Help, XDF-s8-14 , Can "did" be omitted here?

isuffering

14. Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
(A) that flourished at the same time as the civilizations
(B) that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations
(C) that flourished at the same time those had
(D) flourishing at the same time as those did
(E) flourishing at the same time as those were

B.C.D.E are definetely wrong.

But I think (A) is also wrong.

Let's analyse the stuctrue of the sentence,
  
"Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates."

We got

Subject + Predicate + Object , Objective Complement;

And

Let's analyze the structrue of the Objective Complement,

"the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates."

We got

the site of an ancient civilization +that clause

and

that clause is an Attibutive Subordinate Clause and modifies "an ancient civilization"

and

"that" refers to "an ancient civilization"

Then

Let's analyse that clause only

"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates."

that is

"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as the cicvilizations."

It's a wrong sentence.

It seems that "time"  compares with "the civilizations", but "time" and "the civilizations" are not comparable conceptions.

Since,

比较规则:
主句为单一动词, 比较从句用do, did, does 来代替这一动词.条件是动作后面的宾语或状语进行比较, 且没有歧义.

I think the correct one should be

"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as *did* the cicvilizations."

And Then

When come back to choice, the correct one should be,

"that flourished at the same time as *did* the cicvilizations"

and "did" can't be omitted here.

Looking forward to your discussion.

Thanks in advance.

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-7-15 21:26:32编辑过]

super_lee

我的意见：
the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
做同位语，补充说明the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan。

同位语结构中：the site of 名词1  as  名词2 and 名词3.


"An ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as *did* the cicvilizations."

这样是错误的，as 做连词连接对等成分，as前面只是一个定语从句修饰的名词，后面怎么能变成一个句子呢？

isuffering

super-Lee,

Thank you for the discussion,

but attention

在同位结构中,

"that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates" 作 " an ancient civilization "  的定语从句.

单独把定语从句拿出来分析.
"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates."

即
"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as the civilizations."

Then,

The sentence itself is wrong and should add "did "in the Comparative Subordinate Clause to be correct.  

That is,

"An ancient civilization flourished at the same time as *did* the civilizations."

Come back to choice should be

"that flourished at the same time as *did* the civilizations."

Looking forward to discussion.

Thanks.   

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-7-15 21:23:27编辑过]

tocean0222

For my perspective, "did" sometimes can be omitted without distorting the intended meaning of the sentence,and the sentence here shows an inclination of english to express idears in a manner  usually emloyed by chinese: process sentences through the relationships of meaning among them, since people can understand the orginal sense expressed by the sentence here unambiguously without "did".

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-7-16 1:13:36编辑过]

isuffering

以下是引用tocean0222在2003-7-16 1:12:00的发言：
For my perspective, "did" sometimes can be omitted without distorting the intended meaning of the sentence,and the sentence here shows an inclination of english to express idears in a manner  usually emloyed by chinese: process sentences through the relationships of meaning among them, since people can understand the orginal sense expressed by the sentence here unambiguously without "did".

tocean0222,

Thank you for the discussion,

But "did" can't be omitted here, since it's a Gmat  sentence or  a formal English sentence, right?

Looking forward to your discusion.

Thanks

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-7-16 5:36:49编辑过]

tocean0222

isuffering ,
Not exactly.To avoid the duplication of the same verb in a sentence of comparison, the author usually use  such auxiliary verbs as "do"、"did"、"is"、"were",etc to replace the former verb.Although a compartive structure in which a auxiliary verb is ommited is acceptable in standard english,however, at least seems to me, the structure with such a helping verb is preferable to the one wihtout it. So if there is another grammatically and idiomatically correct choice with "did" in example above, you'd better choose it.

isuffering

I see, we choose not a perfect one but a better one from choices.
Thanks, tocean0222.