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--than they are

(D) whales, porpoises, and dolphins as being more closely related to some of the oldest known even-toed ungulates--a group of hoofed mammals that today includes cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--as they are

(E) whales, porpoises, and dolphins as more closely related to some of the oldest known even-toed ungulates--a group of hoofed mammals that today include cows, camels, pigs, and hippos--than

疑问：动词include/includes是否可以作为语法点用来排除选项呢？没有看见语法笔记说这点，是不是因为主语a group/mammals都合理呢？？

lxw19

因为用a group of。。。所以后面用includes

Avatar800

呵呵，谢谢回答，可是为什么不能是mammals?

lxw19

a group of  +名词复数，主语应该是group吧~~

Avatar800

怎么我记得有些这种类似的表达却要用复数呢？记得有一题是“the majority of women that..”后面用的就是复数啊？？

hughlv

这里的a group of应该是不能用于排除复数形式的，跟逻辑有关，因为既可以表示“一个群体”(等同于a group that consists of ...，因此为单数)也可以表示“若干数量”（等同于some/a certain amount of，为复数）。

所以安全起见还是检查其他成分为好。

lenaqiao

it should be 'includes', because the only noun that makes sense as an antecedent here is 'group'.
after all, it's the group that 'includes' its members. if you say 'hoofed mammals that today include cows, camels, ...', then the literal interpretation is that you're talking about hoofed mammals that actually contain cows, camels, and so forth as parts of their bodies! now that would be scary.
and remember that you MUST use the literal interpretation of whatever sentence you happen to be reading; you're not allowed to use words in any manner other than the most literal and formally correct possible.

外国人这样说~~~个人认为蛮有道理的。