prep1-152 好像没有人说清楚过的疑问……

alpaca

Recent research indicates that two popular arthritis drugs are possibly not as safe as they initially believed.

(A) that two popular arthritis drugs are possibly not as safe as they initially believed

(B) that two popular arthritis drugs may not be as safe as they were initially believed to be

(C) two popular arthritis drugs to possibly not be as safe as it was initially believed

(D) the safety of two popular arthritis drugs may not be as great as it was initially believed

(E) the safety of two popular arthritis drugs not to be as great as they were initially believed to be

答案是B，说因为A不是被动。
可是！为什么不能把 they initially believed中的believed理解成省略了are的被动呢？
望nn解答~~~谢谢！

花子落落

有见过在比较里省略后面的谓语，没见过这样省略be 动词的~is believed应该被一起看做谓语吧~
还有LZ，记得Manhattan论坛上instructor说GMAC认为选这个就选这，就说明这是对的。我觉得，我们要做的是学习标准的语言，而不是创造一种说法然后试图证明它是对的~

alpaca

谢谢解释！
其实我只是不明白它错在哪里并不是想要证明它是对的，因为模棱两可怕碰到了类似的还会因为不明白这个知识点而做错，所以才想弄清楚的……

sanqianluoshui

if you say "they initially believed" (active voice - also "they believe/believed/etc"), then
* you DON'T use "to be"
* "they" stands for the people who hold some belief.
ex: the materials testers found that Metal X was much better at conducting than they had believed.
--> in this case, "they" = the materials testers. this sentence is fine, although it would probably be stronger if "...to be the case" were appended after "believed".

if you say "they were initially believed to be" (passive voice - also "they are believed to be / were believed to be / etc), then
* you DO use "to be"
* "they" stands for the people/objects to whom/which the beliefs pertain, NOT to the people who hold the beliefs.
ex: Metals X and Y is much better at conducting electricity than they were believed to be.
--> in this case, "they" = Metals X and Y. this sentence is also fine (although it's not the most beautiful thing in the world).