改错题 23.Less than 400 Sumatran rhinos survive on the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and they occupy a small fraction of the species' former range.

A、 Less than 400 Sumatran rhinos survive on the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and they occupy a small fraction of the species' former range.
B、 Less than 400 Sumatran rhinos, surviving on the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, occupy a small fraction of the species' former range.
C、 Occupying a small fraction of the species' former range, the Malay peninsula and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo are where fewer than 400 Sumatran rhinos survive.
D、 Occupying a small fraction of the species' former range, fewer than 400 Sumatran rhinos survive on the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
E、 Surviving on the Malay peninsula and on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, less than 400 Sumatran rhinos occupy a small fraction of the species' former range.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】Diction; Logical Predication
Because the number of Sumatran rhinos has been given, the comparative term fewer rather than less should be used to account for their numbers. In order to clarify that habitat currently occupied by the rhinos is but a small fraction of their former range, the information about their dwindling habitat is most efficiently presented in an opening participial phrase describing the rhinos, followed by a main clause in which the number of surviving rhinos is the subject, with the predicate explaining where the rhinos currently live. By presenting the information about the population and range of rhinos in two separate independent clauses, the sentence as written does not clarify that the former range of the rhinos once extended beyond the peninsula and the islands.
A Less is inappropriate for describing the specific number of surviving Sumatran rhinos. The separate independent clauses obscure the fact that the rhinos' range used to extend beyond the peninsula and the two islands. The referent of they is unclear.
B Less is inappropriate for describing the specific number of surviving Sumatran rhinos. By using a nonrestrictive phrase surviving... , the sentence suggests that fewer than 400 rhinos—perhaps only a portion of the total number—occupy a small fraction of the species' former range.
C The opening participial phrase somewhat illogically modifies peninsula and... islands rather than the rhinos.
D Correct. The opening participial phrase correctly modifies fewer than 400... rhinos, a phrase that uses the correct comparative term.
E The comparative term less is inappropriate for describing the number of rhinos.
The correct answer is D.