251. The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970’s.

(A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than

(B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than

(C) extinction, their numbers now fivefold what they were

(D) extinction, now with fivefold the numbers they had（A）

(E) extinction, now with numbers five times greater than

A, the best choice, uses a singular pronoun, its, to refer to the singular antecedent The gyrfalcon, and it properly uses the construction its numbers are now... greater than. In B, the construction its numbers are... more is not idiomatic: there are more birds, but not more numbers. Choices C and D use a plural pronoun, their or they, to refer to a grammatically singular antecedent, The gyrfalcon. Choices D and E wrongly use a phrase introduced by now with to modify The gyrfalcon. In both choices, the phrase confusingly seems to parallel with extinction; a new clause with a present tense verb is needed to state what the gyrfalcon’s numbers are now.

看了前面的帖子，都是关于number的。

我的问题是：C、D中的fivefold（adj., adv.）用法是否不正确？

their numbers now fivefold what they were：此处fivefold带宾语what，类似double （what they were）的用法，但是，词典中fivefold不能做verb，所以肯定是错误的。

now with fivefold the numbers they had： fivefold 如果理解成adv.倒也说的过去。

不知大家可赞同？