要……了 + object

[yonglin]

Edit: Someone got upset for posting this question in Chinese. I'm really crap at about anything that has to do with translating Chinese into English, but I'll make a wholehearted attempt. When I was doing my homework, I discovered that there was a question I didn't get.

世界上哪些城市要推行了这个自行车计划，哪个城市比较成功？

I can understand the first part of this sentence if you cut the 要 or the 了, but I have a hard time understanding it when they are used together in this way.

I have learnt the 要 …… 了 structure, but my grammar book claims that one must put the verb before 了, for instance:

他要回国了。

我们快要开学了。

那些城市都要推行这个自行车计划了。

Hence, I'm still wondering whether this sentence is asking about those cities which already implemented the bicycle plan or those which are planning on implementing it.

Thank you in advance.

[monto]

世界上哪些城市要推行了这个自行车计划，哪个城市比较成功？

The example sounds a little awkward, plus interrogative, made the topic look more complicated. So I would like to change it a little bit, before we go to the point.

世界上哪个城市要推行了这个自行车计划，那(哪)个城市在净化空气方面定会有所收获.

If any city in the world carried out the bicycle plan, the city is sure to achieve something in the aspect of air clearness.

first part of the sencence is an assumption, 要......了 works as "If"

there 要 can also be 要是.

[skylee]

If this thread is to be in English, why is it in 中文角? Why is it not in Grammar and Vocabulary?

The sentence in question is problematic. I would think that it means to ask which city with the "bicycle scheme" is more successful in implementing the scheme. For those cities which are about to introduce the scheme, it won't make sense to ask which of them are more successful, unless the question is not about the success of the scheme, but the overall success of the cities.

Where is the Chinese sentence from? Who wrote it?

[yonglin]

Thanks skylee, I appreciate it. My (Chinese) Chinese teacher wrote it.

It seems most logical to me if you cut the 要 out, because then it's asking about which cities have implemented it (in the past) and in which of those it was successful. It would not surprise me, however, if she was asking both which cities are planning on implementing it, and in which city it has been successful in the past, albeit in the same sentence. (This teacher is not exactly famous for her clear and logical way of posing questions.)

However, if even a native speaker finds the wording of the question confusing, I think I would be justified in making some kind of complaint.

[skylee]

It seems most logical to me if you cut the 要 out, because then it's asking about which cities have implemented it (in the past) and in which of those it was successful.

I agree.

If the teacher wanted to ask 2 questions, perhaps the sentence should be like 世界上哪些城市要推行这个自行车计划？哪个推行了（这个自行车计划）的城市比较成功？

[roddy]

Topic was originally posted in Chinese, so it got moved to the 中文角, then yonglin edited it into English. So now it gets moved back. Nobody was upset at any point, as far as I noticed.