it's one of those phrases that's allowed to stand in for just about any clause describing a situation. its 'magic powers', so to speak, lie in the fact that it doesn't have to have a precise referent.
imagine that a newspaper contains the following sentence:
as was the case in post-world-war-i germany, hyperinflation has been causing general unrest and panic throughout country x.
notice that there are other ways you could write this thing; for instance, you could write something like 'as it did in ... germany' (where 'it' stands for hyperinflation in this case). however, the italicized version is preferable, because the emphasis of the sentence is on the fact that the situations are similar. (if the sentence appeared in a context of facts about hyperinflation and its effects, the latter version would be more acceptable.)
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发表于 2011-3-13 12:46:58
