Question

a number of和a great deal of有何区别？

Answer 1

区别：
　　一,a number of 和a great deal of 在意思上相同,但用法不一样.a number of 后面只能跟可数名词的复数形式,而a great deal of 后面只能跟不可数名词.
例如：A number of accidents always occur on rainy days.雨天常常有许多事故发生.
A number of books are missing from the library.图书馆的一些书不见了.
I spent a great deal of my time on this work.我在这项工作上花了不少时间.
另外,a great deal of 也可说成a good deal of.
例如：She spends a good deal of money on clothes every year.她每年在衣服上花了不少钱.
　　二,你说的a large/good number of 或(large) numbers of 是表示数量众多,意思为“大量的,众多的”
例如：Numbers of people came from all parts of the country to see the exhibition.
许多人从国内来参观这个展览.
　　三,需要引起注意的是,若用the number of ,后面仍需用名词复数,但谓语动词则应用单数.因为这时表示的是数字,而非数量.
例如：The number of books missing from the library is very large.
图书馆遗失的图书数量很大.