manhattan中的一个句子 so as to 求解

jeffcheung

Faced with the recurrence of natural disasters, such as floods and wildfires, many state govern-
ments have imposed significant taxes on their citizens so as to raise funds in advance of the next
calamity. (so as to do) WRONG

这是manhattan中的原话，为什么这里so as to 不对呢？首先，它的确是作目的状语；其次，raise的主语是主句主语many state governments。为什么就不对呢？~~

oovictoroo

“so as to” is an interesting construction.  i don't think that gmac likes it very much -- i've never seen it in an officially correct answer -- but i think the main distinction is that it's used to describe indirect intentions.
for instance, the example above isn't great because you are calling this person directly to invite him, so you should use one of the earlier two versions.

on the other hand, consider the following: Joe bought a gym membership so as to become more attractive to women.
this is what i mean by indirect intention.  obviously, the act of buying a gym membership itself is not going to make joe instantly more attractive to women (women do not swoon over a man's gym membership card).  instead, there are plenty of implied intermediate steps between “by a gym membership” and “be more attractive”; the use of “so as to” implies that there are such intermediate steps in the process.

jeffcheung

谢谢LZ，我从来都不知道so as to是表示indirect intention的~
这句话很受用啊“in general, you don't use so ADJ as to VERB unless the VERB describes some sort of state/condition. i.e., if the verb is an action verb, this construction generally isn't used.”

Prep2008 Q174
Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be indistinguishable at first from ordinary fluctuations in the financial markets.

A.so gradual as to be indistinguishable

B.so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable

C.so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished

D.gradual enough not to be distinguishable(A)

E.gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them

我原来还觉得A不大好，现在看，真是很好了~~~

不过LZ说这个不对”I study so hard that I can get a good grade. “——it probably doesn't make sense, unless getting a good grade is presented as some sort of extreme, unusual achievement.
这样说是不是太严格了？我觉得我们平时碰到的so...that没这么严格的区分，还是很make sense的。

Sunfisher006

你领悟力太赞了~
我后来看到那道"so gradual as to be indistinguishable"时，才发现Ron的解释多么透彻，对那道题的解释基本不能再精妙了~

后面的解释也是对的，这个真的是体现了the appreciation of the intricacies of the English language.
咱non-native speakers体会不到....Ron毕竟做过多年的professional journal editor
这么说吧，如果找个native speaker来读这句话，他/她会这么读：
I study soooooooo harrrd tha Ican getta gugrade.
希望我用以上文字表达清楚了哈，所以就是Ron说的extreme的意思

jeffcheung

many  thanks !