对《卫报》里一句话的疑惑

Families in the bottom 10% spend a much higher proportion of their income on food and household costs such as utility bills than the richest 10%, and owing to lower levels of spending do not benefit nearly so much from smaller increases in recreation, clothing, restaurants and other leisure activities caused by the stagnant economy.

请问如何理解“and owing to ...the stagnant economy”？这部分是前一句的原因状语从句还是与前一句并列的？

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分类：难句分析

最佳答案 2017-09-05 10:32

我看了你给的链接。你最后的理解是对的。这个句子没有错误。重新分析如下：

Families in the bottom 10% 主语 spend 谓语1 a much higher proportion of their income 宾语 on food and household costs such as utility bills 方面状语 than the richest 10% 比较状语从句, and并列连词（并列两个谓语） owing to lower levels of spending 谓语2的原因状语 do not benefit 谓语2 nearly so much 程度状语 from smaller increases in recreation, clothing, restaurants and other leisure activities caused by the stagnant economy.来源状语（其中caused过去分词短语是smaller increase的定语）。

这个句子之所以容易让人误解，是owing to介词短语和第二个谓语do not benefit之间应该加一个逗号。有了这个逗号，读者自然会将do not benefit和前面的主语families联系起来。