Decline 用法求助

hzccl

I have a difficulty understanding the usage of the Idiom, "Declined in". Below are two lines from the Manhattan guide. The book however, does not contain any explanation as to why the first sentence is correct and the second wrong.

Here is an example from the Manhattan guide, Sentence correction, 5th edition, Chapter 9(Idiom Strategy), Page 154

Right : Oil declined in price
Wrong : My friend declined in reputation

Although I can say from gut feeling that the Wrong sentence above does sound wrong, I want to understand the exact grammatical rule which makes it wrong. To me both sentences look like they have been similiarly constructed - Oil/My friend DECLINED in Price/Reputation. How are these different from each other?

PS : Please keep your explanation simple, my grammar is not strong, I am more of a gut feeling sentence corrector. I am still learning grammar.

enkyklios

Please refer to this answer

http://forum.chasedream.com/foru ... &fromuid=809886

hzccl

enkyklios 发表于 2013-7-4 17:15
Please refer to this answer

http://forum.chasedream.com/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid= ...

Thanks so much really help