Quote Originally Posted by oldboy
I'll start one after another...

Lynn,
As far as I understood in the sentence '...and millions were affected in what the World...' the preposition in connects with millions. Am I right?
Hm, I might not entirely understand your question, but in my mind there is no connection between "millions" and "in." (Remember, "in" = "by" here.) The "in" ("by") is attached to the explanation of what affected the millions (of people). To demonstrate this, imagine the sentence were shorter:

...and millions were affected. (But we don't know what affected the million.)

You would NOT say ...and millions were affected in. You would be left wondering "in what?"

There is no need for "in" until you introduce what was affecting the millions:

...and millions were affected in the poisoning.

I hope this makes sense. I wish I could think of a better explanation. Maybe someone else can add to this.