考博英语改错模拟练习题及答案解析（18）
考博英语考试中有些院校的考博题型中有改错这项，考博英语改错题型需要同学们运用语法、修辞、结构等知识识别短文内的语病并作出改正，很考验考生的语法能力，新东方在线考博频道整理了考博英语改错模拟练习题及答案解析系列文章供考生们参考练习。
There are three main groups of oils: animal, vegetable and mineral. Great numbers of animal oil come from whales, those enormous __1__creatures of the sea which are the largest remaining animals in the world. To protect the whale from the cold of the Arctic seas, nature has provided it with a thick cover of fat called blubber. When the __2__whale is killed, the blubber is stripped off and boiled down, either board the ship or on shore. It produces a great quantity of oil which __3__can be made into food for human consumption. A few other creatures
yield oil, and none so much as the whale. The livers of the cod and __4__the halibut, two kinds of fish, yield nourishing oil.
Both cod liver oil and halibut liver oil are given to sick children and other invalids who need certain vitamins. These oils may be bought at any chemist. Vegetable oil has been known from antiquity. __5__No household can not get on without it, for it is used in cooking. To __6__the ordinary man, one kind of oil may be as important as another.
But when the politician or the engineer refers to oil, one almost always __7__
means mineral oil, the oil that drives tanks, aeroplanes and warships,motor-cars and diesel locomotives; the oil that is used to lubricate all kinds of machineries. This is the oil that has changed the life __8__of the common men. To it we owe the existence of the motor-car, __9__which has replaced the private horse-drawing carriage. __10__
答案及解析:
1.numbers改为quantities
animal oil 是不可数名词，不能用number of 来修饰。可以修饰不可数名词的限定词有：
a bit of，a large amount of，a great deal of，a lot of，plenty of，a large quantity of。
2.cover改为covering
cover和covering虽然都是名词，意思却不一样。前者是“封面，盖子”，后者是“遮盖物，覆盖物”，可以说蓝鲸的脂肪是它防寒的遮盖物，而不能说是“盖子”。
3.board前面加on
board可以作为名词和介词on连用表示“在(船，飞机，车)上”，如：on board the ship 就是“在船上”。
4.and改成but
前后两个分句是转折的关系。
5.chemist改为chemists
文中要表达的是“在药店”，那么应该“介词+名词属格”表示地点。所以应该是at any chemist’s.
6.去掉not
7.one改为he/he or she
代词的先行此是politician和engineer，这是一类通性名词，既可以是男性也可以是女性，这类名词以单数形式表示类指时，通常用相应的阳性代词he，有时也用he or she。
8.machineries改为machinery/machines
machinery是不可数的集体名词，没有复数形式。
9.men改为man或者the(common men)的the去掉
the common man 是类指，既然有定冠词，那么应该用man的单数形式，或者保留复数men而去掉定冠词。
10.horse-drawing改为horse-drawn
“用马拉的车”，draw和carriage是被动关系。
发现很多同学对oil的用法不熟悉，这里再简单说一下吧：
oil 表示油，油脂的时候是不可数的
cod-liver oil 鱼肝油
crude oil 原油
所以第一个改错 great number of oil come from whales 不需要把oil 改为复数的
但是大家可能被第一句 There are three main group of oils:animal, vegetable and mineral 迷惑了，这里的 oil 是可数的，表示不同种类的油,如
Animal and vegetable oils are used in cooking and medicine.