: 1.He strongly _____ any gender discrimination in education and at work. : Ans: opposed to : 【疑惑】我查过文法书，似乎没有上面这种写法，只有oppose + N / be opposed to : 请问是题目有问题吗？ He's strongly opposed to any gender discrimination.... OR He strongly opposes any gender discrimination.... : 3.The graduate student had nothing in mind except _____ his thesis. : (A)finishing (B)finish (C)finished (D)to finish : Ans: (D) : 【疑惑】字典上有except + 句子/名词/Ving，但有except to 这种用法吗？ 选(A)是否 : 比较好？ : 非常感谢 ^^" In this case, the answer should be (D). qtd. from Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, 3rd. Ed. Used with a verb You cannot use except immediately in front of a finite verb. You can, however, use it in front of a "to"-infinitive. He demanded nothing of her except to be there. She seldom goes out except to go to Mass. After "do," you can use except in front of an infinitive without "to." There was little I could do except wait. She did nothing except make empty conversation. In your case, since there's no "do" in the sentence, the better choice for you is to pick (D), to finish. * But this is a tricky problem. As one of the Americans posted on the forum, (A) sounds better to their ears. - - - solidorange58 Junior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Asheville, NC Native language: English-United States You're right, in a way. Anybody who speaks english would understand if you said "finishing" instead of "to finish." But, in context of the question only, "finishing" is being used as a progressive verb, like "I'm finishing" or "he's finishing." Therefore, it's TECHNICALLY incorrect because the student isn't necessarily finishing his thesis. We have no idea what he's DOING, we only know what he has in his mind. For all we know, he's knitting sweaters for poor children while this thought is "all he had in his mind". Therefore, to finish is "correct" because it doesn't imply that the student is in the process of finishing the thesis. It's a really specific and confusing rule and, like I said, in regular conversation you could use "finishing" and be completely understood. But for these tests that love to focus on the little obscure grammar rules, it's incorrect. -- 生命的意义不在追求答案，答案只是另一个答案的问题， 生命在於去体会与经历，不管生活在哪里。 ╭╮───╪───╭╮ ＊ fleuve ＊ ╰╯───╪───╰╯ -- ※ 编辑: fleuve 来自: 111.248.3.33 (03/06 17:58)