GMAT考试作为一种非英语考试，对于verbal部分的考查，重点不在词汇和基础英语运用上，而在于对单词、词组、句子、段落等语言现象之间逻辑关系的考查。澳际何老师认为这种逻辑关系不单单体现在阅读部分对文章结构的把握和逻辑部分对推理的分析，在句子改错部分也有所反映：一个长难句中，分句与分句、词组与词组、单词与单词之间的逻辑关系与顺序排列问题是句子改错题目的一个重点。而句子成分的次序问题正是反映了修饰考点的本质：某个修饰成分的存在位置是否合理、句子语序是否正正确。

　　在句中起到修饰作用的成分有不少，如定语从句的修饰，现在分词的修饰，垂悬修饰，形容词、副词、介词短语的修饰等。其中，由于GMAT语法中定语从句修饰的考点与日常英语使用有所不同，很多同学在碰到which、whose等定语从句的修饰问题时常常晕头转向，本文就对定语从句的知识点进行一个简单的梳理。

　　所谓定语从句修饰，从句在句中做定语，修饰一个名词。名词的修饰语通常由如下关系代词引出：

　　WHICH THAT WHO WHOM WHOSE WHERE WHEN

　　在GMAT语法中，为了避免修饰歧义，定语从句往往就近修饰，如：

　　句1.The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale, which can grow to be30 feet long and is famous for its aggressive hunting pods.

　　句中which就近修饰whale。

　　(此处要与日常英语中which 的用法区别开，GMAT语法中Which不能修饰完整的句子。另外，文中所举例句皆出自《GMAT官方指南》，供同学们复习参考。)

　　句1是定语从句最普遍的用法，可是同学们在做题目的时候，也可能会出现以下情况：

　　句2. Emily Dickinson's letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson, which were written over a period beginning a few years before Susan's marriage to Emily's brother and ending shortly before Emily's death in 1886, outnumber her letters to anyone else.

　　在此句中，按照句子逻辑含义，which所修饰的核心词应为letters，但是作为正确选项，本句中which并没有就近修饰。Why?

　　GMAT语法认为，如果定语从句如不能就近修饰，可以跳跃简短成分修饰。简短成分包括分词短语、介词短语或插入语等。

　　此句中的which并不能就近修饰Susan Huntington Dickinson，(修饰人应该用who)，因此跳过介词短语 to Susan Huntington Dickinson修饰letters。

　　除了which不能修饰人以外，在GMAT语法中，对于关系代词的修饰，还有一些限制的情况：

　　A. That 不能修饰人。

　　错误：The scientists that made the discovery work very hard.

　　正确：The scientists who made the discovery work very hard.

　　B. Which 修饰物，见例2。

　　C. Who 与whom修饰人。Who在定语从句中做主语，whom在定语从句中做宾语。

　　句3. Among the objects found in the excavated temple were small terra-cotta effigies left by supplicants who were either asking the goddess Bona Dea's aid in healing physical and mental ills or thanking her for such help.

　　D. 有时which和whom可跟在介词后面。

　　句4. A report by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science has concluded that many of the currently uncontrolled dioxins to which North Americans are exposed come from the incineration of wastes.

　　E. Whose既可以修饰人，也可以修饰物。

　　句5. As rainfall began to decrease in the Southwest about the middle of the twelfth century, most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans whose access to water was less limited.

　　F. 日常英语中，where与in which可以互换。但是在GMAT语法中两者有所区别： where一般修饰具体性地点，如：area、country等，in which一般修饰抽象性地点：如condition、situation、case、 circumstance等

　　句6. Even though Clovis points, spear points with longitudinal grooves chipped onto their faces, have been found all over North America, they are named for the New Mexico site where they were first discovered in 1932.

　　句7. El Nino, the periodic abnormal warming of the sea surface off Peru, is a phenomenon in which changes in the ocean and atmosphere combine to allow the warm water that has accumulated in the western Pacific to flow back to the east.

　　G. When修饰时间，和in which可互换。

　　句8. His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present-day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.

　　举个例子：

　　Visitors to the park have often looked up into the leafy canopy and saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang like socks on a clothesline.

　　(A) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs hang

　　(B) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs were hanging

　　(C) saw monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging

　　(D) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, with arms and legs hanging

　　(E) seen monkeys sleeping on the branches, whose arms and legs have hung

　　许多同学傻傻分不清楚，认为本题中定语从句whose arms and legs hang like socks on a clothesline跳过分词短语sleeping on the branches对monkeys进行修饰。其实，ABE的三个选项中的whose，由于既可修饰物也可修饰人，应就近修饰branches，按照逻辑含义ABE选项皆为错误选项。

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