175. Parasitic wasps lay their eggs directly into the eggs of various host insects in exactly the right numbers for any suitable size of host egg. If they laid too many eggs in a host egg, the developing wasp larvae would compete with each other to the death for nutrients and space. If too few eggs were laid, portions of the host egg would decay, killing the wasp larvae. Which of the following conclusions can properly be drawn from the information above? (A) The size of the smallest host egg that a wasp could theoretically parasitize can be determined from the wasp’s egg-laying behavior. (B) Host insects lack any effective defenses against the form of predation practiced by parasitic wasps. (C) Parasitic wasps learn from experience how many eggs to lay into the eggs of different host species. (D) Failure to lay enough eggs would lead to the death of the developing wasp larvae more quickly than would laying too many eggs. (E) Parasitic wasps use visual clues to calculate the size of a host egg.

这个题我知道为什么A对，但为什么A中The size of the smallest host egg 这句，必须是size指明修饰the smallest host egg呢？如果不是smallest 难道就不行了吗？前辈的翻译是但的最小值，但我觉得smallest是用来修饰 egg的，而不是修饰 size的。

语法问题，但的最小size　　VS　　最小但的size　从中文角度有区别么，我看不出，你的语法上对

(A) The size of the smallest host egg that a wasp could theoretically parasitize can be determined from the
wasp’s egg-laying behavior.

楼主MM注意粗体部分。这就是为什么前面用smallest的原因所在。

(A) The size of the smallest host egg that a wasp could theoretically parasitize can be determined from the
wasp’s egg-laying behavior.

楼主注意粗体部分。这就是为什么前面用smallest的原因所在。

谢谢，我想我应该这样理解smallest,它是指数量的多少，而不是指蛋的形状的大小，请问这样理解对吗？

有道理

(A) The size of the smallest host egg that a wasp could theoretically parasitize can be determined from the
wasp’s egg-laying behavior.

楼主MM注意粗体部分。这就是为什么前面用smallest的原因所在。

对，OG解释里说的更直接和准确些，就是能确定能被寄生的host egg的最小值（也就是寄生一个wasp蛋），所以是smallest。{Comparing two host eggs in which parasitic wasps have laid different numbers of eggs, it is theoretically possible laid different numbers of eggs, it is theoretically possible to determine what size of host egg would be required for a single wasp egg. This would be the smallest egg the wasp could parasitized, so A is the best answer.}