OG 12 76

irenechl

76. Retailers reported moderate gains in their November
sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier
being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head
start on buying their holiday gifts.
(A) of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as
that
(B) of their sales a year earlier having been as bad
as because
(C) of their sales a year earlier being as bad as
because
(D) their sales a year earlier had been so bad as
because
(E) their sales of a year earlier were as bad as that
Rhetorical construction; Parallelism
Th is sentence gives two equally plausible reasons
for the moderate gains retailers reported in
November sales. Th ese two reasons are introduced
with a formula that requires parallel structure:
As much because x as because y. Th e clearest, most
effi cient way to fi ll this formula is to follow
because with clauses with active verbs, thereby
eliminating the wordiness that accompanies
prepositional phrases (because of …) followed by
participial phrases (e.g., being so bad or having
been as bad).
A Th e participial phrase being so bad … is
wordy and awkward; the elements following
because are not parallel.
B Participial phrases make this version of the
sentence wordy and awkward.
C Th is version makes an incorrect comparison
between previous sales and shoppers’
strategies in November; the participial
phrase is wordy and awkward.
D Correct. Th e comparison is clearly
expressed with concise, parallel clauses.
E Th is makes an incorrect comparison
between previous sales and shoppers’
strategies in November.
Th e correct answer is D.

不是很明白C,E选项关于先前销售和店员的策略不恰当的比较。为啥选项D,B没有提到这点。

irenechl

明白。。。谢谢

Gabby308

lz76题之前有帖子里解释的很清楚

OG 的解释是基于 C选项中的 as bas as

但从语法上来说，as bad as 前后是2个比较对象

所以，their sales a year earlier 与 because shopper ....  做了比较

这是不正确的

DayDreamin

楼主你先理解一下句子的原意，句子原本想表达的是Moderate gains的原因主要有两个，而且这两个原因重要性是一样的，于是出题人采用了as much because as because这个结构，如果采用E选项的话意思就变成了一年多前的销售与shopper的strategy一样差，这样逻辑意思根本就是不成立的，个人认为只要了解了这道题句子的原意，以及注意as much because as because的平行结构的运用，这道题就不难了。