大全735- 补充题250-T14

paopao

14.   The earnings of women are well below that of men in spite of educational differences that are diminishing between the sexes.

(A) well below that of men in spite of educational differences that are diminishing代词指代不一致/that are diminishing不简洁

(B) much below that of men’s despite educational differences diminishing双重所有格错/diminishing要放在前头

(C) much below men in spite of diminishing educational differences比较物不对等/despite更简洁

(D) well below those of men in spite of diminishing educational differences（D）

(E) below men’s despite their educational differences that are diminishing比较物不对等/their指代不清/that are diminishing不简洁

In choice A, the pronoun that does not agree in number with its noun, earnings; （代词指代不一致）the phrasing is wordy and does not convey the sense that diminishing the educational differences between the sexes would be expected to narrow the gap in earnings. （？？？） In choice B, that and the possessive men’s are faulty, （双重所有格错/代词指代不一致错） and much below is less idiomatic than well below; （？？？）furthermore, the sentence with B is awkward. Choice C illogically compares the earnings of women to men rather than to the earnings of men. （比较物不对等）In choice E, their seems to refer to earnings, （代词指代错）men’s is not parallel with of women, （不平行）and the phrasing is unclear. Choice D is best for this fairly easy question.

1 much below is less idiomatic than well below;  much below/well below有什么区别吗

2the phrasing is wordy and does not convey the sense that diminishing the educational differences between the sexes would be expected to narrow the gap in earnings. （？？？） 我只读出不简洁 不知OG有讲什么意思 难道用从句和分词修饰 在意义上有什么区别吗

谢谢

rhod

1. 不是很清楚，查了下longman, much 后面好像是用比较级的。much better/greater/easier etc.

2. diminish有及物的用法，educational differences that are diminishing 没有给出宾语，所以不知道educational differences减少了什么东东，但肯定不是educational differences.

paopao

以下是引用rhod在2004-8-5 20:34:00的发言：

2. diminish有及物的用法，educational differences that are diminishing 没有给出宾语，所以不知道educational differences减少了什么东东，但肯定不是educational differences.

rhod,

在郎文上 diminish: to become or make something become smaller or less
ￚsynonym reduceThe party's share of the electorate has diminished steadily.

也就是说diminish可以作为不及物动词

所以education difference are diminishing

但我读OG的解释 感觉不仅仅是不简洁 更主要的是意思有所不同 不知有何不同

谢谢

leeon

我想OG想表达的应该是这个意思：前面的that指代earnings ，那么后面的that也应该指向earnings ，那么后面的搭配就变成了earnings are diminishing，所以造成了句意不同。

分词和从句做定语修饰名词有区别；但是这里diminishing educational differences中的diminishing是形容词，并没有很大的区别。

rt316

我的整理中much好像都是修饰褒义词的，相关的表达还有：well below / much more / far less / far more / far greater等等。这个观点不保证正确，仅作参考。

同样一个困惑我很久的问题，我最终是这样理解的，定从的强调核心是名词difference，而形容词+名词的强调核心是整个名词结构，包括形容词，所以相比于定从，形容词+名词的结构更体现形容词的作用。

rhod

也就是说diminish可以作为不及物动词

所以education difference are diminishing

paopao说的没错，不过我是看到OG的解释里，diminish就是及物的用法，the sense that diminishing the educational differences, 所以才会这么认为的。如果认为是不及物的话，还真不好解释。

paopao

我查了朗文 是及物不及物都可

leeon 的解释不对吧后面的搭配就变成了earnings are diminishing，

leeon

sorry，没有仔细读你的问题；

In choice A, the pronoun that does not agree in number with its noun, earnings这里的that指代earnings，单复数错误；

the phrasing is wordy and does not convey the sense that diminishing the educational differences between the sexes would be expected to narrow the gap in earnings. 原文的意思是要表达逐渐减少男女之间教育背景的差异被给予希望去缩小收入上的差异；把A代入后表达的是：女人的收入远低于男人尽管教育背景的差异，这个差异正逐渐缩小，D说得是女人的收入远低于男人尽管逐渐缩小的教育背景的差异，请原谅我这样翻译，我只想尽量表达出原文的意思，我想ETS所要表达的逻辑关系是逐渐缩小的教育背景的差异(这是一个整体）与男女收入上的差别之间。

定从的强调核心是名词difference，而形容词+名词的强调核心是整个名词结构，包括形容词

这点同意stoneren的说法，这样的话应该可以解释ETS这里所要表达的意思。

paopao

谢谢stoneren leeon rhod

我想你们的解释已经非常完美了 谢谢

leeon

我翻出了OG中关于形容词修饰语位置的两道题，希望能理清ETS的prefer：

OG34:

A report by the American Academy for the Advance­ment of Science has concluded that much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Ameri­cans are exposed comes from the incineration of wastes.

(A)  much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed comes

(B)  much of the currently uncontrolled dioxins that North Americans are exposed to come

(C)  much of the dioxins that are currently uncon­trolled and that North Americans are exposed to comes

(D)  many of the dioxins that are currently uncontrolled and North Americans are exposed to come

(E)   many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come

Choices A, B, and C are flawed because the countable noun dioxins should be modified by many rather than much, which is used with uncountable nouns such as "work" and "happi­ness." In addition, both A and C incorrectly use the singular verb comes with the plural noun dioxins. Choices C and D are needlessly wordy, and D requires that before North Americans, to be grammatically complete. Choice E, the best answer, is both grammatically correct and concise.

OG151：

If Dr. Wade was right, any apparent connection of the eating of highly processed foods and excelling at sports is purely coincidental.

(A)  If Dr. Wade was right, any apparent connection of the eating of

(B)   Should Dr. Wade be right, any apparent connection of eating

(C)  If Dr. Wade is right, any connection that is apparent between eating of

(D)  If Dr. Wade is right, any apparent connection between eating

(E)   Should Dr. Wade have been right, any connec­tion apparent between eating

D, the best choice, deals successfully with four issues. It uses a present indicative verb form in the conditional clause. If Dr. Wade is right, in order to agree with the verb in the main clause, any connection is...coincidental. It uses the idiomatic phrasing connection between x and y. It presents the coordinate objects of the preposition between (eating ... and excelling ...) in parallel form. Finally, the adjective apparent appears in front of its headnoun connection, not after. A, B, and E use incorrect verb forms in the conditional clause. A and B use the unidiomatic connection of x and y. A and C violate parallelism with eating of. C and E incorrectly place apparent after its head­word connection.

从以上两道题我们不难看出，形容词修饰名词的时候，形容词一般总是位于被修饰名词之前，这样的表达依据ETS的说法，就是简洁，清晰，没有歧义；换成其它的表达就会造成修饰对象不清晰（修饰名词中心词如A of B，或者后面有名词变成了修饰后面的名词），表达不简洁的错误。

个人见解，请NN们指点。