Cite as: 511 U. S. 39 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
the resentencer back to an anterior sentence of imprisonment, not a sentence of probation.
III
Granderson's reading of the § 3565(a) proviso entails such a reference back. The words "original sentence," he contends, refer back to § 3565(a)(2), the prescription immediately preceding the drug-possession proviso: the "other sentence that was available under subchapter A [the general sentencing provisions] at the time of the initial sentencing." The Guidelines sentence of imprisonment authorized by subchapter A was the "original sentence," Granderson argues, for it was the presumptive sentence, the punishment that probation, as a discretionary alternative, replaced. The Guidelines range of imprisonment available at Granderson's initial sentencing for destruction of mail was 0-6 months. Starting at the top of this range, Granderson arrives at two months as the minimum revocation sentence.
A
Granderson's interpretation avoids linguistic anomalies presented by the Government's construction. First, Grand-erson's reading differentiates, as does the proviso, between "the sentence of probation" that the resentencer must revoke and "the original sentence" that determines the duration of the revocation sentence. See supra, at 46. Second, Grand-erson's construction keeps constant the meaning of "sentence" in the phrases "sentence the defendant" and "original sentence." See ibid. While the Government cannot easily explain how multiplying a sentence of probation by one-third can yield a sentence of imprisonment, Granderson's construction encounters no such shoal. See Gordon, 961 F. 2d, at 433 ("one-third of three years probation is one year probation, not one year imprisonment").5
5 The dissent notes that the term "original sentence" has been used in a number of this Court's opinions and in other statutes and rules, in each instance to refer to a sentence actually imposed. See post, at 72-73, and
47
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