蓝皮书上一道语法题

reirayanqing

Some analysts point out that because people are becoming accustomed to a steady inflation rate of four to five percent, businesses found that they could raise prices according to this mount without thereby provoking strong public reaction.

A. found that they could raise prices according to this  amount without thereby provoking
B. found that they were capable of raising prices by this amount and not provoke
C. find that they are capable of raising prices by this amount and not provoke
D. are finding that they can raise prices by this amount without provoking
E. are finding that they can raise prices according to this amount and will not thereby provoke

答案是D，为什么用进行时呢？

flyever98

bc后面那个not provoke肯定不对，不构成平行。a用过去式，原文中没有

时间概念，就剩de比了。。。我是觉得d比e简洁

进行时和前面people are becoming平行，看着工整些

reirayanqing

如果是平行的话，两个句子之间并没有连词啊~

flyever98

businesses found that they could raise prices according to this

mount without thereby provoking strong public reaction.

B. found that they were capable of raising prices by this amount and

not provoke
C. find that they are capable of raising prices by this amount and

not provoke

无论是跟business found还是跟they are/were，not provoke都不行啊。。。

ozymen

过去时FOUND肯定不对，排除AB
capable of doing 不好，排除C
那就只剩下D,E啦。
D和E那当然是D好

modernre

从语法上讲是D正确，但逻辑上很奇怪啊，are finding, 一直在发现？

bradfordchens

a,b verb tense should be consistent with the preceding clause.
C capable of rasing can be expressed more concisely, not provoke cannot work with the subject businesses, do is required here.
E are finding and will not are structrually not parallel. will and thereby are contraditory to some extent.

之所以这里用are finding, 我想这是为了体现结果的意思，business are finding are the direct consequence of customer used to rising inflation rates.