Re: From 1982 to 1987 sales of new small boats increased between
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29 Oct 2011, 03:13
From 1982 to 1987 sales of new small boats increased between five and ten percent annually.
(A) From 1982 to 1987 sales of new small boats increased between five and ten percent annually.
(B) Five to ten percent is the annual increase in sales of new small boats in the years 1982 to 1987.
(C) Sales of new small boats have increased annually five and ten percent in the years 1982 to 1987.
(D) Annually an increase of five to ten percent has occurred between 1982 and 1987 in the sales of new small boats.
(E) Occurring from 1982 to 1987 was an annual increase of five and ten percent in the sales of new small boats.
For B
The main stucture is 5-10 percent (subject) is (be) increase (object)
But percent is not an 'increase'. It is a rate of the increase.
So B is out
Note: the present tense of the 'be' is allowed here.
Actually there are two meanings of the phrase 'in the years 1982-1987' as follows:
B1, 'in the years...' is an adverbial
B2, it is an attributive modifying 'the annual increase in sales of new small boats'
In B2, it's not modifying the sentence, but only the noun 'increase', so the tense of the 'be' is not determined by this time frame.
Examples:
#1 10 thousand is the death toll of the earthquake in 2008.
#2 Tutankhamun is the name of a Pharaoh in the ancient Egypt
In #1, 'in 2008' is modifying the earthquake. So 'is' is allowed.
In #2, 'in the ancient Egypt' is also an attributiive modifying 'Pharaoh', so 'is' is allowed in the sentence.
For C
the structure of C is:
Sales (subject) have increased (predicative) annually (adverbial) 5-10% (complement) in the years 1985-1987.
And the complement '5-10%' serves to clarify and expound the verb 'increase', namely how much 'the increase' really is.
But the expression 'in the years 1985-1987' is ambiguous.
C1, in the years 1985-1987 is also an adverbial, and it modifies the whole sentence.
C2, in the years 1985-1987 serves as a attributive modifying '5-10%'
C1 is basically equals A. But 'have increased', the verb in a perfect tense, doesn't match the time frame of 'in the years ...', which suggests the the sentence describes something in the past, not some situation at present.
so case 1 is out
C2 means that the sales have increased annually, without any exception. And the sales increased 5-10% during 1985 -1987.
So C2 is substantially different from what the author wants to say.
C2 is out
So C is out
Note
For D, two major flaws:
1. The tense of the verb 'increase', namely the present perfect, does not match the adverbial 'between the year 1985 and 1987'
2. The meaning is substantially distorted.
Please consider the following sentence,
#3 annually, a burst of bubble occured in the stock market.
In #3 'annually' is an adverbial, and it is not modifying 'a burst of bubble', but its occurrence. And it obvious doesn't th mean 'the burst' lasts the whole year and ever year.
Therefore, for sentence D, we don't know whether the increase lasts the whole year, every year.
we can consider the following situation:
#4 annually, a increase of sales occured; but a decrease soon succeeds.
basically the point is: 'annually, increase occurs' =/= 'annual increase'
So D is out.
For E
E is ambiguous, since it has two meanings:
E1 = A. we consider the phrase 'in the sales of ...' as an adverbial modifier.
E2. Only 5-10 percent in the sales increases annually, leaving the rest of the sales unkown to us.
Here, we regard '5-10% in the sales of new small boats' as a whole. And the expression 'increase of something' means something's increase.
So E is out.
For A
The adverbials 'from 1985 to 1987' and 'annually clearly modify the sentence, namely they show how and when the sales increase. The complement '5-10%' further explains the 'increase'. And there is no obvious ambiguity.
Choose A