改错题 21.Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and thus the leopards are many times as rare as China's giant pandas.

A、 Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined that there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and thus the leopards are many times as rare as
B、 Due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, researchers have determined, making them many times more rare than
C、 There are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild due to poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, researchers have determined, which makes the leopards many times more rare compared to
D、 Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, thus making them many more times as rare as
E、 Researchers have determined that, because of poaching and increased cultivation in their native habitats, there are fewer than 100 Arabian leopards left in the wild, and thus the leopards are many times more rare than

【正确答案】 E

【答案解析】Grammatical construction; Diction
The sentence contains three errors. The adverbial phrase due to... habitats is so positioned as to appear to modify the verb have determined— thus making the possessive adjective their seem, incorrectly, to refer to researchers. The comparison indicated by many times as rare as is intended to indicate that one group is rarer than another, a meaning properly conveyed by a comparative adjective—either rarer or more rare—plus than.
A This fails to give a correct sentence, for the reasons explained.
B This wording is awkward in part because of the placement of researchers have determined. It also contains a subtle error in failing to indicate clearly that the researchers ascertained not only the reduction in the number of leopards but also the causes of this reduction.
C The phrasing is ambiguous and awkward. The reason the remaining leopards are "left in the wild" is surely not due to poaching or increased cultivation; the determinations made by the researchers have surely not made the leopards rarer—and one can assume that the writer of the passage did not intend to state otherwise. Another point: the comparison indicated by more rare would normally be completed by use of than, not compared to.
D The phrase many more times as rare as is not the correct way to indicate that the Arabian leopards are much more rare than giant pandas. Also, the participial phrase making them can be read as an awkwardly placed modifier of the sentence subject researchers, which would convey the nonsensical idea that the researchers made the leopards rarer.
E Correct. This version is the only one that avoids all the errors already described.
The correct answer is E.