In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing and fungus was growing on the walls.
首先我想问一下非限制性定语从句的which到底应该怎么用,修饰的是前一句的什么,是不是就近修饰?感觉定语从句一直比较模糊,高中时候应付了考试现在把握不准了。 其次是解释C中说的them 似乎指代的是tourists,为啥子,我理解不了。为啥E选项的them就指代的是chambers了。 谢谢高人指点! 6.In late 1997, the chambers inside the pyramid of the Pharaoh Menkaure at Giza were closed to visitors for cleaning and repair (due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing) and fungus was growing on the walls.括号内为下划线部分 (A) due to moisture exhaled by tourists, which raised its humidity to such levels so that salt from the stone was crystallizing (B) due to moisture that tourists had exhaled, thereby raising its humidity to such levels that salt from the stone would crystallize (C) because tourists were exhaling moisture, which had raised the humidity within them to levels such that salt from the stone would crystallize (E) because of moisture that was exhaled by tourists raising the humidity within them to levels so high as to make the salt from the stone crystallize (F) because moisture exhaled by tourists had raised the humidity within them to such levels that salt from the stone was crystallizing
解释 Agreement; Parallelism The plural subject chambers requires plural pronouns. The sentence explains a causal sequence: visitors' breath introduced moisture that caused salt to crystallize, which caused the chambers to be closed for cleaning and repair. The phrase due to makes this causal sequence somewhat ambiguous, seeming to suggest that the repairs were due to humidity from visitors' breath. A Due to is an imprecise expression of the causal connection between the tourists' breath and the closing of the museum for cleaning; the singular pronoun its does not agree with the plural antecedent chambers. B It is not at all clear what the reference is for the pronoun its; fungus was growing should be parallel to salt... was crystallizing (not would crystallize) because it is another effect of the humidity. C The pronoun them seems to refer to tourists, which is nonsensical; the entire construction is awkward and wordy; would crystallize is not parallel to was growing. D Once again, them seems to refer to tourists; the entire construction is awkward, wordy, and ambiguous; crystallize is not parallel to was growing. E Correct. The causal sequence is clear, and them clearly refers to chambers. The correct answer is E.
贴一下我摘录的Ron@Manhattan GMAT说的话 the rules on ambiguous pronouns are NOT absolute.
there are only two ABSOLUTE RULES for pronouns: (1) the pronoun must stand for a noun that is actually PRESENT in the sentence; (2) the pronoun and the noun must MATCH IN TERMS OF SINGULAR/PLURAL.
the other "rules", such as those that govern ambiguity of pronouns,are more like "guidelines" or "suggestions". therefore, you should leave those criteria for last - i.e., until afteryou've narrowed down the choices based on all other criteria that you can find. in general, we've found: the gmat will tolerate pronoun ambiguity when both of the following aresatisfied: 1. the intended referent makes much more sense than do the other possiblereferents, and 2. the intended referent is PARALLEL TO THE PRONOUN, and the other possiblereferents are NOT parallel to the pronoun.