majority

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 number with countable nouns, not for amount or quantity with mass nouns: The majority of the eggs were bad is correct; The majority of the butter was bad is not, Similarly, we cannot speak of the majority of the land, the majority of the time, the majority of one's wealth. We must use most, or the greater part.” Oxford English(p.80) 也持有相同的观点：“Majority is not used to mean ‘the greater part of an uncountable mass’, e.g. I was doing most (or the greater part) of the 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。

[附注]新版(1995年版)的PEU已删掉了上面的例句并在the majority条中举了下面的例句：

The majority of criminals are non-violent. 大多数罪犯是不使用暴力的。