A recent study shows that the number of middle-aged people dying as a result of being overweight
问题描述：
A recent study shows that the number of middle-aged people dying as a result of being overweight
has doubled in 10 years in Britain不明白为什么不用a number of呢?
答
a number of,the number of 的区别
a number of:指的是"许多",谓语动词用复数
the number of:指的是"什么什么的数量",谓语动词用单数
楼主的题目中谓语动词用了第三人称单数shows.所以用the number of
例子:
A number of soldiers were detached to guard the building.
许多士兵被派去保护这座建筑物.
The number of tigers has reduced abruptly in the last fifty years.
在过去的五十年里,老虎的数目锐减.按你这样说好像翻译不出中文啊？不行你试试可以啊，但是楼主不一定要按照他的意思来直接翻译。英语翻译是很灵活的最近的一项研究表明，死于超重的中年人的数量越来越多