183.Despite recent increases in sales and cash flow that have propelled automobile companies' common stocks to new highs, several industry analysts expect automakers, in order to conserve cash, to set dividends more conservatively than they were

A. to set dividends more conservatively than they were

B. to set dividends more conservatively than they have been

C. to be more conservative than they have been in setting dividends

D. that they will be more conservative than they were in setting dividends

E. that they will be more conservative than they have been to set dividends

首先注意 expect 后面有 automakers，那么就需要考虑到其习惯用法 expect sb./sth. to do ...  如果没有automakers在后面，那么可以考虑expect that ...，automakers后面不能跟 that they，即使要用定语从句，那也不应该有they -- 排除DE

第二，如果比较级的第一部分用副词，那么修饰的是动词set，than之后句子就不能是联系动词，而是应该用do: to set DIV more conservatively than they have done. -- 排除AB

C: be + adj + in doing something 很顺口吧, e.g. She is very active in posting questions on C D. -- 说的通；

C: 时态也很好 to be 表从现在开始的未来，have been 从过去到现在，时间轴上没有空缺

很清楚，很明白，大NN啊，谢谢！

A和B错的是than前后不对等.

to do...than...be 明显不平行.