[問題] SC 987 NO. 48

[Grace]

48. According to some analysts, whatever its merits, the proposal to tax away all capital gains on short-term investments would, if enacted, have a disastrous effect on Wall Street trading and employment.

(A) its merits, the proposal to tax
(B) its merits may be, the proposal of taxing
(C) its merits as a proposal, taxing
(D) the proposal’s merits, to tax
(E) the proposal’s merits are, taxing

Answer: A

想請教一下為何whatever its merits 可以省略be 動詞?? 這一句應該是屬於subordnate clause 而非插入語, 少了be V就無法構成完整子句了阿...
why be V can be omitted???

[illuna]

我覺得whatever在這邊還是插入句喔...不是附屬子句....

驗證的方法就是你把它的位置換掉並不影響句意喔...請看：

According to some analysts, the proposal, whatever its merits, to tax away all capital gains on short-term investments would, if enacted, have a disastrous effect on Wall Street trading and employment.

接著是我從Macmillan字典裡查來whatever的用法...請注意例句...

whatever---when something does not matter

a. used for saying that what happens or what is true is not important, because it makes no difference to the situation:

例句：Any business, whatever its size, can benefit from a management training program.


若真要我解釋我只能說是慣用吧?要不然就是得去請教老師這邊是怎麼省略的.....

請指教...

[Grace]

Illuna,
感謝您的說明, 我今天上課時再問一下老師為何可以省略be V.
Get back soon~

[agk99]

我覺得是插入句
那麼既是插入句 ，就不見得非是完整句子才行，能夠清楚向前或向後說明清楚就行
這題accoding to..., S + V + O.....是一定要的
插入句再放入就不影響了
所以用排除法看，還是只能選A