新prep209

davidliuscu

209. (T-3-Q7)
In Scotland, the number of wild salmon have been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting, by pollution, and by various other threats to the fish’s habitat.
A.    number of wild salmon have been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting,
B.    number of wild salmon is reduced because deep-sea and coastal netting is not controlled,
C.    numbers of wild salmon has been reduced because of uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting,
D.    wild salmon’s numbers are reduced by deep-sea and coastal netting that is not controlled,  
E.    wild salmon’s numbers have been reduced by uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting,
此题答案E，wild salmon’s numbers为什么这里用复数？

charles1992

salmon是个总称，有很多种类的salmon.

mandybabay

numbers作为核心词，但可以被具体化的几个数倾向不明显

OG-verbal-72. The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with (A) extinction; its numbers are now five-times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970’s. 因为动词是复数，所以可推知numbers是number的复数形式，而不是什么固定用法。

TTGWD9-Q7: In Scotland, the (E) wild salmon’s numbers have been reduced by uncontrolled deep-sea and coastal netting, by pollution, and by various other threats to the fish’s habitat.

另外，一些讨论中说：numbers是复数做“人数，鸟群”讲。Longman字典：Visitor numbers increase in the summer.　游客人数在夏季增加。现代英汉词典：Birds gather in large numbers beside the river.鸟儿一群群地聚在河边。但是显然后面一个例子中in large numbers是做副词用，参见5)。

这一类用法是最难的，还没有找到最有说服力的解释。但是作题的时候，我们可以借用其他方面的线索，排除错误项
(e.g. OG-verbal-72)。

davidliuscu

呵呵，也对，谢谢解答哈。