欢迎大家讨论（新增一道）

cmtn

Agree that D seems to have some thing wrong with 时态, "were the first", read like that Shang used to be the first, but now "Shang" is/are not.

One the other hand, the "shang" seems to be a plural.

Do not know which is better.

dashasha

MARIEZHU妹妹，我觉得应该选D。时态没什么问题啊。前面用过去式，后面用现在时是表示现在才WELL KNOWN啊。C除了单复数问题外，还有个CRAFT的使用问题。CRAFT是名词，CRAFTING是什么意思呢？

LES

in addition to being china’s first administrators , in the sense that they developed a coherent bureaucracy for their empire , the first literate culture in east asia were the shang, and they were well known for crafting ornate bronze ritual vessels

D. the shang were the first literate culture in east asia and are well known as the crafters of

我觉得D的时态没有问题，前半句强调the shang在当时成为亚洲地区的文化中心，与in the sense that(=because)...是因果关系；而后半句：他们因...而著名，是一客观事实，所以用一般现在时。

mariezhu

有点晕了吃完午饭再跟大家讨论吧

不过建议大家考虑以下几个方面

1. 逻辑意思：in addition to being, the shang, as.., is well known 还是in addition to being.., the shang, were .. and are..， as内的内容和商朝well known as/for之间是并列关系还是“商作为..，以..而著称？

2.时态问题如何理解，前半部是个客观事实，还是当时如何如何然后转到现在。。

3。be well known for, be well known as

4. for its crafting of，as the crafters of

5.collective noun后跟单复数问题，以及collective noun是否可以跟their等复数代词使用问题

大家讨论吧，真理越辩越明嘛。

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-4-26 14:42:27编辑过]

cmtn

if the answer is "the Shang ARE the first ... and are known as ...", then D is no problem, but "WERE" still read like "used to be, but now are not"

mariezhu

以下是引用cmtn在2004-4-26 13:21:00的发言：
if the answer is "the Shang ARE the first ... and are known as ...", then D is no problem, but "WERE" still read like "used to be, but now are not"

agree !!

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-4-26 14:36:09编辑过]

ios

were,   不是are，关键在in the sense that they developed a coherent bureaucracy for their empire 。

现在的标准可能不在于此，所以用were。

mariezhu

嘻嘻，经过慎重考虑觉得这题的答案还是D好些

本来改选C是因为对D的时态有疑虑，但现在觉得一众XDJM关于时态的指教不无道理，另外，发现C的另一大缺陷：its

虽然语法上在美式英语中集体名词在指一个整体的时候后应跟单数动词，但是资料同时指出在一个句子中集体名词的单数或复数的形式应保持一致，而C在划线部分的最后使用its（当时忽略了，不好意思）正是犯了这个大忌。

相关的reference如下：

In American usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the collection considered as a whole, as in The family was united on this question or The enemy is suing for peace. It takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in My family are always fighting among themselves or The enemy were showing up in groups of three or four to turn in their weapons. In British usage, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals: The government have not announced a new policy. The team are playing in the test matches next week.  Be careful not to treat a collective noun as both singular and plural in the same construction.

感谢大家参与讨论使我对collective noun的理解更加完善。