【问】 《英语练习题》(吉林出版社)有一道练习题：

The majority of damage(are，is) easy to repair. (P. 2)

the majority of damage(不可数名词)的用法是否正确?

【答】 许多英美出版的语法书和惯用法都指出，majority与minority不能与不可数名词连用。

例如： T. Wood 的 Current English Usage(P.161 )说： “Majority may be used only for numberwith countable nouns，not for amount or quantity with mass nouns： The ma jority of the eggswere bad is correct; The majority of the butter was bad is not，Similarly，We cannot speak ofthe majority of the land，the majority of the time，the majority of one's wealth. We must usemost，or the greater part. Oxford English (P. 80)也持有相同的观点：“Majority is not used tomean 'the greater part of an uncountable mass' ，e. g. I was doing most(or the greater part) ofthe cooking(not the majority of the cooking). ”

但是，上面的练习题的原句并不是中国人自编的，而是摘自PEU：

The majority of the damage is easy to repair. (PEU，第429 条)

大部分损害容易修复。

建议按照T. Wood等人的观点来使用the majority of。