GMAT语法点：which指代小结

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which指代的三种情况：

1、 紧邻修饰

一般情况下，“名词，which”中的which是就近修饰紧邻的名词的。这种例子多的不胜枚举。
一般例子就不用举了，只举个比较特别例子“A of B, which”（注：这里的of表示从属关系）

The commission proposed that funding for development of the park, which could be open to the public early next year, be obtained through a local bond issue.

Construction of the Roman Colosseum, which was officially known as the Flavian Amphitheater, began in A.D.69, during the reign of Vespasian, and was completed the Colosseum with a one-hundred-day cycle of religious pageants, gladitorial games, and spectacles.

In laboratory rats, a low dose of aspirin usually suffices to block production of thromboxane, a substance that promotes blood clotting, but does not seriously interfere with the production of prostacyclin, which prevents clotting.

The survival of coral colonies, which are composed of innumerable tiny polyps living in a symbiotic relationship with brilliantly colored algae, is being threatened, experts say, not only by pollutants such as agricultural runoff, oil slicks, and trash, but also by dropped anchors, probing divers, and global warming.

In attempting to solve the problems caused by a lowering of the price of oil, oil companies operating in the North Sea have taken a variety of approaches, which include reducing employment, using new technology to pump oil more efficiently from smaller fields, and finding innovative ways to cut the cost of building and operating platforms.

这些例子都能说明从属关系“A of B，which”中的which就近修饰紧邻的名词。

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2、 跳跃修饰

在前有“核心词+介词结构”或者插入语的情况下，which跳跃修饰前面的核心词，不能修饰紧邻的名词。
下面是几个例子：

From the bark of the paper birch tree the Menomini crafted a canoeabout twenty feet long and two feet wide, with small ribs and rails of cedar, which could carry four persons or eight hundred pounds of baggage yet was so light that a person could easily portage it around impeding rapids
这句话的which离其所应该修饰的核心词canoe很远，中间隔了一个插入语，还隔了个介词结构about…，但只要知道核心词是canoe就能一目了然找到which应该指的是什么。这里不能修饰紧邻的名词cedar。

Emily Dickinson's lettersto Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886,outnumber her letters to anyone else.
这句话的which不能修饰其紧邻的名词Susan Huntington Dickinson，必须跳过介词结构to…，修饰核心词letter。

Unlike most other mergersin the utility industry, which have been driven by the need to save money and extend companies’ service areas, the merger of the nation’s leading gas company and leading electric company is intended to create a huge network for marketing the utilities in question as states open their utility markets to competition.
这句话的which不能修饰其紧邻的名词utility industry，必须跳过介词结构in…，修饰核心词merger。

In order to protect English manufacturers of woolen goods against both American and Irish competition, England passed the Woolens Actof 1698, which prohibited the export of woolen cloth beyond a colony's borders.
这里的which不能修饰紧邻的1698，必须跳过介词结构of 1968修饰前面的核心词act。

有人这里会说这不是A of B，which吗？which应该紧邻修饰啊？其实不然，因为of 1968和前面的那些A of B实际上用法不一样，这里是表示时间而不是“从属关系”。这个时间应该归在介词结构一类，所以要跳过。

归纳一下，会发现which之所以要跳过介词结构是因为：其原本应该紧邻所修饰的核心名词，但是因为which的内容太长，而介词结构又很短，所以把which结构后置了。

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3、 特别情况 A and B, which

这个which到底修饰谁呢？是A？是B？还是A and B？
我觉得这里正确修饰方法的原则只有一个：没有歧义。

如果A and B中的B为复数（Bs），which后面动词也是复数，which指代会有歧义，让人不知道which到底指的是什么。
As and Bs, which are (which指Bs? 或 which指As and Bs？)
A and Bs, which are (which指Bs？或 which指A and Bs？)

下面情况没有歧义：
如果A和B都是单数，which后面动词复数，没有歧义，which修饰A and B。
如果B是单数（不管A是单数还是复数），which后面动词也是单数，没有歧义，which修饰B。
如果B是复数（不管A是单数还是复数）则必须要用which together，没有歧义，这时which修饰A and Bs。

举两个例子：
The human nervous system bears a superficial resemblance to a telephone system both because the former carries information in the form of electrical impulses and because all of its neural pathways converge in the brain and spinal cord, which together form a kind of central exchange.

Unlike the shuttle and earlier spacecraft, which were capable of carrying sufficient power in fuel cells and batteries for their short flights, a permanently orbiting space station will have to generate its own electricity.

其实which的指代问题肯定不会只有这些，而且最准确判断which指代的方法是通过句子的逻辑意思，但是在实战中有个别GMAT题目的很难判断本意，所以准备写大方向性的小结还是必要的。

上面是做了很多GMAT改错题后的一些体会，例子都是GMAT原题，还请NN过目指正，希望不会误导众G友。

myice

先占个沙发，慢慢看，呵呵