杨鹏GRE难句

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*随机GRE单词:

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目录

[编辑] 导言

读者学习指导:
大原则:以实战的要求为目的。难句子不仅出现在阅读中,还出现在句子填空、逻辑单题中,因此,对难句子的攻克变得相当重要。

  • 原则一:迅速读懂
  • 原则二:利用语法、不靠语法
    • 即在Gre中,考生永远也不需要再考场上分析一句话的语法成分,也不要想这句话有没有语法错误,考生的唯一任务就是现场迅速的读懂文章。然而在初期可以少量的运用语法,目的有二:一为初学者如果看不懂句子得结构,往往会感到心情沮丧,或大脑混乱,根本就读不尽文章,因此引入语法能够给读者以信心;二为运用语法,可以了解文章的语法结构,并最终完全熟悉各种类型的句子,达到一遍就可以读懂句子得效果。
  • 原则三:学练结合,以练为主

训练的类别:

  1. 难句阅读训练
  2. 阅读理解力训练;即“懂”
  3. 阅读速度与阅读习惯训练,即“迅速”。

实际上,对于英语语法得学习,包括对英文单词的中文释意的记忆和对英语句子得中文翻译,都只是我们学习英语的辅助工具;我们最终的目的,是为了提高对英语的实际使用能力。具体到Gre的考试的应用上,就是看到英语句子时,正确的做法不应该是现场分析出其余法结构,再背出每个单词的中文释意,再把这些中文单词串成句子,最后才根据翻译出来的中文来想这句话的意思是什么,而是读到每个单词、每一句话的时候,大脑中的第一反映是其意思而不是中文释意。
同时,对于阅读习惯的培养相当重要,阅读过程中绝对不可以出声浪读,也不可以心读,而是意读,也不能单单得对一个词进行死抠,要知道阅读考的是句子和文章。为此,建议如下:

  • 要点一:在难巨资进行的阅读和训练中,只以在大脑中反映出所读英文的意思(不是中文释意)为唯一目的。什么时候读者发现自己完全消除了在阅读过程中的在大脑中的中文释意和语法分析过程,此要求即达到
    • 四种训练方式:a、意群训练;b、不回视训练;c、合理化原则推力训练;d、速度与理解力的平衡点训练
    • a、 意群训练:以几个相邻的表示同类意思的词为阅读的对象,而不是单个的单词。同时避免发声阅读,克服内心的声音和喉头与嘴唇的颤动,关键是:
  • 要点二:眼睛在阅读材料上移动的速度要比自己在心中或喉头出生阅读的速度要快
    • b、 不回视训练:保证第一遍阅读时的高度注意力,避免回视,关键是:
  • 要点三:在阅读文章时,都要注意整句的回视现象,坚持一遍就都下来
    • c、 合理化训练:根据文章中得上下文的逻辑推理,将不懂得地方进行合理推理。
  • 要点四:凡遇到不懂得地方,就用合理化推理进行推理
    • d、 速度与理解力的平衡点训练:
      • 一、 推出自己的速度与理解力的平衡点;
      • 二、在阅读中根据所读的内容的难度和重要性程度,调整自己的现场阅读速度
  • 要点五:贵在坚持,不可半途而废。

[编辑] 难句概论

GRE阅读,包括数学和逻辑中的一些题干的一大特点,也就是一大难点,就是充斥着一些或很长、或很怪异的句子,我们称之为GRE难句。句子,作为任何阅读文章最基本的阅读单位,其重要性不言而喻。换句话说,句子读不懂,想要读懂文章,有如痴人说梦。可使GRE阅读中的句子之繁难,超出其他所有的英语考试的范畴,其长度更立人瞠目,往往读到句末,已经忘了前面在说些什么,令很多初学者困惑不已,不得不放弃真正读懂文章的想法。
然而,GRE难句绝非不可攻克,只要训练方法得当,并且能更每天半小时左右进行练习,GRE难句完全可以在一个月甚至几周内被攻破,而做到这点,对我们GRE考生的意义是伟大的:第一,所有的长句子之读一遍就懂,避免了反复阅读赵成的时间浪费,可以大大的提高大家的阅读速度;第二,可以顺利地作出机考中的高分题,因为与难句对应的阅读题,包括数学和逻辑中读起来较难的题目,一定对应较高的分值;第三,可以增加阅读文章时的理解力,提高对文章整体的把握能力;第四,可以增加我们的自信心,产生一种阅读中的顺畅的愉快感,使我们在学习GRE中不再沉浸在一种烦躁的情绪之中,真正的与文章的内容和作者的思路打交道。
GRE难句的由来:我们知道,GRE文章都摘自美国的科学杂志或学术论文。我曾经到网上去看过那些东西,往往结构简单,句子流畅,绝不难读。然而经过ETS改编和压缩之后,GRE句子变得句子冗长、结构复杂、信息量大,赵成读者的困难;因此GRE的难句完全是人为的东西。
GRE难句与文章内容的对应关系:我经过长期观察发现,GRE的各种文章中,句子的难度与文章的内容右移种对应关系,也就是文章的内容越简单,句子就越难;如生命科学和自然科学题材的文章,由于其内容较难,细节较多,因此句子较短,较容易,以降低难度;而文学评论和社会科学的文章,引起内容较少,作者态度较为明确,因而难句既多又难;我们很多考生因为无法读懂这些句子,反而认为这两种文章比生物、物理文章更难。因此,对文学评论性文章比较害怕的同学们下一番功夫攻克GRE难句,就显得更为重要了。
GRE难句分析分为四大类:

[编辑] 第一类:复杂修饰成分

句子本不难,但是修饰成分多且长。 1、从句(定语、状语、同位语从句等等); 2、介词短语修饰; 3、分词修饰; 4、不定式修饰。经常是在同一个句子里既有从句又有介词短语,且都不止一个。
例:The methods that a community devises to perpetuate itself come into being to preserve aspects of the cultural legacy that that community perceives as essential.
翻译:一个社会设计出来保存自己的方法得以形成来保持那个社会认为最重要的一些方面。读法:初级:读出主谓宾来。分析:主语:The methods; 谓语:com into being;不定式to引导表示目的状语。高级:直接读,见后。考查能力:考查考生的大脑容量。

[编辑] 第二类 大段的插入与或同位语

大段的插入与或同位语,打断读者的思路,割裂前后之间的语义,造成理解的困难。我们称之为“打岔”。
例:Moreover, I can feel strong emotions in response to objects of art that are interpretations,rather than representations, of reality.(LSAT)
读法:初级:跳过插入语; 高级:直接读;考查能力:大脑容量+抗干扰能力

[编辑] 第三类:倒装

由于应该放在句首的成分太长,因此倒装到句末。也是一种人为现象。例:That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted.
读法:需要经过训练后才能按正常语序读。
正常语序:
That sex ratio which maximizes the number of descendants that an individual will have and hence the sex ratio which maximize the number of gene copies transmitted will be favered。
高级读法:直接读,见后:考查能力:大脑的排序能力

[编辑] 第四类:省略

相对以上三种来讲比较简单,在短句中大家一般都可以看出。但是如果在长句中出现,特别是如果与以上三种之一甚至几种同时出现,也会给同学们带来很大的困难。如上例原句中的省略,在第二个the number of 前省略了"sex ration which maximizes".

[编辑] Gre难句的典型结构

  1. 长成分
    • 长从句做主语、宾语及其他成分
      1. 主语从句
      2. 宾语从句
    • 长状语
    • 层层修饰
    • 并列成分
  2. 常见倒装搭配
    1. 及物动词加介词:固定词组的固定搭配中,经常出现倒装情况,如:bring A to B,写作:bring to B A
      • 例:Yet Waltzer’s argument , however deficient , does point to one of the most serious weaknesses of capitalism-namely , that it brings to predominant positions in a society people who ,no matter how legitimately they have earned their material rewards , often lack those other qualities that evoke affection or admiration.
      • 类似的情况:throw over , insert into , import into , infer from, establish for , advocate as 等
    2. 及物动词加副词
      • 例:make possible …(单词或者句子)
  3. 省略的几种情况
    1. 重复的成分
    2. 让步转折的省略:如although (but)
    3. 定语从句引导词的省略which(that )
    4. 定语从句的引导词和系动词同时省略,变成后置定语
      • 如:qualities(such as “the capacity for hard work”) essential in producing wealth
  4. 短语被分割:如:such as, so that , too to , more than , from A to B , between A and B
  5. 多重否定:如:Despite these vague categories , one should not claim unequivocally that hostility between recognizable classes cannot be legitimately observed .

[编辑] GRE难句训练法:

训练方法:凡读过的GRE文章,凡有读一两遍不懂的句子,摘下或输入电脑:每天花半小时来读,读懂读顺为止;开始越窄越多,直到20句以后,越窄越少,一个月后几乎没有了。这时可以达到高级读法:因为大脑已经熟悉了这4种难句的结构,因此可以预判和自动整理语序,除了太长的插入语之外(3行以上),均可以直接读下来。这里面的道理在于,人的大脑对于语言的处理方式是高度自动化的,一旦大脑熟悉了某种语言的结构,他就会对以这样的结构出现的语句进行自动的处理,哪怕句子是语序到的,你也能在瞬间知道其意思,绝无混乱之感。
最令人头疼的倒装为例,举一个中文的例子,比如“如之奈何”依据,学过古文的同学都知道这实际上是“奈何如之”的倒装,意思是“如何来对付他?”然而读完“如之奈何”再把它恢复成正常语序“奈何如之”,才能理解其含义。这是初学古文的人的做法,真正看古文书的人不会这么读的。因为他天天都读这种语言,早已熟悉了这种结构,不管怎么看,他都知道这是在问怎么办的问题。你要问它为什么是这个意思,语法结构是怎么回事,它还可能真说不明白。
其实语言本身就是为了表达含义的,只要你明白句子的意思,其语法结构不提也罢。我们训练GRE难句,就是要达到上面所谈的这种高级读法的境界,直接读下来(除了3行以上的插入语),就知道句子的意思。当然,这种读法必须以反复的、针对难句的训练为前提。而如果训练成功,ETS所考察你的种种大脑的能力也就通通无效了。GRE学习的一大秘诀,就在于把考场上考察你的难点和需要你花大量时间思考的东西兑换成考场下你的时间和努力。
注意:贵在坚持。GRE学习,当然也包括GRE难句的训练,都好比逆水行舟,不进则退。想要读懂GRE难句,必须坚持每天读,把每一个你摘出来的句子彻底读通,读到这些句子就像是应该这样写、如果是你来写这些句子,你也要写一样。特别提一下,经过我的调查,凡是能够真正坚持用这种方法训练的同学,无一例外的都在数周之内,阅读能力和阅读速度都得到了大幅度的提高,兴奋地来找我,告诉我再没有完全读不懂的文章了。而大多数同学只练了几天就放弃了,实在可惜。其实如果真的能够每天都能认真地读上半小时,一个月之内,必有突破。而克服GRE难句,对于提高大家的逻辑单体、填空能力也至关重要。可以毫不夸张地说,只有克服了GRE难句,你的GRE学习才算真正入了门。
为了节省同学们宝贵的学习时间,我在俞敏洪校长之鼓励下,将GRE NO4-No9 21套题84篇文章及GRE国内题(90-94)14套56篇文章中的所有难句进行了摘录和分类,尽列于此。由于绝大多数同学对需要留下最新10套模考,其句子没有收录,且由于最新题阅读难度下降,其句子收录价值也十分有限。余日夜兼程,完工时惊觉所录难句恰100整。此数暗合Tofel语法之100难句,此天意也?

[编辑] 难句

  1. That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted. (难度系数5,下同)
    • 译文:那种性别比例能在最大程度上增加一个个体所能拥有的后代数量,并因此能在最大程度上增加所传递到后代身上去的基因复制品的数量。
    • 难句类型:倒装、省略
    • a本句的正常语序应当是:That sex ratio which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted will be favored.但是因为主语That sex ratio之后的以which引导的修饰它的定语从句,如果按照以上语序,则有头重脚轻之感。所以原文将此长长的从句倒装成谓语will be favored之后。
    • b在which引导的从句中,有两处省略:第一处在maximize的第一个宾语the number of descendants that an individual will have中, an individual will have是修饰descendants的定语从句,但是,因为descendants在从句中作have的宾语,所以引导词that可以省略。第二处省略是在第二个the number of 之前,省略了与前面一样的成分that sex ratio which maximizes. And hence在此表示后面的成分作为前面“最大化一个个体的后代的数目的”结果。
    • 意群训练:That sex ratio will be favored which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the number of gene copies transmitted.
  2. (This is )A desire to throw over reality a light that never was might give away abruptly to the desire on the part of what we might consider a novelist-scientist to record exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower .(5++)复杂+倒装+省略;
    • (这是一种)照亮现实的欲望,此欲望从来就不会唐突的取代后面的那种欲望,后者是我们可以将其部分的理解为一个兼任小说加和科学家的人想要去准确并具体的记录下一朵花的结构和文理的那种意义上的欲望。
    • 解释:本句子的难度在一切GRE、GMAT包括LSAT考试中所出现的难句中堪称登峰造极,可以确定地讲,类似此句子的难度的语言,在计算机考试的现场绝无可能出现。如果对此句话不感兴趣,可以把其废掉不读。
    • A、 这句话读起来别扭的第一个原因,是因为它根本就不是一个句子。句首省略了this is 。这种用一个词代替一个句子的方式如果在书面语中出现,只能出现在高级英语中,因此我们以前的英语学习中从未遇到过。其形式类似于我们中文的“精彩”是“这句话真是精彩”的省略形式。
    • B、 desire后跟着两个大的修饰成分,一个是to throw over reality a light,其中的a light 是被倒装到了over reality之后,正常应是throw a light over reality.不过这个便装部分与throw距离不远,读者看得还算懂。关键是第二个修饰成分。注意:从that开始直到句尾结束的长长的定语从句不是修饰其前的light的,而是修饰一开始的desire的。
    • C、 第二个修饰成分中又来了一个倒装,由于作者为了强调never,所以将其提前,引发了定语从句中的倒装:正常语序应该是that might never be given away,倒装后系动词was被提前,given因为在情态动词might之后所以变成了原型give。A give way to B,是A让位于B,而A be given way to B, 则是A取代B。on the part of 之后的部分修饰后面的desire,what引导的从句现场阅读时可以看成一个名词。What从句中的不定式to recored exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower中又有一个避免头重脚轻的倒装,正常语序应该是to recored the structure and texture of a flower exactly and concretely。
    • D、 就算能够看懂这句话的结构,可能仍然理解不了意思。本句的意思是,哈代(注:人名老的冲动是一种简单的、说明现实的欲望,新冲动是一种即是小说家又像科学家的仔细研究一个东西的特点那样的欲望(新冲动),前一种欲望是永远也不能取代后者的。
    • 意群训练:(This is )A desire to throw over reality a light that never was might give away abruptly to the desire on the part of what we might consider a novelist-scientist to record exactly and concretely the structure and texture of a flower .
  3. Hardy’s weakness derived from his apparent inability to control the comings and goings of these divergent impulses and from his unwillingness to cultivate and sustain the energetic and risky ones. (3)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、抽象词
    • 译文:哈代的缺陷一方面缘起于他的某种明显的无能,无法控制好那结不尽相同的创作冲动的穿梭往来;另一方面缘起于他不愿意去培养和维持那些富于生机活力和风险性强的创作冲动。
    • 解释:介词from的宾语有两个并列的部分,由and所连接,在and之后的第二个from前,省略了前面一样的谓语动词derive。本句之所以难,有两个原因,一是derived from 后面的成分太长,初学者难以一下子看下来;二是作为一篇文科文章,用词抽象,难以迅速理解。
    • 意群训练:Hardy's weakness derived from his apparent inability to control the comings and goings of these divergent impulses and from his unwillingness to cultivate and sustain the energyetic and risky ones.
  4. Virginia Woolf’s provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics,since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the "poetic" novelist concerned with examining states  of reverie and vision and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness. (5)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、抽象词
    • 译文:弗吉尼亚.伍尔夫(Virginia Woolf)在创作《黛洛维夫人》(Mrs. Dalloway)时有关其创作意图的这番发人深思的陈述,迄今为止一贯为文学评论家们所忽略,因为它突出反映了她诸多文学兴趣中某一方面,而这一方面则与人们对“诗性”小说家(poetic novelist)所形成的传统见解大相径庭。所谓的“诗性”小说家,所关注的是审视想入非非和白日梦幻的诸般状态,并致力于追寻个体意识的通幽曲径。
    • 解释:本句逗号以前只有复杂修饰的长主语有些难,但总的来讲比较好懂,since引导的原因状语从句较难。
    • A、 since之后的it指前面的statement,highlight的宾语an aspect之后有两个修饰成分,一个是of her literary interests, 另一个是以that引导的定语从句that is very different from the traditional picture of the poetic novelist,都是修饰an aspect的。Novelist后面又有由and 连接的两个介词结构concerned with doing 修饰novelist.
    • B、 句中有两处省略,一是在her literary interests that is very different from当中,修饰interests的定语从句中引导词+be that is 一起省略了。第二处在and之后,由于concerned with与前面的concerned with重复,所以concerned被省略。
    • C、 本句另外一个难懂的地方,就是使用了大量的抽象词。这是文学市评论题材的文章的一个特点。
    • Virginia Woolf’s provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics,since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the "poetic" novelist concerned with examining states  of reverie and vision and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness.
  5. As she put it in The Common Reader , “It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote ; and yet , as we read him , we are absorbing morality at every pore .”(5-)
    • 抽象词、抽象词组、比喻
    • 就像她在《致普通读者》一书中所表达的那样,“尽管可以毫无疑问的说,没有任何法律被指定出来,也没有任何高楼大厦被建立起来是因为乔叟说了什么或者写了什么;然而,当我们读它的书的时候,我们身上每一个毛孔都充满了道德”
    • 这句话不但用了词抽象,还用了比喻的修辞手法。是指没有因为乔叟的言论而产生任何实际的行为规则或政治机构,但我们受其影响之深,以及其影响力之大。
    • As she put it in The Common Reader , “It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote ; and yet , as we read him , we are absorbing morality at every pore .”
  6. With the conclusion of a burst activity , the lactic acid level is high in the body fluids , leaving the large animal vulnerable to attack until the acid is reconverted , via oxidative metabolism , by the liver into glucose , which is then sent (in part )back to the muscles for glycogen resynthesis .(4+)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、专有名词
    • 译文:随着爆发出来的运动的结束,再体液中乳酸含量会变得很高,使得大型动物处于容易受到攻击的状态,直到乳酸通过有氧新陈代谢,被肝脏转化成(convert into)葡萄糖,而葡萄糖接下来又会(部分)传送回肌肉中重新合成糖原 。
    • 解释:本句中修饰成分极多,以分词修饰和介词结构修饰为主,作各种类型的状语。前面的状语和主句还好理解,从leaving开始句子变难;leaving引导的直到句末的结构来做整个句子的状语;分词中又包含了三个状语,其中的两个via oxidative metabolism by the liver又起到了插入语的作用,把be converted into拆成两段。
    • 本句的另外一个特征是其中充斥着专有名词。其中的body fluids, oxidative和resynthesis通过字面的意思或者根据词头、词根我们还是应该猜出其意思的,lactic acid, metabolism和muscle这三个词在生物类文章中极其常用,大家应该背下来;而glycogen这种东西则没办法,只能作一个首字母提炼。但是请记住,GRE和GMAT文章中只要出现了这种专有名词,出题者是一定会在文章中把它在文章中所乃至的词义解释清楚的,所以读者遇到文章中做了解释的专有名词,应该力求把解释看懂。
    • 意群训练:With the conclusion of a burst activity , the lactic acid level is high in the body fluids , leaving the large animal vulnerable to attack until the acid is reconverted , via oxidative metabolism , by the liver into glucose , which is then sent (in part )back to the muscles for glycogen resynthesis .
  7. Although Gutman admits that forced separation by sale was frequent,he shows that the slaves’ preference,revealed most clearly on plantations where sale was infrequent,was very much for stable monogamy. (3+)
    • 难句类型:插入语
    • 译文:虽然古特曼承认,由于奴隶买卖而造成的被迫离散甚为频繁,但他还是证明,奴隶的偏爱——在那些奴隶买卖并不频繁的种植园上被最为显著地揭示出来——在很大程度上侧重于稳定的一夫一妻制(monogamy)。
    • 解释:本句中插入语的使用revealed most clearly on plantations where sale wa infrequent, 后半个分句中的主语that slaves' preference与系动词was离得太远,造成阅读的困难。
    • 意群训练:Although Gutman admits that forced separation by sale was frequent,he shows that the slaves’ preference,revealed most clearly on plantations where sale was infrequent,was very much for stable monogamy.
  8. Gutman argues convincingly that the stability of the Black family encouraged the transmission of-and so was crucial in sustaining-the Black heritage of folklore,music,and religious expression from one generation to another,a heritage that slaves were continually fashioning out of their African and American experiences. (4)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 译文:古特曼人令人信服地论辨道,黑人家庭的稳定有助于包括民间传说、音乐、及宗教表达在内的黑人文化遗产一代一代传递下去,因而在维持文化遗产方面也起着至关重要的作用,而对于这种文化遗产,黑奴们不断地从其非洲和美洲的经历中予以丰富发展。
    • 解释:由that引导的宾语从句中,encouraged的宾语the transmission of the Black heritage被同时表示并列和转折的and so 分开,给读者造成了阅读上和理解上的困难。最后一个逗号后面的部分是修饰前面的black heritage的同位语。
    • 意群训练:Gutman argues convincingly that the stability of the Black family encouraged the transmission of-and so was crucial in sustaining-the Black heritage of folklore,music,and religious expression from one generation to another,a heritage that slaves were continually fashioning out of their African and American experiences.
  9. This preference for exogamy, Gutman suggests, may have derived from West African rules governing marriage,which,though they differed from one tribal group to another,all involved some kind of prohibition against unions with close kin. (3+)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 译文:古特曼表示,这种对于外部通婚的偏爱很有可能缘起于西部非洲制约着婚姻的规定,尽管这些规定在一个和另一个部落群体之间不尽相同,但都涉及到某种对近亲联姻(union with close kin)的禁止。
    • 解释:本句有两个插入语,第一个插入语Gutman suggests割裂了主句的主语和谓语。West African rules后跟着两个修饰成分,第一个是分词修饰(governing marriage), 第二个是以which引导的非限定性定语从句,从句中出现了第二个插入语though they differed from one tribal group to another,又割裂了从句引导词与谓语之间的联系。
    • 意群训练:This preference for exogamy,Gutman suggests, may have derived from West African rules governing marriage,which,though they differed from one tribal group to another,all involved some kind of prohibition against unions with close kin.
  10. His thesis works relatively well when applied to discrimination against Blacks in the United States,but his definition of racial prejudice as "racially-based negative prejudgments against a group generally accepted as a race in any given region of ethnic competition," can be interpreted as also including hostility toward such ethnic groups as the Chinese in California and the Jews in medieval Europe. (4+)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 译文:该社会学家的命题当被应用于针对美国黑人的歧视时,相对而言尚能适用,但他对种族偏见所下的定义——即“以种族为基础的、针对某个群体的消级的先入之见,而该群体在任何特定的种族竞争地区则被普遍认作一种族”——可被理解成同样也襄括了针对加利福尼亚州的中国人以及中世纪的犹太人这样一些种族群体的敌视态度。
    • 解释:本句长度惊人,插入部分比较长,再加上不乏抽象词,所以较为难懂,在表示转折的后半个分钟中,长长的插入语as raciallybased negative prejudgments against a group generally accepted as a race in any given region of thnic competition作为主语his definition of racial prejudice的同位语,使分句中的主谓相隔千山万水。除此之外,本句用词抽象,语义难以理解,对读者的词汇功底要求较高。考试现场如无法读懂,宜用合理化原则中的取非读法,but之前的分句说的是其论点对美国黑人的种族歧视是较为管用,转折后的内容就应该说其理论对华人和犹太人相对无用。
    • 意群训练:His thesis works relatively well when applied to discrimination against Blacks in the United States,but his definition of racial prejudice as "racially-based negative prejudgments against a group generally accepted as a race in any given region of ethnic competition," can be interpreted as also including hostility toward such ethnic groups as the Chinese in California and the Jews in medieval Europe.
  11. Such variations in size, shape,chemistry, conduction speed, excitation threshold, and the like as had been demonstrated in nerve cells remained negligible in significance for any possible correlation with the manifold dimensions of mental experience.(5)
    • 难免类型:复杂修饰
    • 译文:类似于这些已经被在神经细胞中证明的在大小、形状、化学过程、产生的速度、兴奋阈值及其类似的方面上所发生变化,当他们被用来与大脑的体验以可能的方式联系起来的时候,他们在重要性上仍然是微不足道的。
    • 解释:即使是初练难免的人其实也很熟悉such thing as something这样的语言方式,可是当中间的小东西thing居然变成了一个长达十二个单词的大东西的时候,实在令人搞不清后面的as及其后的something 到底为哪方神圣。再加上以such as 为中心的长主语距离系动词remain太远,更增加了本句的难度。请读者反复阅读,直到读出这样的感觉:顺序阅读原文时,原文似乎就是几大块,就好像是such things as a remain negligible in a certain sense.
    • 意群训练:Such variations in size, shape, chemistry, conduction speed, excitation threshold, and the like as had been deomnstrated in nerve cells remained negligible in significance for any possible correlation with the manifld dimensions of mental experience.
  12. It was possible to demonstrate by other methods refined structural differences among neuron types ; however , proof was lacking that the quality of the impulse or its condition was influenced by these differences , which seemed instead to influence the developmental patterning of the neural circuits .(5) 有可能通过其他方法来证明神经元种类间的细微的结构差异;可是,这样的证据是缺乏的,即神经冲动的性质或者状态是受这些差异所影响的,而这些差异看起来却能影响神经网络的发育模式。
    • 难免类型:复杂修饰、倒装
    • 解释:与很多人的印象相反,lack从来就不能作形容词,它只有动词或名词的词性。其形容词的形式是lacking,意思是缺乏的、不足的。
    • 本句的在however 之前和之后的两个分句,是两个倒装结构,前一个是小倒装,正常语序是:to demonstrate refined structural differences among neuron types by other methods: however后面是个大倒装,lacking之后的that引导的同位语人名是修饰主语proof的,但是因为它太长,所以为了避免头重脚轻,被放到lacking之后,正常的语序应该是proof that the quality of ..was lacking
    • 意群训练:It was possible to demonstrate by other methods refined structural differences among neuron types; however, proof was lacking that the quality of the impulse or its condition was influenced by these differences, which seemed instead to influence the developmental patterning of the neural circuits.
  13. Although qualitative variance among nerve energies was never rigidly disproved,the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the opposing view,namely,that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as "common currency" throughout the nervous system. (4)
    • 尽管在神经能量上存在着质的不同,这一点从来都没有在严格的意义上被反对过,但是以上教条通常被抛弃掉,而转向相反的观点,即:神经冲动从根本上本质相同,而且被当作“一种普通流”在整个神经系统中传播。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、双重否定
    • 解释:前半个分句中有一个双重否定,was never rigidly disproved,这种表示法用中文说出来还是比较好懂的,原因是我们熟悉中文的这种表示法,但在英文中出现,因为在以前的学习中见得少,所以感觉上很别扭。因此,同学们的任务,就是通过反复阅读此类句子来熟悉这样的英语。其实在英文表达中,很多双重否定与中文表达是一样的,表示肯定;如not unlimited就等于limited。但是值得读者注意的是在GRE和GMAT这两种对考生的逻辑有苛刻要求的考试中,如果这种双重否定中所涉及的概念不是dichotomous(即二分法的词汇,比如上面例子中的limited和unlimited),则双重否定不一定表示肯定;比如本例中的not disprove, 不能理解为agree, 不反对者中,的确有人会同意,但通常心存疑虑,随大流者居多。不但如此,大双重否定中加上限定词以后,在否定的范围上也有所变化,如本句的be never rigidly disproved,没有完全被反对,不能理解为从来都被严格支持的,而应该理解成从来都可能有人支持的。综上所述,对双重否定的句子,简单的把其置换为肯定,不是最精确的理解。而最好的办法,就是通过多读、多练来熟悉其语言表达及其逻辑方式,按照其字面的表达理解成没有完全否定,然后大脑中反应出其目前的生存状态是一个仍未消失的状态;这种理解才是在考试现场既快速又精确的理解。
    • 运用前面所说的用合理化原则中的取非读法,可以很容易的读出作者在后半个分句中想说前面的那种观点被反对了。但是,初学者会对这个分句中的something be abandoned in favor of something else这种语言表达感到突然,如果理解成因为喜后者而抛弃了前者,虽然也能说得通,但是其实原文从来没有这种因果关系,in favor of强调的是这两种动作的同时性;抛弃了前者,而转向后者,namely之后的内容是前面的opposing view的同位语。
    • 意群训练:Although qualitative variance among nerve energies was never rigidly disproved, the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the oppsiting view, namely, that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as "common currency" throught the nervous system
  14. Other experiments revealed slight variations in the size, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as far as psycho neural correlations were concerned, the obvious similarities of these sensory fields to each other seemed much more remarkable than any of the minute differences. (4 -)
    • 尽管其他实验显示在神经细胞的大小、数量、排列和相互连接上有一些小的差异,但是就心理-神经的关系而言,这些感官区域彼此之间的明显的相似性看起来比起微小的差异更为令人注目。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:在前后两个分句之间有一个插入语as far as psychoneural correlations were concerned。在后面的分句中,主语the obvious similarities之后的、修饰主语的成分较长、以至于有很多读者看到相隔很远的more remarkable than时一下子反应不过来是什么比后者更明显。其简化形式应为:similarities seemed more remarkable than differences。
    • 意群训练:Other experiments revealed slight variations in the size, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as far as psychoneural correlations were concerned, the obvious similarities of these sensory fileds to each other seemed much more remarkable than any of the minute differences.
  15. Although some experiments show that,as an object becomes familiar,its internal representation becomes more holistic and the recognition process correspondingly more parallel,the weight of evidence seems to support the serial hypothesis,  at least for objects that are not notably simple and familiar. (4+)
    • 虽然某些实验表明,随着一个物体变得熟悉起来,其内心再现图像亦更具整体感,辨认过程相应地更趋于平行,但证据的砝码似乎在支持序列假设(serial hypothesis),至少是对于那些不甚简单、不甚熟悉的物体来说。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:在Although引导的分句中,谓语shows后面跟着一个长长的宾语从句,从句中先出现一个插入语as an object becomes familiar,之后的内容是由and 连接的两套并列的主谓宾。其实and前后就是两个句子,只不过作者省略了后面的句子中与前面相同的引导词that和谓语become。
    • 句子中有一个生词holistic,其实即使不认识,也能用合理化原则猜出它是后面serial的反义词、parallel的同义词,大约是统一、完整或同时的意思;其实只要能理解到其是与serial相反的意思即可。
    • 意群训练:Although some experiments show that,as an object becomes familiar,its internal representation becomes more holistic and the recognition process correspondingly more parallel,the weight of evidence seems to support the serial hypothesis,  at least for objects that are not notably simple and familiar.
  16. In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement,historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on determining more accurately the status of women in various periods. (3+)
    • 在很大程度上,由于女权主义运动(feminist movement)的缘故,史学家近年来汇聚了大量的注意力,来更为准确地确定妇女在各个历史时期的地位。 Focus A on B;
    • 难句类型:倒装
    • 解释:focus A on B指把A集中于B,本句中介词on的宾语determining/more accurately the status of women invarious periods中有一个小倒装,正常语序应该是determining the status of women in various periods more accurately。
    • 意群训练:In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement, historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on determining more accurately the status of women in various periods.
  17. If one begins by examining why ancients refer to Amazons , it becomes clear that ancient Greek descriptions of such societies were meant not so much to represent observed historical fact –real Amazonian societies – but rather to offer “moral lessons” on the supposed outcome of women’s rule in their own society . (4)
    • 如果我们先研究一下为什么古人会提到亚马逊人,下面的一点就变得清晰了,那就是古希腊对于这种社会的庙睡不是太多的被用来表达观察的历史事实——真正的亚麻逊社会的——而是为了对于妇女在其社会中的统治的预期后果提供一种“道德教导”。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:有两个词汇需要先解释一下:something be meant to represent是use something to mean的被动语态。mean在这里不是常用的"……的意思是"的意思,而是表示做某事所表达的目的、意图,其英文释义为:to serve or intend to convey, show, or indicate。句中的结构为:something be meant not so much to,,, but rather to, 实际上是把be meant to和not rather 的两个固定搭配套在一起,意思是:不是为了...而是为了...
    • 另外,suppose的意思很抽象,不容易理解。此词既有据信、被认为的意思,也有预期的意思,还有表示贬义的假想的被想当然的意思。
    • 本句的supposed用法极其特殊,在此处的意思,用以上任何一个释义来理解居然都可以成立,既是在说一个预期的社会状态,又是在说一个虚构出来的、本来不存在的社会状态,其用法类似于中文中的一语双关,是文章作者自以为文笔精妙之处。
    • 意群训练:If one begins by examining why ancients refer to Amazons, it becomes clear that ancient Greek descriptions of such societies were meant not so much to represent observed historical fact- real Amazonian societies- but rather to offer"moral lessons" on the supposed outcome of women's rule in their own society.
  18. Thus,for instance,it may come as a shock to mathematicians to learn that the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom is not a literally correct description of this atom,but only an approximation to a somewhat more correct equation taking account of spin,magnetic dipole,and relativistic effects;and that this corrected equation is itself only an imperfect approximation to an infinite set of quantum field-theoretical equations. (5)
    • 因此,举例来说,对数学家而言,了解到下述情形可能会令其惊愕不已,即薛定谔(Schrodinger)的氢原子方程式并非是对该原子作出的一种绝然正确的描述,而仅仅是个近似值,趋近于一个在某种程度上更为正确的将自旋、磁性偶极子、以及相对论效应考虑在内的方程式;而这个得以纠正的方程式就其本身而言也只是一个不完美的近似值,趋近于无穷无尽的一整套量子场论方程式。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:读到此句时,数学家不见得震惊,晕倒的考生恐怕不在少数。不但句子结构复杂,而且罗列了大量的专有名词。对于不是理科的同学来讲,在阅读这篇文章的现场清楚地明白应该读到什么程度远比研究这些生僻的专有名词更重要。其实是否知道薛定鄂方程对读者来说并不见得重要,GRE考试的出题者也不见得知道它;关键是要读懂句子的主要意思;数学家不能理解不精确和近似值的伟大意义。不过在本书中,出现的句子均以阅读训练为目的,所以读者仍要把句子的结构读清楚。
    • 主句中的主语it是一个开工主语,其具体的内容应该是从to learn开始一直到句子结束的长达八行的不定式,但是此不定式实在太长,如果放在句首则句子无法平衡。Learn后面带着两个以that引导的宾语从句,中间以分号和and分开,可以把分号以后的句子看成是and it may come as a shock to mathematicians to learn that的省略形式。
    • 意群训练:Thus, for instance, it may come as a shock to mathematiians to learn that the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen atom is not a literally correct description of this atom, but only an approximation to a somewhat more correct equation taking account of spin, magnetic dipole, and relativistic effects; and that this corrected equation is itself only an imperfect approximation to an infinite set of quantum field-theoretical equations.
  19. The physicist rightly dreads precise argument,since an argument that is convincing only if it is precise loses all its force if the assumptions on which it is based are slightly changed,whereas an argument that is convincing though imprecise may well be stable under small perturbations of its underlying assumptions. (5+)
    • 物理学家恐惧于那些精确无误的论据不无道理,因为某种只有在它是精确无误的条件下才令人置信的论据,一旦它赖于建立其上的假设稍有变化,便会失去它一部的作用;而与此相反,一个尽管并不精确无误但却令人置信的论据,在其基本假设(underlying assumption)稍微受干扰的情况下,仍然有可能是站得住脚的。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句在文章中就是一个自然段,虽然长度比不上前面第一章中所举的那个长达10行的例子,但是难度绝不在那句话之下。本句堪称句子的大杂烩,连主句带从句居然一共有八个。从大往小说,由whereas连接了两个大句子,whereas后面的句子中的主语an augument之后又跟了一个定语从句that is convincing though imprecise, 修饰augument。whereas前面共有六个句子,由the physicist作主语的主句;由since引导的原因状语从句,修饰since从句中主语an augument的由that引导的定语从句,此定语从句中的条件状语从句only if it is precise; since从句中的条件状语从句if the assumptions on which it is based are slightly changed,以及修饰此从句中的主语assumptions的定语从句on which it is based一共八个句子,从句套从句,实在令人叹为观止。
    • 然而,在考试现场去数句子的数目,是只有呆子才会干的事,读者们惟一要干的事就是反复阅读这句话,什么时候练到不必去想其语法结构就能按原文顺序读懂,才算初步掌握;再进一步把它读顺,直到你看不出这个句子有什么特别的地方,看上去还挺舒服就算训练成功。
    • 意群训练:The physicist rightly dreads precise argument, since an argument that is convincing only if it is precise loses all its force if the assumptions on which it is based are slightly changed, whereas an argument that is convincing though imprecise may well be stable under small perturbations of its underlying assumptions.
  20. However,as they gained cohesion,the Bluestockings came to regard themselves as a women’s group and to possess a sense of female solidarity lacking in the salonnieres,who remained isolated from one another by the primacy each held in her own salon. (4-)
    • 起初,蓝袜女们确实模仿了法国沙龙女主人,将男性襄括到其小圈子中来。然则,随着她们获得的凝聚力,她们渐趋将自己视作一女性团体,并拥有了一种妇女团结意识,而这种意识在法国沙龙女主人身上则荡然无存,因为她们每个人在其自己的沙龙中自视甚高而彼此孤立隔绝开来。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句读到表示并列的连词and开始变难。and之后的不定式与前面的不定式是并列的,to的前面省略了一个与前面一样的谓语came。 lacking之后的分词作定语修饰a sense of female solidarity其后的由who引导的定语从句又修饰逗号前面的salonnieres此从句中又有一个定语从句that each salonniere held in her own salon修饰其前的primacy,但是由于引导词that在从句中作宾语,因此被省略。
    • 意群训练:However, as they gained cohesion, the Bluestocking came to regard themselves as a women's group and to possess a sense of female solidarity lacking in the salonnieres, who remained isolated from one another by the primacy each held in her own salon.
  21. As my own studies have advanced,I have been increasingly impressed with the functional  similarities between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences that seem,at first glance,to constitute such an immense gulf between them. (5)
    • 随着我的研究不断深入,我对昆虫和脊椎动物群落之间的功能类似性印象愈来愈深刻,而对结构上的差异印象愈发淡漠,虽然这些结构上的差异初看上去似乎构成了二者间一条无法愈越的鸿沟。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:本句子的中间一段impressed with the functional similarites between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences容易令人看晕,其中的insect and vertebrate societies and less so with由两个and连接了三个部分,然而它们其实不是同一层次的并列,第一个and实际上是between insect societies and vertebrate societies的一部分,是并列的,而and之后的less so with其实是对于一个完整的表达方式I have been increasingly less impressed with的省略形式,去掉了与前面重复的成分。
    • 后面修饰的structural differences的定语从句that seem, at first glance, to constitute such an immense gulf between them中,又出现了一个别扭的插入语at first glance,把应该连在一起的seem to 粗暴地分开,令人不熟悉此类难句的人倍感不适。
    • 意群训练:As my own studies have advanced, I have been increasingly impressed with the functional similarities between insect and vertebrate societies and less so with the structural differences that seem, at first glance, to constitute such an immense gulf between them.
  22. Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstances,its authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological,and talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology circumvents much of the fictional enterprise.(4)
    • 虽然小说无疑起源于政治情状,但其作者则是以非意识形态的方式对这些政治情状作出反应的,而将小说和故事主要地当作意识形态的工具来探讨,会在相当程度上阻碍小说事业。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句从句子的结构上来讲,惟一的难度在于and之后的句子的主语talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments ofideology太长,以至于看到谓语circumvent的时候已经搞不清楚主谓了。更大的难度恐怕还在于对两个词汇的理解circumvent和enterprise。我们以前所背过的circumvent有两个词义,一个是规避,一是以计谋战胜,但是这两种意思放到此处都显然不通;其实circumvent有一个我们没有背过的最常用的意思是包围、限制或陷害;至于enterprise常用的意思是企业,这里的指事业。
    • 意群训练:Although fiction assuredly springs from political circumstances,its authors react to those circumstances in ways other than ideological,and talking about novels and stories primarily as instruments of ideology circumvents much of the fictional enterprise.
  23. Is this a defect,or are the authors working out of,or trying to forge,a different kind of aesthetic? (3)
    • 这究竟是一种缺陷呢,还是这些作者想要按照一种与众不同的美学体系进行创作,抑或是在试图创立一种与众不同的美学体系?
    • 难句类型:插入语
    • 解释:本句的句子既短,意思也不难理解,但插入语(or trying to forge)的干扰作用却极强。
    • 意群训练:Is this a defect, or are the authors working out of, or trying to forge, a different kind of aesthetic?
  24. In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomer’s Cane, verges on expressionism or surrealism ; does this technique provide a counterpoint to the prevalent theme that portrays the fate against which Black heroes are pitted , a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression ? (5)
    • 不仅如此,有些黑人小说(比如JT的甘蔗)的风格接近与表现主义和超现实主义;这种技巧是否为流行的主题提供了一个和谐的对应呢?这种主题刻画了黑人注意与之相抗争的命运,这是一个通常用更为自然主义的表现手法所表达的主题。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:在本句中有三个词需要先解释一番:verge on这个词组是接近于、濒于的意思,hero在文学作品中是主人公的意思,pit作动词时,除了挖坑、窖藏之外,还有使竞争、使斗争的意思,其英文释义为:to set as gamecocks into or as if into a pit to fight, to set into opposition or rivalry usually used with against.在此用的是后一种语义的被动语态fate againt which Black heros are pitted.如果用主动语态则是:pit black heros againt fate。
    • 另外本句的结构复杂,分号之后是一个一般疑问句,但是由于修饰成分过多,过长,使得读者看不清楚这个句子在问什么。其实如果没有最后的那个prevalent theme的同位语a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression,本句会易懂得多。
    • 意群训练:In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomer's Cane, verges on expressionism or surrealism; does this technique provide a counterpoint to the prevalent theme that portrays the fate against which Black heroes are pitted, a theme usually conveyed by more naturalistic modes of expression?
  25. Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of novels,bringing to our attention in the process some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. (4)注意:bring A to B ——〉bring to B A
    • 《黑人小说》考察了极为广泛的一系列小说,在此过程中让我们注意到了某些引人入胜但却鲜为人知的作品,如詹姆斯。韦尔登。约翰逊(James Weldon Johnson)的《一个曾经是有色人的自传》(Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man)。
    • 难句类型:倒装
    • 解释:在以bringing开头的作状语的分词中出现了倒装,bring A to B被倒装为bring to B A,其倒装的原因仍是为了避免头重脚轻,正常的语序应该如下:bringing some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man to our attention in the process.
    • 意群训练:Black Fiction surveys a wide variety of novels, bringing to our attention in the process some fascinating and little-known works like James Weldon Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.
  26. Although these molecules allow radiation at visible wavelengths, where most of the energy of sunlight is concentrated,to pass through,they absorb some of the longer-wavelength,  infrared emissions radiated from the Earth’s surface,radiation that would otherwise be transmitted back into space. (4)
    • 虽然这些分子允许可见波长(visible wavelength)的辐射——阳光的绝大部分能量就汇集于此——不受阻挡地穿透,但它们却会吸收某些较长波长(longer-wavelength),亦即从地球表面辐射出的红外发射(infrared emission),这种辐射若不是二氧化碳的缘故就会被重新输送回太空。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、抽象词
    • 解释:前面的分句中有一个不算很长的插入语,但是因为它插入的位置正好在固定搭配allow something to do somthing中间,将allow和to分得很远,所以读起来让人感觉很不舒服。
    • 后面的分句中的最后一行radiation that would otherwise be transmitted back into space是其前面的infrared emissions的同位语。其中的otherwise是副词作状语,表示如果后面的分句所说的they absorb some of the longer-waverlength, infrared emissions不发生时的后果。
    • 意群训练:Although these molecules allow radiation at visible wavelengths, where most of the energy of sunlight is concentrated, to pass through, they absorb some of the longer-wavelength, infrared emissions radiated from the Earth's surface, radiation that would otherwise be transmitted back into space.
  27. The role those anthropologists ascribe to evolution is not of dictating the details of human behavior but one of imposing constraints—ways of feeling,thinking,and acting that  "come naturally" in archetypal situations in any culture. (4)
    • 这些人类学家所归诸于生物进化的作用,不是规定人类行为的种种细节,而是将各种限制强加于人类——即在任何文化的典型情景中都会“自然表露”的情感、思维、以及行动方式。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略
    • 解释:尽管我们很熟悉the role of something的这种表达,但本句中the role of被作者胜利很活。首先,在role后面有一个省略了引导词that的定语从句(因为role在从句中作ascribe的宾语),这样就把role和系动词is隔得很远。其次,but前面的句子的主要结构The role is not of doing something其实是The role is not the role of doing something的省略形式,因为后面的the role与前面的完全重复,如果不把它省略掉,谁看到都要觉得啰嗦。因为同样的道理,but之后的one of imposing constraints实际上是is one role of imposing constraints的省略形式。
    • 意群训练:The role those anthropologists ascribe to evolution is not of dictating  the details of human behavior but one of imposing constraints— ways of feeling, thinking,and acting that  "come naturally" in archetypal situations in any culture.
  28. Which of the following most probably provides an appropriate analogy from human morphology for the “details” versus “constraints” distinction made in the passage in relation to human behavior? (5)
    • 以下哪一个选项最有可能为文章中所谈到的与人类行为有关的“人类行为细节”相对“人类所受限制”之间的差异,从人类形态的角度上提供了一个合适的类比?
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、抽象词
    • 解释:本句子在所有GRE或GMAT阅读题的题干中是最难读懂的题干之一。本句不但结构复杂,而且用词抽象,使得读者如果想根据语义来搞清楚谁修饰谁,也变得极为困难。分析如下:本句的主干是Which of the following provides an analogy for the details versus constraints distinction?. Versus是一个介词,等于against,即体育比赛中的VS。其他的所有成分均是一些修饰成分。其中一个对答题最重要的限制条件是from human morphology, 说明这种类比的比较双方所比的必须是人类形态上的特征。
    • 意群训练:Which of the following most probably provides an appropriate analogy from human morphology for the "details" versus "constraints" distinction made in the passage in relation to human behavior?
  29. A low number of algal cells in the presence of a high number of grazers suggested,but did not prove, that the grazers had removed most of the algae. (3+)
    • 在存在大量食草动物的同时却只有少量的水藻花粉囊,这暗示出——但没能证明——食草动物已吞噬了大部分水藻。
    • 难句类型:插入语
    • 解释:本句主语很长,而且谓语suggested与that引导的宾语从句间被插入语but did not prove隔开,造成阅读障碍。当suggest与but did not prove连在一起使用的时候,其意思不是建议,而是指一种基于主观臆测的推理,中文翻译成“暗示”。其英文释义为:to call to mind by though or association the explosion suggested sabotage。GRE、GMAT及LSAT文章中,常用suggest,but do not prove来描述一种没有真凭实据、可能有问题的理论,然后在后面的叙述中把它否定掉。
    • 意群训练:A low number of algal cells in the presence of a high number of grazers suggested,but did not prove, that the grazers had removed most of the algae.
  30. Perhaps the fact many of these first studies considered only algae of a size that could be collected in a net (net phytoplankton), a practice that overlooked the smaller phytoplankton (nannoplankton) that we now know grazers are most likely to feed on , led to a de-emphasis of the role of grazers in subsequent research. (5)
    • 可能这样一个事实,那就是很多这样的最初的研究只是考虑了那些能够用网捞起来的大小的水藻,这样一个忽视了更小的浮游生物(而这些浮游生物我们现在知道是捕食者主要的食物)的做法,导致了在接下来的研究中对于捕食者的作用的贬低。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:句子的结构繁杂。句子的主语令人吃惊地长,在最后一个逗号后的led以前,全是主语!其实句子的主干简单,就是the fact led to a de-emphasis of the role of grazers。但是本句的主语the fact后面的修饰成分长得吓人,先是个定语从句;定语从句中又套了一个定语从句。然后逗号后面的a practice引导的部分是前面的主语的同位语兼任插入语,practice后面的修饰它的一大堆东西又是定语从句套着定语从句。本句是典型的层层修饰结构。
    • 意群训练:Perhaps the fact that many of these first studies considered only algae of a size that could be collected in a net(net phytoplankton), a pratice that overlooked the smaller that we now know grazers are most likely to feed on, led to a de-emphasis of the role of grazers in subsequent research.
  31. Studies by Hargrave and Geen estimated natural community grazing rates by measuring feeding rates of individual zooplankton species in the laboratory and then computing community grazing rates for field conditions using the known population density of grazers. (5)
    • 由哈格雷夫(Hargrave)和吉恩(Geen)所进行的研究,对自然条件下的群落捕食速率进行了估计,其手段是通过测量出实验室内单独的浮游动物种类的捕食速率,然后利用已知的食草动物种群密度,计算出实地状况下的群落捕食速率。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句对阅读者的阅读能力提出了更高的要求,不但要求读者读清楚句子的复杂的结构,而且对读者的词汇能力也提出了更高的要求。
    • By以前结构无需解释,by以后有两个作介词宾语短语的动名词结构,measuring和后面表示并列和顺接的and then之后的computing,说的是计算方法;前一个measuring说的是先算出实验室中浮游动物品种的单位捕食速率,后面的computing前其实省略了一个by,而且在这个动名词结构中还包括一个分词结构using the known population density of grazers,用已知的捕食者的种群密度计算出其野外的群体捕食速率。整个的by以后的计算过程简单了就是:实验室单位速率×野外密度=野外群体速率
    • 另外本句中的词汇也颇有迷惑性;虽然没有太难的单词,但是很多单词都是同义词和反义词,容易让人读混;(斜线分隔同义词,冒号分隔反义词)
    • estimate/measure/compute; feeding rates/grazing rates; zooplankton/grazers; natureal/field; laboratory community; individuall
    • 意群训练:Studies by Hargrave and Geen estimated natural community graz-ing rates by measuring feeding rates of individual zooplankton species in the laboratory and then computing community grazing rates for field conditions using the known population density of grazers.
  32. In the periods of peak zooplankton abundance,that is,in the late spring and in the summer,  Haney recorded maximum daily community grazing rates,for nutrient-poor lakes and bog lakes,respectively,of 6.6 percent and 114 percent of daily phytoplankton production. (3+)
    • 在浮游动物数量激增的高峰期,亦即在春季后期以及夏季,哈尼记录了最大程度上的每日群落食草比率,对于营养物不充足的湖和沼泽湖而言,分别为每日浮游植物繁殖量的6.6%和114%.
    • 难句类型:插入语
    • 解释:句中有两组插入语,每组两个插入语,尤其是第二组,把rate of从中间劈开。不过因为句义尚好理解,所以本句只是有一点别扭,但不算太难。
    • 意群训练:In the periods of  peak zooplankton abundance,that is,in the late spring and in the summer,Haney recorded maximum daily community grazing rates,for nutrient-poor lakes and bog lakes,respectively,of 6.6 percent and 114 percent of daily phytoplankton production.
  33. The hydrologic cycle,a major topic in this science,is the complete cycle of phenomena through which water passes,beginning as atmospheric water vapor,passing into liquid and solid form as precipitation,thence along and into the ground surface,and finally again returning to the form of atmospheric water vapor by means of evaporation and transpiration. (4)
    • 水文循环(hydrologic cycle),作为该学科中的一个主要课题,指的是水所经过的诸现象的整个循环过程,开始时是作为大气中的水蒸气,转而作为雨、雪、露、雹一类的降水量经过液体和固体形态,由此而沿着地层表面分布或进入地层表面,最终通过蒸发和散发作用再度回复到大气水蒸气的形态。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 水文循环(hydrologic cycle),作为该学科中的一个主要课题,指的是水所经过的诸现象的整个循环过程,开始时是作为大气中的水蒸气,转而作为雨、雪、露、雹一类的降水量经过液体和固体形态,由此而沿着地层表面分布或进入地层表面,最终通过蒸发和散发作用再度回复到大气水蒸气的形态。
    • 解释:beginning开始的一系列分词都是修饰主语The hydrologic cycle的,分别是beginning/passing/passing/returning。值得注意的是,thence along and into the grund surfacee 是thence passing along and entering into the ground surfacee的省略形式,但是看上去意思却很清楚。类似这样的省略,是出题者合理地利用了省略来达到改编学术论文时压缩文章篇幅的目的。
    • 意群训练:The hydrologic cycle,a major topic in this science,is the complete cycle of phenomena through which water passes,beginning as atmospheric water vapor,passing into liquid and solid form as precipitation,thence along and into the ground surface,and finally again returning to the form of atmospheric water vapor by means of evaporation and transpiration.
  34. Only when a system possesses natural or artificial boundaries that associate the water within it the hydrologic cycle may the entire system properly be termed hydrogeologic.(4)
    • 只有当一个系统拥有自然的或人工形成的边界来把边界中的水与水文循环联系起来的时候,才有可能把整个的系统恰当的成为与水文地质学有关。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装
    • 解释:only放在句首时,主句的情态动词may倒装,这是我们高中就已经学过的东西。然而句首的only与倒装的may距离如此之远,这在以前却没有见过,所以读上去让人不习惯。另外一个难点在于,前面的由when所引导的时间状语从句中,宾语boundaries后面跟了一个定语从句,that associate the water within it with the hydrologic cycle,而且从句中的associate with又被water within it所分开,读者还要分神去考虑it所指的是什么,所以读到后面倒装的may的时候,难免不知所云。
    • 意群训练:Only when a system possesses natural or artificial boundaries that associate the water within it with the hydrologic cycle may the entire system properly be termed hydrogeologic.
  35. The historian Frederick J. Turner wrote in the 1890’s that the agrarian discontent that had been developing steadily in the United States since about 1870 had been precipitated by the  closing of the internal frontier——that is,the depletion of available new land needed for further expansion of the American farming system. (4)
    • 史学家弗雷德里克.杰.特纳(Frederick J.Turner)于十九世纪九十年代著述道,美国约自18世纪70年代以来一直在持续不断发展的农民不满,由于国内边远地区(internal frontier)的封闭而更趋加剧——亦即是说,美国农业系统进一步扩展所必需的可资利用的新土地几近耗竭。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:典型的句子套句子。主句是F.J.T. wrote that,宾语从句中主干是the agrarian discontent had been precipitated by the closing of the internal frontier,在从句的主语the agrarian discontent后面又来了一个定语从句。
    • 意群训练:The historian Frederick J. Turner wrote in the 1890’s that the agrarian discontent that had been developing steadily in the United States  since about 1870 had been precipitated by the  closing of the internal frontier——that is,the depletion of available new land needed for further expansion of the American farming system.
  36. In the early 1950’s,historians who studied preindustrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began, for the first time in large numbers,to  investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite:the kings,generals,judges,nobles,bishops,and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books. (4)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 译文:二十世纪五十年代早期,研究前工业化时代欧洲(此处我们可将其界定为约自1300年至1800年这一时期的欧洲)的史学家,首次以众多的人数(杨鹏的书中:第一次以大量的数据),开始调查前工业化时代欧洲人口中的大多数,而非那些构成了政治与社会精英阶层的百分之二或三的人口,即国王、将军、法官、贵族、主教、以及地方上的达官显贵,而正是这部分人一直到那时为止普遍充斥于史学著作。
    • 解释:句子中有两个插入语,一个是跟在preindustrial Europe之后的which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800,这个插入语的直接作用是解释前面的preindustrial Europe的年代,而起到的客观作用则是把主句中的主语和谓语分割得很远;第二个插入语是在began,for the first time in large numbers, to investingate中间,把一个好好的began to斩为两段。
    • 这句话另外一个难以理解的地方是more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent,表示的是在工业化以前的欧洲人口中超过了那2%到3%的人,亦即占97%到98%的人民群众。
    • 意群训练:In the early 1950’s,historians who studied preindustrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began, for the first time in large numbers,to  investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite:the kings,generals,judges,nobles,bishops,and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books.
  37. Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups (these attitudes include,but are not  confined to,attitudes toward crime and the law)and have revealed how the authorities administered justice. (3+
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 译文:象勒罗伊。拉迪里(Le Roy Ladurie)一类的史学家利用这些文献史料从中挖掘出某些个案史(case history)来,阐明了不同社会群体的态度(这些态度包括,但并非局限于,对犯罪和法律的态度),并揭示出当局是如何执行审判的。
    • 解释:逗号以后的内容都是修饰逗号以前的case history的。在which引导的非限定性定语从句中有一个插入语(these attitudees includee, but are not confined to, attitudees toward crime and the law),我们可以看到这个插入语中又套了一个插入语but not confined to。
    • 意群训练:Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups (these attitudes include,but are not  confined to,attitudes toward crime and the law)and have revealed how the authorities administered justice.
  38. It can be inferred from the passage that a historian who wished to compare crime rates per thousand in a European city in one decade of the fifteenth century with crime rates in another decade of that century would probably be most aided by better information about which of the following? (5)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 译文:从文章中可以推断出来,一个希望比较十五世纪以前一个十年的某个欧洲城市中的每千人的犯罪率与另外一个十年中的犯罪率的历史学家将会被以下那种信息的提高所最好的帮助?
    • 解释:句首的it是形式主语,其具体内容是从that开始到句子结束的全部内容。That从句中,主语a historyian之后修饰它的超长的定语从句是这个句子难以读懂的原因。Compare crime rates with crime rates中间被修饰第一个crime rates的两个修饰成分perthousand in a European city in one decade of the fifteenth century分隔得很远。在with之后的第二个crime rates后面,省略了与前面重复的per thousand in a European city。
    • 意群训练:It can be inferred from the passage that a historian who wished to compare crime rates per thousand in a European city in one decade of the fifteenth century with crime rates in another decade of that century would probably be most aided by better information about which of the following?
  39. My point is that its central consciousness—its profound understanding of class and gender  as shaping influences on people’s lives—owes much to that earlier literary heritage,a heritage that,in general,has not been sufficiently valued by most contemporary literary critics. (4)
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 译文:我的论点是,其作品的中心意识——它将阶级和性别作为人们生活的决定性影响而作出的深邃理解——在很大程度上借鉴了那个早期的文学遗产,而这一遗产就总体而言还尚未获得大多数当代文学评论家的足够重视。
    • 解释:宾语从句中的主语和谓语被长插入语分开,造成阅读障碍。插入语中有一个固定搭配understanding of A as B,是把A理解成B的意思。不过本句中as的宾语不容易理解:shaping influences on people’s lives可以理解成“形成了对人们生活的影响”也可以理解成“对人们生活的塑造性(决定性)影响”。当然后面的理解是正确的,然而在阅读现场想要在瞬间做出正确判断,还有赖于考生的阅读理解力和词汇功底的深浅。插入语后面还有一个固定搭配:A owes much to B,指前者有很多东西是来自于后者,得益于后者的。
    • 意群训练:My point is that its central consciousness—its profound understanding of class and gender  as shaping influences on people’s lives—owes much to that earlier literary heritage,a heritage that,in general,has not been sufficiently valued by most contemporary literary critics.
  40. Even the requirement that biomaterials processed from these materials be nontoxic to host tissue can be met by techniques derived from studying the reactions of tissue cultures to biomaterials or from short-term implants.(5)
    • 即使是这样的要求,即从这些材料中加工出来的生物材料应该对受移植者的组织无害,也能够通过从研究组织培养对生物材料的反应而来的,或从研究短期移植而来的技术来满足。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、专有名词、固定搭配
    • 解释:主语the requirement后面带着一个长长的修饰主语的同位语;由于requirement的同位语中要求使用虚拟语气,所以其中的系动词成了原型(should be省略了should)。如此之长的修饰成分过后,谓语can be met与主语的关系已经很难理清了。从by开始的状语结构更为复杂;修饰techniques的后置的定语derived from studying the reactions of tissure cultures to biomaterials or derived from studying short-term implants实际上是由or所连接的两个固定搭配the reactions of tissure cultures to biomaterials;第二个derive from中还套了另外一个固定搭配the reactions of tissure cultures to biomaterials;第二个derive from则干脆把derive给省略了。此外,本句的专有名词奇多,这使得阅读的难度非常高。
    • 意群训练:Even the requirement that biomaterials processed from these materials be nontoxic to host tissue can be met by techniques derived from studying the reactions of tissue cultures to biomaterials or from short-term implants.
  41. But achieving necessary matches in physical properties across interfaces between living and  nonliving matter requires knowledge of which molecules control the bonding of cells to each other—an area that we have not yet explored thoroughly. (4)
    • 但是,要想沿着原生和非原生物质之间的界面获取生理特性的必要匹配,需要某种知识,即什么样的分子控制着细胞彼此间的结合——而对这一领域,我们尚未进行充分的探索。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句这样的复杂修饰和插入语的作用差不多;主语achieving necessary matches之后的修饰成分in physical properties across interfaces between living and nonliving matter把主语和谓语requires分开。值得注意的是修饰宾主的of which molecules 中的which在此不是定语从句的引导词,而是一个形容词,意思是哪个。
    • 意群训练:But achieving necessary matches in physical properties across interfaces between living and  nonliving matter requires knowledge of which molecules control the bonding of cells to each other—an area that we have not yet explored thoroughly.
  42. Islamic law is a phenomenon so different from all other forms of law—notwithstanding,of course,a considerable and inevitable number of coincidences with one or the other of them as far as subject matter and positive enactments are concerned—that its study is indispensable in order to appreciate adequately the full range of possible legal phenomena. (5)
    • 伊斯兰法是一种如此不同于所有其它法律形式的现象——毋庸置疑,尽管就其主要内容和有积极意义的法规而言,与其它法律形式中的这种或那种形式存在着相当数量的且不可避免的巧合相似之处——以致于对它进行研究便显得不可或缺,以便充分理解有可能存在的法律现象的全部范围。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:这是一个被GRE考生尊称为No.题三大难文章之一的伊斯兰法中的臭名昭著的句子。本句插入语前后都不难,关键是如何对待这段插入语。
    • 首先,插入语很长,在原文中有四行。笔者在前面不只一次提醒读者,三行心目的插入语必须跳过,看懂前后的内容再回头来看插入语。插入语难懂的第一个原因是其中混有大量的抽象词和法律术语;还有一个重要原因,那就是它其实不是一个完整的句子。把插入语中所有的修饰成分扒光,只剩下一个单词:coinsidences,而主语和谓语it has则被作者省略。
    • 不管从哪个角度上来看,这句话中的那个插入语都极像是ETS布下的一个陷阱:首先,插入语的内容对理解文章毫无作用;其次,考试中对插入语也出题;第三,其实这句话中的插入语根本不必读。也可以根据插入语前后的内容用合理化原则的取非读法猜出其意思。插入语前后的内容是伊斯兰法与其他法律不同,插入部分以notwithstanding开关,又有of course,可见插入部分一定是让步证据,因此可以对前后的内容取非,猜出插入部分一定是在说伊斯兰法与其他法律有相同之处。
    • 句末的in order to appreciate adequately the full range of possible legal phenomena中,包含一个倒装;正常语序的appreciate the full range of possible legal phenomena adequately中的副词adequately被提到appreciate的宾语之前。
    • Islamic law is a phenomenon so different from all other forms of law-notwithstanding, of course, a considerable and inevitable number of coincidences with one or the other of them as far as subject matter and positive enactment are concerned-that its study is indispensable in order to appreciate adequately the full range of possible legal phenomena.
  43. (Both Jewish law and canon law are more uniform than Islamic law.)Though historically there is a discernible break between Jewish law of the sovereign state of ancient Israel and of the Diaspora (the dispersion of Jewish people after the conquest of Israel), the spirit of the legal matter in later parts of the Old Testament is very close to that of the Talmud, one of the primary codifications of Jewish law in the Diaspora. (5)
    • 尽管从历史角度来看,在古代以色列作为独立主权国家的犹太教法与大流散时期(Diaspora,即以色列被征服后古代犹太人被巴比伦人逐出故土)的犹太教法之间存在着一个明晰可辨的断裂,然则,《旧约全书》(Old Testament)后半部分中法律内容的精神与《犹太教法典》(Talmud)极为一脉相承,而所谓的《犹太教法典》,是指大流散时期犹太教法的主要典籍辑录之一。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略、专有名词
    • 解释:本句与上一句同来自于同一篇文章,本文的主题是伊斯兰法,但作者反复用犹太法来吓唬读者,同样ETS也未就此句话出题。
    • 这句话难读是因为两个原因:第一、作者在between Jewish law of the sovereign state of ancient Israel and of the Diaspora一句中的and之后省略了Jewish law,使人看到of the Diaspora ancient Israel and of the Diaspora一句中的and之后省略了jewish law,使人看到of the Diaspora时搞不清楚在什么与什么之间;第二个难懂的原因,是文中出现了大量的专有名词、法律术语和历史背景。其实读者除了Israel 和Jewish两个单词有必要也有可能认识之外,其他单词既不需要了解也无法了解,像什么Diaspora(大流散时期)、Old Testament(旧约全书)、Talmud(犹太教法典)等奇怪名词,在非宗教国家的考生的大脑中,一点概念都没有,更不要说其英语的表达了。那么ETS的出题者在阅读文章中搞出这种东西来,不是有意违背公平出题原则之嫌了吗?
    • 其实出题者也并没有要求读者把这些内容搞清,只需知道前面那句话是一个判断句,说犹太法和伊斯兰法一致,后面这句话是对上面一句话的解释,因此肯定也在说它一致。再看第二句话的结构,上来就是一个用though表示的让步语气,我们可以看出在一个break between,那么逗号后就应该是省略了but的转折语气,该说没有break between,果然我们看到了very close to 的字样。我们也知道,既有让步又有转折时,作者强调转折之后的内容。所以这句话仍是在说犹太法一致。
    • 043 Both Jewish law and canon law are more uniform than Islamic law(这是作者加的便于理解的话). Though historically there is a discernible break between Jewish law of the sovereign state of ancient Israel and of the Diaspora(the dispersion of Jewish people after the conquest of Israel), the spirit of the legal matter in later parts of the Old Testament is very close to that of the Talmud, one of the primary codifications of Jewish law in the Diaspora.
  44. Islam,on the other hand,represented a radical breakaway from the Arab paganism that preceded it;Islamic law is the result of an examination, from a religious angle,(examination)of legal subject matter that was far from uniform,comprising as it did the various components of the laws of pre-Islamic Arabia and numerous legal elements taken over from the non-Arab peoples of the conquered territories. (4)
    • 另一方面,伊斯兰教则代表着与此前存在的阿拉伯异教(Arab paganism)的一种根本上的决裂;伊斯兰法是从宗教的角度,对各种杂乱无章、绝无共同点的法律内容进行考察所致的结果,而这些法律内容实际上是由前伊斯兰阿拉伯国家(Pre-Islamic Arabia)法律的不尽相同的组成部分以及由从被征服的土地上非阿拉伯民族借鉴过来的无数法律因素所构成。 (as it did )实际上是一句插入语。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:这句话是接着上面的那句话写下来的,是在说伊斯兰法的不一致。句中有三个插入语,都起到了一定的干扰作用。第一个是on the other hand,隔开了主语和谓语。第二个是from a religious angle,分开了examination of ,第三个as it did, 根本就是句废话,分断了动词comprise 和动词的宾语the various components。
    • 意群训练:Islam, on the other hand, represented a radical breakaway from the Arab paganism that preceded it; Islamic law is the result of an examination, from a religious angle, of legal subject matter that was far from uniform, comprising as it did the various components of the laws of pre-Islamic Arabia and numberous legal elements taken over from the non-Arab peoples of the conquered territories.
  45. One such novel idea is that (idea) of inserting into the chromosomes of plants discrete genes that are not a part of the plants’ natural constitution:specifically,the idea of inserting into  nonleguminous plants the genes,if they can be identified and isolated,that fit the leguminous plants to be hosts for nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Hence,(there is ) the intensified research on legumes. (5),此句最好能够熟读,更好的是背诵下来。(复杂修饰+插入+省略+倒装)
    • 这其中的一个新颖思想就是,在植物的染色体(chromosome)内注入并非是该植物自然构造一个部分的那些不相关联的因基:具体而言,这一思想是,在非豆科植物内注入这样一些基因,倘若这些基因可被辨识出来并被分离开来,而这些基因业已使豆科植物宜于充当那些具备固氮作用的细菌的寄主。由此,对豆科植物的研究日趋深入。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装、省略
    • 解释:本句的难度以倒装为主,复杂为辅;然而二者相互借力,难度更大,而且本句中有两个省略,就更令读者头痛。
    • 句子一开始的One such novel idea is that of 之中的that of, 是that idea of 的省略形式。此外容易理解,后面开始变难。Inserting into the chromosomes of plants discrete genes(that are not a part of the plants' natureal consttution)看上去不舒服的原因,是作者在此用了一个便装;正常语序应该是:inserting discrete genes(that are not a part of the plants' natureal constitution) into the chromosomes of plants, 即把非此植物的genes插入到该植物中。之所以倒装,是因为discrete genes加上复杂修饰的成分以后太长之故。同样,后面的the idea of inserting into nonleguminous plants the genes, if they can be identifyied and isolated, that fit the leguminous plants to be hosts for nitrogen-fixing bacteria一句,正常的语序也是the idea of inserting the genes, if they can be identifyied and isolated, that fit the leguminous plants to be hosts for nitro-fixing bacteria into nonleguminous plants,即把便利豆科植物成为固氮菌的寄主的基因(如果它们能够被找到并分离出来的话)插入到非豆科植物的基因中去。这一回。Genes之后不但有定语从句的复杂修饰,而且在genes和that从句之间还有一个不短的插入语,增加了阅读难度。
    • 最后的一句话,Hence, the intensified research on legumes, 其实也不是一句话,只是一个词:research。作者省略了there is ,其实引处即便看不清语法结构,作者的意思还是可以懂的。因此,笔者在前面强调的“如果可以看懂意思,不必去分析语法”,在实战的应用中有其意义;GRE和GMAT中很多表达其实不严格遵守语法,或者有考生不懂的语法,读者处心积虑地研究它们,不但没有实战意义,而且还令读者徒增烦恼。
    • 本句是GRE和GMAT考试中集各种语言现象之大成者,包括了几乎所有的难句类型,希望读者一定把这句话读熟;有心者最好能把它背熟,一定对提高你的阅读能力有好处。
    • 意群训练:One such novel idea is that (idea) of inserting into the chromosomes of plants discrete genes that are not a part of the plants’ natural constitution:specifically,the idea of inserting into nonleguminous plants the genes,if they can be identified and isolated,that fit the leguminous plants to be hosts for nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Hence,(there is ) the intensified research on legumes.
  46. It is one of nature’s great ironies that the availability of nitrogen in the soil frequently sets an upper limit on plant growth even though the plants’ leaves are bathed in a sea of nitrogen gas.(3+)下述情形真可谓是自然界的一个莫大讽刺:土壤中所能获得的氮肥量往往对植物的生长构成了一个上限,虽然植物的叶子被沐浴在一片氮气的海洋中。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:It是形式主语,其真正的内容是that之后的由even though连接的两个句子。其实本句的真正难度倒不在于句子的结构,而是对于其意思的理解:尤其是文科同学,可能缺乏必要的背景知识,就更不容易读懂。句中的set an upper limit on plant growth直译为”给植物的生成设立一个上限”,其真正的意思是“限制了植物的生长”;因此the availability of nitrogen in the soil frequently sets an upper limit on plant growth之中的availability一定指的是氮的供给之少。整句话的意思是,土壤中的氮植物能够利用,却太少;而空气中虽有大量的氮,植物却不能利用,这岂不是自然界开的一个大玩笑。
    • It is one of nature’s great ironies that the availability of nitrogen in the soil frequently sets an upper limit on plant growth even though the plants’ leaves are bathed in a sea of nitrogen gas.
  47. Unless they succeed,the yield gains of the Green Revolution will be largely lost even if the genes in legumes that equip those plants to enter into a symbiosis with nitrogen fixers are identified and isolated,and even if the transfer of those gene complexes,once they are found, becomes possible. (4)
    • 除非他们能取得成功,不然的话,绿色革命的产量收益将在很大程度上损失殆尽,即使豆科植物中使这些植物有条件进入到与固氮细菌共生关系的基因可被辨识出来和分离开来的话,且即使这些基因综合体(gene complex),一旦被发现之后,其移植得以成为可能的话。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:主句比较简单,而后面跟着的由and连接的两个表示让步的条件状语从句就相对复杂,第一个从句是用一个修饰主语的定语从句that equip those plants to enter into a symbiosis with nitrogen fixers把主谓隔开;第二个从句则运用了插入语once they are found把主谓隔开。
    • 意群训练:Unless they succeed,the yield gains of the Green Revolution will be largely lost even if the genes in legumes that equip those plants to enter into a symbiosis with nitrogen fixers are identified and isolated,and even if the transfer of those gene complexes,once they are found, becomes possible.
  48. Its subject(to use Maynard Mack’s categories)is "life-as-spectacle," for readers,  diverted by its various incidents,observe its hero Odysseus primarily from without;the tragic Iliad,however,presents "life-as-experience":readers are asked to identify with the mind of  Achilles,whose motivations render him a not particularly likable hero. (5)
    • 其主题〔若借鉴梅纳德。迈克(Maynard Mack)的两个分类范畴的话〕是“人生作为外部景象”,因为读者的注意力被作品那形形色色的事件所分散,主要是从外部来观察其主人公奥德修斯(Odyssus)的;然而,富于悲剧色彩的《伊利亚特》所表现的则是“人生作为内心体验”:读者被要求与阿基琉斯(Achilles)的心灵产生共鸣,而其行为动机却致使他变作一个并非特别惹人喜爱的主人公。 (从分号后的语句推理出前面的意思)
    • 注:hero:主人公;without:外部;likable:有吸引力的
    • 难句类型;复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词、熟词僻义
    • 请思考:如果看不懂分号前的without的意思,是否可以用合理化原则根据分号后的那句话推理出其意思?
    • 解释:本句中尽管也存在一些复杂修饰和插入的内容,但是本句话之所以难懂,与其说是因为这些东西的影响,倒不如说是因为用词的抽象和语义的难以理解。作为一篇文学评论型的文章,文章中充斥着一些很抽象的词汇;本句话中就有subject/category/spectacle/divert/incident/hero/primarily/without/present/identify/motivation/particularly/likable等。背过这些单词的中文释义,并不意味着在阅读中能够清楚地理解其真正含义。对于抽象词的训练方法,请参见附录中<阅读抽象词提速法>。这里仅解释几个对于这句话最重要的单词:
    • hero:在此不是指英雄,在文学评论型的文章当中,此单词的意思是主人公。
    • Without:在此处是一个熟词僻义,意思是外部,等于outside。
    • Likable:不可望文生义,它不是像什么东西的意思,而是有吸引力的意思,其同义词有pleasant或attractive.
    • 本句中,对于理解全句起到最大影响的,就是能否正确理解without这个单词,然而问题在于,如果不认识without的熟词僻义,是否可用合理化原则根据分号后的那句话推理出其意思?根据紧跟着分别的however,我们可以推断出分号前后的两句话所说的内容截然相反,因此可以从I戏剧的描述中推出,without的意思应该是不去认同其主人公的内心世界。
    • 意群训练:Its subject(to use Maynard Mack’s categories)is "life-as-spectacle," for readers,  diverted by its various incidents,observe its hero Odysseus primarily from without;the tragic Iliad,however,presents "life-as-experience":readers are asked to identify with the mind of  Achilles,whose motivations render him a not particularly likable hero.
  49. Most striking among the many asymmetries evident in an adult flatfish is eye placement: before maturity one eye migrates,so that in an adult flatfish both eyes are on the same side of the head. (3+)
    • 在一条成年比目鱼身上显著存在的诸多不对称(asymmetry)特征中,最为吸人注目的是眼睛的摆位:在成年之前,一只眼睛发生移动,因此在成年比目鱼身上,两只眼睛均位于头部的同一侧面。
    • 难句类型:倒装、省略
    • 解释:本句的倒装本质上与我们早就的一种倒装结构是一样的,即形容词放在句首时,主语和谓语倒装。本句的主干的正常语序应该是:Eye placement is most striking;倒装后成了Most striking is eye placement。但是这种倒装在GRE考试中出现,又有了新的特色,被提到句首的Most striking被长长的状语among the many asymmetries evident in an adult flatfish与后面的主语和表语分开,造成阅读困难。
    • 意群训练:Most striking among the many asymmetries evident in an adult flatfish is eye placement: before maturity one eye migrates,so that in an adult flatfish both eyes are on the same side of the head.
  50. A critique of Handlin’s interpretation of why legal slavery did not appear until the 1660’s suggests that assumptions about the relation between slavery and racial prejudice should be reexamined , and that explanations for the different treatment of Black slaves in North and South America should be expanded .(4)
    • 一个对于H的关于为何法律上的奴隶制没有在17世纪60年代以前出现的原因所作解释的批评显示,关于奴隶制和种族偏见之间的关系的假说应当重新检查,而且显示出,对于在北美和南美之间的对黑怒的不同处理的解释应当被扩展。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略
    • 解释:句子的主干清楚:A critique suggests that…, and suggests that…。但是因为句子的结构复杂、修饰成分多,再加上后面的and 之后的suggests被省略,所以句子的结构很难被读出来的。
    • 本句的suggest不再是暗示,而是显示、说明的意思,其同义词有point,indicate,imply。本句的两个suggest之后的宾语从句都根据语法要求使用了虚拟语气。
    • 意群训练:A critique of Handlin’s interpretation of why legal slavery did not appear until the 1660’s suggests that assumptions about the relation between slavery and racial prejudice should be reexamined , and that explanations for the different treatment of Black slaves in North and South America should be expanded .
  51. The best evidence for the layered-mantle thesis is the well-established fact that volcanic rocks found on oceanic islands,islands believed to result from mantle plumes arising from the lower mantle,are composed of material fundamentally different from that of the mid-ocean ridge system, whose source,most geologists contend,is the upper mantle. (5 -)
    • 对于地幔分层论点来说,最好的证据乃这样一个确认的事实,即在那些海洋岛屿——这些岛屿据信是源于由下层地幔升上来的地幔柱状溶岩流(mantle plume)——上发现的火山岩石,是由与海洋中部山脊系统的物质根本不同的物质构成的,而这一海洋中部山脊系统的成因,大多数地质学家论辩道,为上部地幔。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句前面的主干并不算难,即the evidence is the fact that,难就难在fact之后说明fact 的同位语从句。此从句中既有大段插入语,又有从句,较为难读。同位语从句的主语是volcanic rocks,主语后面的found on oceanic islands是分词修饰volcanic rocks的;islands后面又有一个说明islands的同位语islands believed to result from mantle plumes arising from the lower mantle,此同位语实际起到一个分隔主谓的同位语的作用。其后是谓语动词are composed/of fundamentally different from that of the midocean ridge system, whose source, most geologists contend, is the upper mantle。
    • 句中有一些专有词汇。如果抛开文章不说,单看这一个句子,则句首的layered mantle thesis就难以理解。但是如果读者能够读懂句子的大致意思,看到layered mantle thesisr最有力证据就是其材料fundamentally different from… the upper mantle,这应该可以推测出,既然不同于上层地幔,则这个理论一定是在说地幔有不同的层面。
    • 意群训练:The best evidence for the layered-mantle thesis is the well-established fact that volcanic rocks found on oceanic islands,islands believed to result from mantle plumes arising from the lower mantle,are composed of material fundamentally different from that of the mid-ocean ridge system, whose source,most geologists contend,is the upper mantle.
  52. Some geologists,however,on the basis of observations concerning mantle xenoliths, argue that the mantle is not layered,but that heterogeneity is created by fluids rich in "incompatible elements" (elements tending toward liquid rather than solid state)percolating upward and transforming portions of the upper mantle irregularly,according to the vagaries of the fluids’ pathways. (4+)
    • 但是,某些地质学家,以对地幔捕虏岩体(xenolith)所作的观察为依据,指出地幔并非是分层排列的,相反,地幔的异质性是由那些富含“不相容成分”的流质构成的,这些成分趋向于流体而非固体的状态,自下而上渗透扩散,并依照这些流质流向的任意性,不规则地将上部地幔的某些部分予以改变。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句的主句中有一个长插入语however,on the basis of observations concerning mantle xenoliths,割裂了主谓,但句子的主要难度还是在that引导的宾语从句中,从句中有由but 所连接的两个句子,一起延续到句末。首选是rich in incompatible elements修饰fluids;后面又有一个同位语和一个分词结构,都是修饰incompatible elements的,最后还有一个状语来修饰那个分词结构,层层修饰,比较复杂。
    • 意群训练:Some geologists,however,on the basis of observations concerning mantle xenoliths, argue that the mantle is not layered,but that heterogeneity is created by fluids rich in "incompatible elements" (elements tending toward liquid rather than solid state)percolating upward and transforming portions of the upper mantle irregularly,according to the vagaries of the fluids’ pathways.
  53. Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve’s blindness to the real nature of great writing , found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments ,and allowed these to take over it a steadily developing novel. (5 -)
    • F认为,P在1908年试图开始写一部小说,又为了写一部批判S-B的 伟大作品的真正本质的视而不见的长篇的证明而放弃了这部小说,其后又发现这一论文又勾起了其个人记忆及小说情节的萌生,使得后者取而代之形成了一部稳定展开的小说。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、抽象词
    • 解释:本句来自历来被GRE考生尊称为所有GRE文科文章中难度第一的普鲁斯特的追忆似水年华,这篇文章的难度远远高于现在计算机考试的题目。普鲁斯特是公认的意识流小说的先驱,据笔者推测,本文的原作者必定是研究普鲁斯特的大家,因此其文章必然带有思维的跳跃,、不连贯性、时空颠倒等意识流手法:经过ETS的改编后,虽然可读性略有啬,然积重难返、无法救药,于是堕落成一篇流水帐文章。从本句的结构来看,也可以表现作者的这种叙事风格:本句从that引导的宾语从句开始,实际上是以普鲁斯特的意识流向为线索,以列举的方式描述其动机的变化,从一开始的写别的小说,其英文为Prout had tried to…, abandoned…,found…,and allowed..。但是因为abandoned之后的状语for…的结构复杂、用词抽象,所以这个结构不太容易被看出来。Blindness在此不是指真盲,而是指缺乏辨认能力difficult to discern, make out,or discover,视而不见。Give rise to 这个词组的意思是引起,使发生。
    • 意群训练:Fallois proposed that Proust had tried to begin a novel in 1908, abandoned it for what was to be a long demonstration of Saint-Beuve’s blindness to the real nature of great writing , found the essay giving rise to personal memories and fictional developments ,and allowed these to take over in a steadily developing novel.
  54. The very richness and complexity of the meaningful relationships that kept presenting and rearranging themselves on all levels,from abstract intelligence to profound dreamy feelings, made it difficult for Proust to set them out coherently. (5)
    • 各种有意义的联系在所有的层次上,自抽象的理性至深刻的梦幻般的情感,层出不穷并不断重新组合排列;正是这些有意义的联系的丰富性和复杂性,致使普鲁斯特难于将它们错落有致地安排好。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:请原谅笔者在此所做中文翻译的艰涩难懂,为了让读者能够更好地理解句子的结构,本书尽量把中文翻译与英文原文的语序相对应,而且尽可能的不用意译。为了达到这个目的,可以说绞尽脑汁,但本句之难懂也全非笔者之故,原文作者使用了大量的抽象词。本句仍然来自于上面说过的这篇关于普鲁斯特的文章。句中的主语是The very richness and complexity,其后的修饰成分长达三行,of the meaningful relationships that kept presenting and rearranging themselves on all levels from abstract intelligence to profound dreamy feelings,其中还夹杂着插入语,有效地分开了主语和谓语。其实本句虽然结构也比较复杂,但是不见得比前面的句子复杂得多,其真正的难点,还在于句子中大量的抽象词的使用。由于笔者在附录中所提到的原因,抽象词可以严重地占据大脑资源,因此带有大量的抽象词的结构复杂的句子就更为难懂,比如本句就是一个很好的例子,复杂修饰与抽象词狼狈为奸,句意另人难以理解。
    • 意群训练:The very richness and complexity of the meaningful relationships that kept presenting and rearranging themselves on all levels,from abstract intelligence to profound dreamy feelings, made it difficult for Proust to set them out coherently.
  55. But those of who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb’s newly published complete edition of Proust’s correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greater detail are disappointed. (4)
    • 但是我们当中的那些希望(也算上K本人)K新出版的P1909年书信的全集能够更加详细的记录下这一过程的人都大失所望。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句中从句套从句,致使主语those of us与谓语的距离很远,而且中间的成分又极多,使得句子很难读懂。修饰主语those of us的定语从句who hoped之中又套了一个宾语从句,宾语从句的主语complete edition又被一前一后的两个定语所修饰,之后才依次是宾语从句的谓语、宾语:主句的系动词、表语。
    • 意群训练:But those of us who hoped, with Kolb, that Kolb’s newly published complete edition of Proust’s correspondence for 1909 would document the process in greater detail are disappointed.
  56. Now we must also examine the culture as we Mexican Americans have experienced it , passing from a sovereign people to compatriots with newly arriving settlers to , finally ,a conquered people – a charter minority on our own land. (5 -)
    • 现在我们必须也按照我们墨西哥裔的美国人的经历来审视这个文化,我们的经历是从一个主权的民族变成了新来的定居者的同胞,在最终沦落成为一个被征服的民族——在我们自己的土地上的契约的少数民族。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、固定搭配
    • 解释:主句中的as we Mexican Americans have experienced it 是examine的状语,说明审视的角度;后面直至句尾的分词结构又是experience的状语,详述了经历的具体过程。就是这个分词有些难懂,因为我们熟知的结构是from…to…没有见过,也没有想到过后面居然还有一个to,因此看到这个套了一个插入语的newly arriving settlers to , finally, a conquered people的时候头脑发生混乱,不明所以、不知所措。这里的to还是与前面的from搭配的,也就是说,原文的结构是from…to…to…
    • 意群训练:Now we must also examine the culture as we Mexican Americans have experienced it , passing from a sovereign people to compatriots with newly arriving settlers to , finally ,a conquered people – a charter minority on our own land.
  57. It is possible to make specific complementary DNA’s (cDNA’s)that can serve as molecular probes to seek out the messenger RNA’s (mRNA’s)of the peptide hormones. If brain cells are making the hormones,the cells will contain these Mrna’S. If the products the brain cells make resemble the hormones but are not identical to them,then the cDNA’s should still bind to  these mRNA’s,but should not bind as tightly as they would to mRNA’s for the true hormones. (4)
    • 科学家可以制造出特异的(specific)互补DNA’s(cDNA’s),以此作为分子探子(molecular probe),探觅出肽激素的信使RNA’s(mRNA’s)。如果大脑正在制造着肽激素,则细胞就会含有这些信使RNA’s.假若细胞所制造的产品类似于肽激素但并非与这些肽激素全然相同,那么,互补cDNA’s应仍然和这些信使mDNA’s粘结的程度。含有这些mRNA’s的脑细胞然后就可以被分离开来,研究者可对其信使RNA’s进行解码,以确定它们的蛋白质产品究竟是什么,并确定这些蛋白质产品在何种程度上类似于真正的肽激素。
    • 难句类型:易混词
    • 解释:与其他的难句不同的是,心上的英文不止一句。笔者之所以在本句中不设标志和翻译,是因为这三句话从结构和意思上来说并不难。然而很少有人能够真正的一次把这段话读清楚,原因在于两个容易混淆的单词cDNA’s和mRNA’s在文中交替出现,而且相互作用;再加上brain cell和hormones从中捣乱,更难读清楚原文的意思。原文的主要意思如下:可以用cDNA’s来探测mRNA’s。如果脑细胞产生了荷尔蒙,则其中必有mRNA’s意味着可用cDNA探测荷尔蒙。如果脑细胞制造的不是真荷尔蒙,则可以用cDNA’s与其中的mRNA’s附着的情况来确定此荷尔蒙的真假。
    • 意群训练:It is possible to make specific complementary DNA’s (cDNA’s)that can serve as molecular probes to seek out the messenger RNA’s (mRNA’s)of the peptide hormones. If brain cells are making the hormones,the cells will contain these Mrna’S. If the products the brain cells make resemble the hormones but are not identical to them,then the cDNA’s should still bind to  these mRNA’s,but should not bind as tightly as they would to mRNA’s for the true hormones.
  58. The molecular approach to detecting peptide hormones using cDNA probes should also be much faster than the immunological method because it can take years of tedious purifications  to isolate peptide hormones and then develop antiserums to them. (4)
    • 采用cDNA探子来测定肽激素的这一分子生物学方法同时也应该比免疫学的方法速度来得快,因为对于免疫的方法来说,需耗费好几年枯燥的提纯进程,方能将肽素分离了出来,然后再培养出针对它们的抗血清。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、易混指代
    • 解释:主语后的修饰成分同样隔开了主语和谓语,但本句的难度主要在because从句中。按照一般的习惯,作为从句主语的it应该指主句的主语,但本句的主句是一个比较结构,A should be faster than B because it…,此处it也可以指B。但是因为这种指代不符合和我们以前所形成的习惯,所以阅读现场不得不边读边根据句意来判断,这就增加了阅读理解的难度。现场阅读时,类似antiserums的这种专有名词不必理会,仅需从词头anti推出这是一个反p荷尔蒙的东西即可。
    • 意群训练:The molecular approach to detecting peptide hormones using cDNA probes should also be much faster than the immunological method because it can take years of tedious purifications  to isolate peptide hormones and then develop antiserums to them.
  59. Nevertheless, researchers of the Pleistocene epoch have developed all sorts of more or less fanciful model schemes of how they would have arranged the Ice Age had they been in charge of events.(3+)
    • 然而,研究P时代的研究者发展除了各种各样的或多或少有些奇怪思想的模型系统,用来显示如果由他们来决定地质事件的话他们将会如何安排冰川纪。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装、修辞
    • 解释:句末的由how引导的名词性从句中包括了双重的倒装,正常的语序本来是:If they had been in charge of events, they would have arranged the Ice Age in certain model schemes。本句中由于arrange的方式被提前,就造成了arrange的动作执行者也要提前,前面的if they had been 则必须后置;这样一来又造成了if被省略,成为had they been的倒装结构。
    • 另外,作者为了表达其对于这些研究者的模型的负态度,并炫耀其幽默感,在本句中使用了虚拟语气,并使用了fanciful这个词以表示这些研究的不负责任、异想天开的幼童心理。
    • 意群训练:Nevertheless, researchers of the Pleistocene epoch have developed all sorts of more or less fanciful model schemes of how they would have arranged the Ice Age had they been in charge of events.
  60. This succession was based primarily on a series of deposits and events not directly related to  glacial and interglacial periods,rather than on the more usual modern method of studying biological remains found in interglacial beds themselves interstratified within glacial deposits. (4)
    • 这一序列演替(succession)所依据的,主要是一系列与冰川期和间冰期并不直接相关的地质沉积物和地质事件,而不是依据更为普遍的现代方法,去研究间冰层(interglacial bed)中所发现的生物残留物,而这些间冰层本身又在冰川沉积物发生间层化(interstatified)。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、易淆指代
    • 解释:句子中的rather than 之后省略了与前面重复的being based,直接加上了介词on。Modern method后面的部分都是修饰method的。其中的remains既可以作动词也可以作名词,此处是名词的用法,biological remains指的是类似于动物化石之类的遗迹。读到这里我们看到了句子的难点,themselves既可以指前面离得很远的modern method(当然,在语法上来讲单复数不一致),也可以指前面离得较远的biological remains,亦可以指紧挨着的interglacial beds,到底是指代哪一个,只有通过理解句意,才能确定在此处指biological remains。
    • 意群训练:This succession was based primarily on a series of deposits and events not directly related to  glacial and interglacial periods,rather than on the more usual modern method of studying biological remains found in interglacial beds themselves interstratified within glacial deposits.
  61. There have been attempts to explain these taboos in terms of inappropriate social  relationships either between those who are involved and those who are not simultaneously involved in the satisfaction of a bodily need,or between those already satiated and those who appear to be shamelessly gorging.(5)
    • 人们试图对这些禁忌作出解释,所依据的要么是那些正置身于某一身体需要满足的人与那些并置身于某一身体需要之满足的人之间的,要么是那些早已酒足饭饱的人与那些正在不知羞耻地狼吞虎咽失之间的不相称的社会关系。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略
    • 解释:前面的主架构There have been attempts to explain these taboos很简单,从in terms of inappropriate social relationships开始句子变难,ralationship后面跟着一个一直延续到句末的长长的修饰成分,其中有两个固定搭配,either…or…和between…and…,不但如此,原文把这两个搭配又套在一起,变成了either between…and…,or between…and…;再加上每一个between…and之后都是those who这样的结构,就愈发令人眼花缭乱了。
    • 意群训练:There have been attempts to explain these taboos in terms of inappropriate social  relationships either between those who are involved and those who are not simultaneously involved in the satisfaction of a bodily need,or between those already satiated and those who appear to be shamelessly gorging.
  62. Many critics of Family Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights see its second part as a counterpoint that comments on,if it does not reverse,the first part,where a "romantic" reading receives more confirmation. (5)
    • 研究艾米丽。勃朗特(Emily Bronte)小说《呼啸山庄》(Wuthering Heights)的许多文学评论家,将小说的第二部分视作一种对比物,即使没有将第一部分予以逆转的话,也是在对第一部分作出一种诠释评判,而在小说第一部分中,一种“浪漫的”的读解能获得更为充分的确证。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:上面的翻译中为了符合中文习惯不得不把修饰the first part的where引导的定语从句翻译到中括号以外。本句主要难在两个地方,一个是插入语if it does not reverse如何理解,另一个是counterpoint的意思是什么。产生,插入语的位置比较讨厌,把comments on the first part这样一个连贯的说法割成两段,增加了阅读的难度。而且它的意思容易理解错;if既可以理解成如果的意思,也可以理解成即使的意思。如果理解成即使的意思,则上下文的意思则要理解成即使不反对第一部分,也要给予第一部分一个负面的评论。然而此处不能这样理解,因为that之前的counterpoint的意思不是相反、对立,而是指和谐的组成部分的意思。这个词来源于一个音乐术语,指音乐中的对位法、旋律配合,引伸为形容两个不同的东西彼此和谐一致,同义词是harmony。因此文中的if it does not reverse的意思是假如不反对第一部分,则是与第一部分和谐一致的评论的意思。这种情况下,插入语纯属废话。
    • 意群训练:Many critics of Family Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights see its second part as a counterpoint that comments on,if it does not reverse,the first part,where a "romantic" reading receives more confirmation.
  63. Granted that the presence of these elements need not argue an authorial awareness of novelistic construction comparable to that of Henry James, their presence does(15) encourage attempts to unify the novel’s heterogeneous parts. (4+)
    • 诚然,这些因素的存在并不能证明作者对小说架构的意识可与亨利。詹姆斯(Henry James)的那种意识相比拟;然则,任何力图将小说所有形形色色的因素统一起来的做法,在某种程度上注定是无法令人信服的。 Granted that:大家都统一、当然,表让步,=admitted , of course.
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、抽象词
    • 解释:本句的结构固然复杂,但造成最大的阅读难度的,主要还是对一些抽象词的理解。正面是对一些关键词汇的解释:
    • Granted that出现在句首,其意思是大家都同意、当然,实际上是一种让步语气,等于admitted,of course。
    • Need not argue中的argue在此不是表示常用的那个辩论、争论的意思,而是表示意味着或证实的意思,其同义词是maintain或prove。
    • Camparable的词义有两个,除了读者熟悉的that can be compared之外,还有一个意思是worthy of comparison,其同义词是as good as。本文中用的是后面的那个意思,对于这个词义的理解,后面的第18题考到了。
    • 意群训练:Granted that the presence of these elements need not argue an authorial awareness of novelistic construction comparable to that of Henry James, their presence does(15) encourage attempts to unify the novel’s heterogeneous parts.
  64. This is not because such an interpretation necessarily stiffens into a thesis(although rigidity in any interpretation of this or of any novel is always a danger),but because Wuthering Heights has recalcitrant elements of undeniable power that,ultimately,resist inclusion in an all-encompassing interpretation. (5)
    • 这倒不是因为这样的一种解释必定会僵化成为一个命题(尽管对这部或任何一部小说的解释中,僵化死板总是一种危险),而是因为《呼啸山庄》拥有一些极难驾御的因素,以其无可辩驳的力度,最终拒绝被囿于一个囊括无遗的解释中。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:本句的两个插入语虽然有一些干扰性,但是最为主要的难点在于成批出现的抽象词,如interpretation/necessarily/stiffen/thesis/rigidity/recalcitrant/element/undeniable/power/ultimately/resist/inclusion/all-encompassing等。据笔者估测,对于初学GRE或GMAT的学习者而言,在一句话中出现了三个心上的抽象词就会使阅读理解造成障碍,而这句话中出现了十三个这样的单词,读不懂也不足为怪。
    • 训练:This is not because such an interpretation necessarily stiffens into a thesis(although rigidity in any interpretation of this or of any novel is always a danger),but because Wuthering Heights has recalcitrant elements of undeniable power that,ultimately,resist inclusion in an all-encompassing interpretation.
  65. The isotopic composition of lead often varies from one source of common copper ore to another,with variations exceeding the measurement error;and preliminary studies indicate  virtually uniform is topic composition of the lead from a single copper-ore source. (4)
    • 铅的同位素构成经常在一种普通铜矿石来源与另一种铜矿石来源之间存在差异,其差异程度超出测量误差;而最初的研究表明,对于来自单独一个铜矿石来源的铅来说,其同位素构成几乎是毫无二致的。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、专业抽象词
    • 解释:本句是一个怪异的现象的典型例子:句子的结构谈不上复杂,所用单词也不难,但是除非读者有理工科的科研(最好是材料科学的科研)背景,否则句子虽然能够得读下来,但是却搞不清句子说的是什么意思。首先,句子中出现的一些词汇虽然也都比较常见,但是在理科文章中出现,就有了专有名词的意味,同时还带有很抽象的学术含义,笔者称之为专业抽象词,如isotopic composition;source;variation;measurement error;preliminary study等。认识这些单词,并不意味着懂得它们在文章的意义和作用。比如说measurement error,大家都可以望文生义地理解成测量错误、测量误差,但是在对文章的阅读中这种字面上的理解是远远不够的。其实此处强调的并不是测量中出现的错误和毛病,而是指那些每次测量都会发生的、永远也无法避免的、在测量值和实际值之间的正常的差异。因此,本句话的真实含义也难以理解。句子只是罗列了一堆事实,而作者真正想说的意思是什么呢?其实variations exceeding the measurement error的言外之意是这些不同variations是真正有意义的不同,而不是试验的误差;那么不同矿源的铜矿的铅同位素成分真的不同,相同的矿源的铅同位素几乎相同,就意味着我们可以通过测量铅同位素的成分来确定铜矿的矿源(挖掘地)。
    • 意群训练:The isotopic composition of lead often varies from one source of common copper ore to another,with variations exceeding the measurement error;and preliminary studies indicate  virtually uniform is topic composition of the lead from a single copper-ore source.
  66. More probable is bird transport,either externally,by accidental attachment of the seeds to feathers,or internally,by the swallowing of fruit and subsequent excretion of the seeds. (3+)
    • 更有可能的是鸟类运输:或者是通过外部途径,即由于种籽偶然粘附在羽毛上;或者是通过内部方式,即由于鸟类吞食果子并随后将种籽排泄出来。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装
    • 解释:句首有一个倒装,正常语序是bird transport is more probable。后面的句子中由于插入部分的频繁出现使句子显得十分凌乱。
    • 意群训练:More probable is bird transport,either externally,by accidental attachment of the seeds to feathers,or internally,by the swallowing of fruit and subsequent excretion of the seeds.
  67. A long-held view of the history of English colonies that became the United States has been that England’s policy toward these colonies before 1763 was dictated by commercial interests and that a change to a more imperial policy , dominated by expansionist militarist objectives , generated the tensions that ultimately led to the American Revolution . (4+)
    • 一个对于后来成了美国的英国殖民地的历史的长久以来的观点,认为英国在1763年以前对于这些殖民地的政策被经济利益所支配,而且认为一种向着更大程度帝国制度的政策上的转变——为扩张主义的军事目标所左右——产生了最终导致美国革命的紧张气氛。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:主架构简单,可是主语和表语从句都不让人省心。句子的主干其实就是:A long-held view has been that..。但是主语A long-held view之后却是修饰它的一个三层的定语:of the history of the english colonies that became the United States。系动词has been之后所接的表语从句其实不止一个,其实原句是用了and来连接两个并列的表语从句,has been that…and has been that…。后面的has been照例被省略。
    • 意群训练:A long-held view of the history of English colonies that became the United States has been that England’s policy toward these colonies before 1763 was dictated by commercial interests and that a change to a more imperial policy , dominated by expansionist militarist objectives , generated the tensions that ultimately led to the American Revolution .
  68. It is not known how rare this resemblance is,or whether it is most often seen in inclusions of silicates such as garnet,whose crystallography is generally somewhat similar to that of diamond;  but when present,the resemblance is regarded as compelling evidence that the diamonds and inclusions are truly cogenetic. (4)
    • 现在尚不知这种类似稀少到何种地步,也不知道是否它最常见于象石榴石一类的硅酸盐内含物中,而这类物质的晶体结构普遍地在某种程度上类似于金刚石的晶体结构。但一旦存在,这种类似就被视作极有说服力的证据,证明金刚石与内含物确是同源的。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句的句子既长,专有名词又多,从句层出不穷,故而难懂。在本句中出现的专有名词中,除了silicates硅酸盐这个单词常常出现于理科文章中,需要记忆之外,其他单词阅读现场简单处理一番既可:inclusions可以猜出是被包含的物质;garnet作首字母提炼叫g:crystallography只要能从词头推出这个单词与晶体有关即可。
    • 意群训练:It is not known how rare this resemblance is,or whether it is most often seen in inclusions of silicates such as garnet,whose crystallography is generally somewhat similar to that of diamond;  but when present,the resemblance is regarded as compelling evidence that the diamonds and inclusions are truly cogenetic.
  69. Even the "radical" critiques of this mainstream research model,such as the critique developed in Divided Society,attach the issue of ethnic assimilation too mechanically to factors of economic and social mobility and are thus unable to illuminate the cultural subordination of Puerto Ricans as a colonial minority. (4+)
    • 即使是对这一主流研究模型的“激进”批评,诸如《分裂的社会》(Divided Society)一书中所提出的那种批判,亦将少数民族同化问题过分机构地与经济和社会移动性的因素联系起来,因此无从阐明波多黎各人作为一个殖民地少数民族的文化从属关系。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略、抽象词
    • 解释:本句实际上是由and连接的两个句子,阅读的一个难度在于,and之后省略了they(此处指前面的主语the radical critiques,)而are thus able to 又与前面离得太远,使读者难以找到主语。
    • 另外,句中的固定搭配attach A to B和illuminate C as D当中的A、B、C,全部既长又抽象,理解起来较为困难。
    • 意群训练:Even the "radical" critiques of this mainstream research model,such as the critique developed in Divided Society,attach the issue of ethnic assimilation too mechanically to factors of economic and social mobility and are thus unable to illuminate the cultural subordination of Puerto Ricans as a colonial minority.
  70. They are called virtual particles in order to distinguish them from real particles,whose lifetimes are not constrained in the same way,and which can be detected. (3)
    • 它们被称为“虚粒子”(virtual particle),以便与实粒子(real particle)区分开来,而实粒子则不会以这种方式受到制约,并且其存在可得以测定。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句的怪异在于:real particles后面跟着两个定语从句,都是同时修饰real particles的,而且两个从句之间不用逗号隔开,却又加上and连接,令人一眼看上去极不习惯。
    • 意群训练:They are called virtual particles in order to distinguish them from real particles,whose lifetimes are not constrained in the same way,and which can be detected.
  71. Open acknowledgement of the existence of women’s oppression was too radical for the United Stated in the fifties, and Beauvoir’s conclusion , that change in women’s economic condition , though insufficient by itself , “remains the basic factor ” in improving women’s situation , was particularly unacceptable . (4+)
    • 公开对妇女压迫的存在的承认对于50年代的美国而言有些过分激进,而且B的结论,即妇女经济状况的变化,经管它本身不是一个充分的因素,但是“仍然是提高妇女地位的根本因素”的观点,尤其无法令人接受。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句是由and所连接的两个分句,前一个分句的主语虽然有一些修饰成分,但整体而言还算好读;后面的分句中的修饰成分就比较难读;主语Beauvoir’s conclusion后面被加上了同位语从句that change in…,而且在从句的主语和谓语之间还加了一个插入语;我们好不容易把同位语从句中的成分补齐,后面又看到系表结构was particularly unacceptable的时候,想不起来主语是誰,不禁心中茫然;如果是没有练习过难句的人,也只好黯然神伤。
    • 意群训练:Open acknowledgement of the existence of women’s oppression was too radical for the United Stated in the fifties, and Beauvoir’s conclusion , that change in women’s economic condition , though insufficient by itself , “remains the basic factor ” in improving women’s situation , was particularly unacceptable .
  72. Other theorists propose that the Moon was ripped out of the Earth’s rocky mantle by the Earth’s collision with another large celestial body after much of the Earth’s iron fell to its core. (4)其他的理论家提出,在地球的大部分铁沉入到地核之后,由于地球与另一个庞大的天体发生碰撞,月亮便从地球那石质的地幔中撕裂开来而形成的。 Rip:撕开;拨去;在本文是撕开的意思。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:这个句子虽然还算短,但结构并不简单,句中共有三介词结构作状语。结构的复杂在本句中给读者带来了真正的阅读困难:月亮、地球、大型天体之间的关系如何?三个事件之间的先后顺序怎样?另外的一个难点在于,在the Moon was ripped out of the Earth’s rocky mantle这段话中,be ripped out of something可以作两种解释。Rip既有撕开的意思,又有剥去的意思,而此处的be ripped out of something很被读者理解成被剥夺走某物的意思。实际上,根据对上下文的理解,这里应该理解成从某物中撕裂出来的意思。
    • 意群训练:Other theorists propose that the Moon was ripped out of the Earth’s rocky mantle by the Earth’s collision with another large celestial body after much of the Earth’s iron fell to its core.
  73. However , recent scholarship has strongly suggested that those aspects of early New England culture that seem to have been most distinctly Puritan, such as the strong religious orientation and the communal impulse, were not even typical of New England as a whole, but were largely confined to the two colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. (4)
    • 然而,进来的学术研究强烈的显示那些看来最为明确的请教徒的早期新英格兰文化的一些方面,比如强烈的宗教导向和团体意识,就整体而言却不是新英格兰的典型特征,而是在很大程度上只局限与马萨诸赛和康涅狄格两个州。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:宾语从句的主语those aspects后面跟着长长的修饰成分of early New England culture that seem to have been most distinctly Puritan。不但如此,主语和表语之间又被长长的插入语such as分开,而且表语也不是一个,而是were not,but were的结构,使得句子十分难读。
    • 意群训练:However , recent scholarship has strongly suggested that those aspects of early New England culture that seem to have been most distinctly Puritan, such as the strong religious orientation and the communal impulse, were not even typical of New England as a whole, but were largely confined to the two colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
  74. Thus,what in contrast to the Puritan colonies appears to Davis to be peculiarly Southern— acquisitiveness,a strong interest in politics and the law,and a tendency to cultivate metropolitan cultural models—was not only more typically English than the cultural  patterns exhibited by Puritan Massachusetts and Connecticut,but also almost certainly characteristic of most other early modern British colonies from Barbados north to Rhode  Island and New Hampshire. (4)
    • 因此,那些与(北方)清教殖民地形成鲜明对比、并在戴维斯教授的心目中显得具有特殊南方色彩的特征——占有欲、对政治和法律的浓厚兴趣、以及培养大都市文化模式的倾向——不仅仅要比清教的马萨诸塞州和康乃涅克州所展现出来的文化模式更具有典型的英国色彩,并且几乎毫无疑问地构成了绝大多数其它早期近代英国殖民地的特征,从巴巴多斯北至罗得岛和新罕布什尔州。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:这个颇长的句子是由一个what从句做主语,此主语what in contrast to the Puritan colonies appears to davins to be peculialy Southern中有又一些插入语的修饰成分,其实主干很简单,就是what appears to be Southern。Southern后的两个破折号之间的内容是主语的同位语,实际起到了一个插入语的作用。一直到句子写了五行之后,谓语动词was才姗然出现,难怪读者看得不舒服。But also之后,省略了与前面一样的was.
    • 笔者在此再次提醒读者,笔者之所以对此类句子做语法分析,是为了让读者熟悉这些语法结构,而不是希望读者在现场阅读进也去分析其语法,正确的方法是通过熟读本书中的种种难句,使大脑习惯这些语言结构;实战的现场阅读把注意力集中在句子的意思上,比如这句话,只要读出“与D的观念相反,南方的州与清教的殖民地一样,都是有着英国风格的”意思即可。
    • 意群训练:Thus,what in contrast to the Puritan colonies appears to Davis to be peculiarly Southern— acquisitiveness,a strong interest in politics and the law,and a tendency to cultivate metropolitan cultural models—was not only more typically English than the cultural  patterns exhibited by Puritan Massachusetts and Connecticut,but also almost certainly characteristic of most other early modern British colonies from Barbados north to Rhode  Island and New Hampshire.
  75. Portrayals of the folk of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, whom he remembers from early childhood, of the jazz musicians and tenement roofs of his Harlem days, of Pittsburgh steelworkers, and his reconstruction of classical Greek myths in the guise of the ancient Black kingdom of Benin, attest to this.(5)
    • 一些描述,关于他从小就记得的北卡罗来纳州的M县的人民、关于他在H的日子里的爵士乐手和公寓的房顶、关于匹兹堡的钢铁工人的描述和他的假借古代B国对古希腊神话得宠俗,都表现了这一点。In the guise of :”假借、在…的幌子下,假装”。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句主语之长,主语的长度与谓语长度的比例之大,是极为罕见的,在最后的三个单词attest to this之前的所有内容,全是主语,主语和谓语的比例达到了46比3。不熟秋GRE和GMAT句式的人是很难把这句读懂的。句子的主语实际上是一个由and连接的并列结构,而真正的主语只有两个:Portrayals 和his reconstruction。Portrayals后面长度惊人的修饰成分以三个大列举的方式说出了其描述的对象,其中第一个列举中又包含了一个定语从句,修饰前面的folk(人、人们、人民、民族),第二个主语的修饰成分中使用了一抽象词组:in the guise of,相当于一个介词,其意思是假借,在….的幌子下,假装。
    • 意群训练:Portrayals of the folk of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, whom he remembers from early childhood, of the jazz musicians and tenement roofs of his Harlem days, of Pittsburgh steelworkers, and his reconstruction of classical Greek myths in the guise of the ancient Black kingdom of Benin, attest to this.
  76. A very specialized feeding adaptation in zooplankton is that of the tadpolelike appendicularian who lives in a walnut-sized (or smaller) balloon of mucus equipped with filters that capture and concentrate phytoplankton. (4)
    • 浮游动物体内一种极特殊的进食适应性变化是蝌蚪状的尾海鞘纲动物(appendicularian)的那种适应性变化,而尾海鞘纲动物则存活于核桃大小(或更小)的黏液球囊内,装备有过滤器,用以捕捉和集中浮游植物。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:GRE和GMAT考试中比较有特色的一个语言现象是that (those) of的频繁出现。That(those) of的作用是省略掉与前面一样的名词性成分,从而起到简化句子的结构、缩短句子的长度的作用。然而对于初学GRE和GMAT的人来说,由于以前较少遇到这种结构,而且即使遇到也是在比较简单的句子中间遇到的,所以在复杂句式中一旦遇到,往往一下子搞不清楚这个that(或those)指的是前面众多名词性成分中间的哪一个。解决这个问题的办法,就是多读、反复读这样的句子,熟能生巧。
    • 意群训练:A very specialized feeding adaptation in zooplankton is that of the tadpolelike appendicularian who lives in a walnut-sized (or smaller) balloon of mucus equipped with filters that capture and concentrate phytoplankton.
  77. These historians,however,have analyzed less fully the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the same period. (3+)
    • 但是,这些史学家还不曾充分地分析同一时期中那些具体的女权主义思想和活动的发展。
    • 难句类型:倒装
    • 解释:本句看着别扭的原因是句子的语序颠倒,正常的语序应该是:However, these historians have analyzed the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the same period less fully.但是这种语序仍然令人费解:为什么作者不说these historians haven’t fully analyzed the development of feminist ideas?既明确又好懂,何乐而不为?
    • 其实这里倒不见得是ETS故意作梗,不让读者读懂,而是因为心上的两种说法之间存在着细微差别:前者强调的是有分析,但与文中的其他研究相比不够完整;后者则是强调没有怎么去研究。GRE和GMAT中使用的英语属于中高级英语,其中的细微之处请读者细心体会。
    • 意群训练:These historians,however,have analyzed less fully the development of specifically feminist ideas and activities during the same period.
  78. Apparently most massive stars manage to lose sufficient material that their masses drop below the critical value of 1.4 M before they exhaust their nuclear fuel. (5)
    • 显然,大多数的巨星能够失去足够多的物质以至于在燃尽其核燃料以前他们的质量下降到关键值1.4M以下。难在:sufficient …that… = so much (many ) … that…
    • 难句类型:特殊省略、固定搭配
    • 解释:我们中国考生显然没有见过sufficient…that…这样的结构,因此习惯性的把that以及其后的内容看成了一个定语从句来修饰material,但是这样读下来发现意思不通,于是发生思维混乱,大脑拒绝工作,以至当场晕厥。
    • 实际上原文相当于在sufficient之前省略了such,与后面的that构成了一个such…that…的结构,但是这种省略不是可以随便使用的:本句之所以能够这样表述,是因为sufficient本身就是一个enough to meet the need of a situation的意思;而enough的意思是occurring in such quantity as to fully meet demands, needs, or expectations.所以,把这两个词义串在一起,sufficient material that…的词义就变成了material occurring in such large quantity that the need of …be fully met。所以我们除了可以把原句看成是省略了such以外,还可以把sufficient …that…看成了一个固定的搭配,相当于so much …that…的意思。
    • 意群训练:Apparently most massive stars manage to lose sufficient material that their masses drop below the critical value of 1.4 M before they exhaust their nuclear fuel.
  79. This is so even though armed forces operate in an ethos of institutional change oriented toward occupational equality and under the federal sanction of equal pay for equal work.(5)
    • 即使是武装部队是在一种趋向职业平等的制度变迁的风气中运作的时候,而且即使部队是在联邦政府的同工同酬的约束下运行的时候,情况仍然是这样。
    • 难句类型:倒装、省略
    • 解释:不论笔者把这句话算成倒装还是省略,其实都有些牵强。阅读能力较高的读者应该可以看出,文中的语序和表达都是完全符合英文规则的,但问题在于它极不符合汉语习惯:按照中文的习惯,even though之后的长长的从句应当放在句首,而This is so则应该放到最后来说,而且,如果要用and来连接这么长的两个状语,也应该在其中补充上主语用来和谓语才能让人看懂。但是这就是考试中的英语,也是英语国家的高级知识分子们天天用来做学问的英语,既然他们可以看懂,并能写出来,我们也一定可以看懂,需要的时候也一定能够写出来。
    • 意群训练:This is so even though armed forces operate in an ethos of institutional change oriented toward occupational equality and under the federal sanction of equal pay for equal work.
  80. An impact (on the Mars) capable of ejecting a fragment of the Martian surface into an Earth-intersecting orbit is even less probable than such an event on the Moon, in view of the Moon’s smaller size and closer proximity to Earth. (5)
    • 一个能够把活性表面的碎片射入地球交叉轨道的碰撞发生的可能性甚至小于这种事件在月亮上发生的可能性,考虑到月亮更小的尺寸及其与地球接近的程度。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、易淆指代
    • 解释:in view of的意思是考虑到、由于,等于because of,本句粗看上去十分简单,可是你看完之后会发现本句十分难懂。这句话的意思很容易被理解成:如果考虑到月亮的尺寸和与地球的距离的话,火星碎片被撞击所发射到地球的几率,要小于发射到月亮上的几率,有点常识的人就会知道这是不可能的:月亮比地球小得多,而且与火星的距离也与地球类似,碎片射到月亮上的几率怎么会反而高呢?这里的关键在于such an event在文章中指什么,如果是指把火星碎片射到月亮上,那么本句的意思当然是荒谬的;可是如果是指把月亮的碎片发射到地球上,那么本句的意思就对了,实际上句首的An impact之后被省略了一个on mars,所以原文的such an event on moon,指的是An impact on moon capable of ejecting a fragment of the lunar surface into an Earth-intersecting orbit.因此如果把原文补全,则句子就变成了下面的样子:An impact capable of ejecting a fragment of the martian surface into an Earth-ibntersecting orbit is even less probable than an impact on moon capable of ejecting a fragment of the lunar surface into an Earth-intersecting orbit, in view of the Moon’s smaller size and closer proximiy to Earth.
    • 意群训练:An impact (on the Mars) capable of ejecting a fragment of the Martian surface into an Earth-intersecting orbit is even less probable than such an event on the Moon, in view of the Moon’s smaller size and closer proximity to Earth.
  81. Not only are liver transplants never rejected,but they even induce a state of donor-specific unresponsiveness in which subsequent transplants of other organs,such as skin,from that  donor are accepted permanently. (4)
    • 但是,我们已经发现,在许多种老鼠之间,这些移植法的“常规”并没有被肝脏移植物所遵循。肝脏移植物非但从没遭到过排斥,甚至还诱发了一种供者特异性无应答状态(donor-specific unresponsiveness),在此状态中,随后来自那个供者其它器官的移植物,如皮肤,会永久地被接受。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装
    • 解释:Not only放在句首时谓语被提前,这种倒装对我们的读者来讲不算什么新鲜事。干扰度比较大的是在修饰unresponsiveness的定语从句in which subsequent transplants of other organs, such as skin, from that donor are accepted permanently中,插入语such as skin和前面的transplants搭配的from that donor共同作用,反复地打断读者的思路,使得从句中主语和谓语不能连贯。
    • 意群训练:Not only are liver transplants never rejected,but they even induce a state of donor-specific unresponsiveness in which subsequent transplants of other organs,such as skin,from that  donor are accepted permanently.
  82. As rock interface are crossed, the elastic characteristics encountered (by seismic waves)generally change abruptly, which causes part of the energy to be reflected back to the surface, where it is recorded by seismic instruments. (4)
    • 当岩石界面被穿过的时候,震波所遇到的弹性性质通常会发生突然的变化,这就使得一部分能量被反射回地面,在地面反射回来的波被震波纪录仪记录下来。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、过去分词与谓语易混
    • 解释:绝大多数人读到the elastic characteristics encountered generally change abruptly这一句的时候,第一反应都是把encountered看成了谓语动词,再看到change abruptly的时候又搞不苾怎么会跑出来两个动词,反复看上n遍才看清楚这句话的结构。本句难就难在主语the elastic characteristics后面的表示袪的过去分词encountered的动作发出者在句子中根本就没有出现过,相当于原文在encountered后面省略了一个by seismic waves,倡读者却没有心理准备,同时也不熟悉这种分词修饰的方式,因此也难以读懂。
    • 意群训练:As rock interface are crossed, the elastic characteristics encountered (by seismic waves)generally change abruptly, which causes part of the energy to be reflected back to the surface, where it is recorded by seismic instruments.
  83. While the new doctrine seems almost certainly correct,the one papyrus fragment raises the specter that another may be unearthed,showing,for instance,that it was a posthumous production of the Danaid tetralogy which bested Sophocles,and throwing the date once  more into utter confusion. (4)
    • 数据资料已被统计出来,或被重新统计出来,以便证明在文体学这方面,《乞援衰女》实际上确实在《波斯人》和《七雄攻忒拜》(后两者现在则变成了“原始”的剧作)之后以及在轴残片却唤起了一种幽灵似的疑虑,即另一块残片有可能再度被挖掘出来,并证明,比如说,《乞援衰女》是作者藉以击败索福克勒斯的《达那特四部曲》的一部死后出版之作,从而将创作年代再度置于极度的混乱之中.
    • 注:best:击败,=defeat, overcome, outdo
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:specter之后的that从句是specter的同位语,从句中有两个分词作状语,中间由and 连接。其中以第一个分词结构showing that it was a posthumous production of the Danaid tetralogy which bested Sophocles的意思较为难懂,有两个地方要解释一下:
    • 首先,best 在这里的用法我们以前很少见到,用作及物动词,是击败后者的意思,等于defeat,overcome或outdo。
    • 其次,a posthumous production of the Danaid tetralogy这种说法不符合我们的常规想法,我们看到 a posthumous production of 的时候,根据中文的语言习惯,惯性的到of之后去找人名,但是看到后面跟着的是作品名,就想不通了,与中文不同的是,英文中的遗作后面不一定只能接人名,接作品名的时候指的是作品在作者死前未发表的那一部分,比如本文的四部曲,可能作者死前全部写好,但只发表了三部,但是死后发表的遗作第四部击败了S。
    • 意群训练:While the new doctrine seems almost certainly correct,the one papyrus fragment raises the specter that another may be unearthed,showing,for instance,that it was a posthumous production of the Danaid tetralogy which bested Sophocles,and throwing the date once  more into utter confusion.
  84. The methods that a community devises to perpetuate itself come into being to preserve aspects of the cultural legacy that that community perceives as essential. (3+)
    • 一个社会所创造出来藉以使其自身生生不息、恒久不衰的方法得以形成产生,以保存在这个社会看来具有本质意义的文化遗产的各个方面。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句是前面所举的复杂修饰类难句的例句,已经有所详述。
    • 意群训练:The methods that a community devises to perpetuate itself come into being to preserve aspects of the cultural legacy that that community perceives as essential.
  85. Traditionally, pollination by wind has been viewed as a reproductive process marked by random events in which the vagaries of the wind are compensated for by the generation of vast quantities of pollen, so that the ultimate production of new seeds is assured at the expense of producing much more pollen than is actually used. (4)
    • 传统上,风媒传粉被看成是这样的繁殖过程:其特征就是由一些随即事件的发生,在这些随机事件里,风的反复无常被大量的产生花粉所补偿,以至于新种子的最终产生被保证了,其代价是产生远远多于实际使用量的花粉。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:笔者曾经遇到过一个同学,下课以后来找我,说这篇文章读得不好,因为首段的两句话看不懂。这篇文章的首段很长,但仅由两句话构成,不但讲述了老观点的内容,而且解释了这篇文章的主题的所在,从这里我们可以看出在现场迅速读懂难句的重要性。Marked by之后的内容修饰reproductive process的。其后的random events后面又跟着一个定语从句来修饰它。从句中的被动语态the vagaries of the wind are compensated for by the generation of vast quantities of pollen有些特殊,因为文中不是按照中文的习惯说are compensated,而是说compensated for,这是由于主语the vagaries of the wind并不是被补偿的对象,而是补偿的对象,后面的at the expense of是以…为代价的意思。
    • 意群训练:Traditionally, pollination by wind has been viewed as a reproductive process marked by random events in which the vagaries of the wind are compensated for by the generation of vast quantities of pollen, so that the ultimate production of new seeds is assured at the expense of producing much more pollen than is actually used. 
  86. Because the potential hazards pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous,wind pollinated plants have,in the view above,compensated for the  ensuing loss of pollen through happenstance by virtue of producing an amount of pollen that is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the amount produced by species pollinated by insects. (5)
    • 由于花粉粒在其长距离的运输过程中所要面临的潜在危险是巨大的,按上述观点来看,由风授粉的植物补偿了通过偶发事件而伴随造成的花粉损失。其途径是,制造出大于昆虫授粉的植物种类所产生的花粉量的一至三个数量级的花粉量。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:本句就是上面所说的构成本篇文章首段的第二句话,而且本句的难度超过上一句。本句一上来就不好读,Because the potential hazards that pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous,其中主语后的pollen grains are subject to本来就是一个定语从句,但是由于主语the potential hazards在从句中作介词to的宾语,所以引导词that被省略,这就显得句子的结构模糊不清,再加上as引导的状语从句,隔开了主语和谓语,给读者造成了较大的阅读困难。后面的分句中,句子的结构更为复杂:插入语、定语和状语层层相套。有两个词组需要解释一下:orders of magnitude指的是数量级,其中order是等级、级别的意思,而magnitude在此不是指重要、星球的光亮度,指的是尺寸大小和数量多少的程度,同义词是size,quantity,number。后面的speciespollinated by insects特指虫媒植物。
    • 意群训练:Because the potential hazards pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous,wind pollinated plants have,in the view above,compensated for the  ensuing loss of pollen through happenstance by virtue of producing an amount of pollen that is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the amount produced by species pollinated by insects.
  87. For example,the spiral arrangement of scale-bract complexes on ovule-bearing pine cones,where the female reproductive organs of conifers are located,is important to the production of airflow patterns that spiral over the cone’s surfaces,thereby passing airborne pollen from one scale to the next. (5)
    • 例如,带有胚珠的松球的鳞苞综合体的螺旋状安排,亦即松柏目植物雌性殖器官的所在位置,对于气流模式的形成与产生殊为重要,而这些气流模式在松球的表现盘旋上升,从而把在空气中飞行的花粉从一个鳞苞传播至下一个鳞苞。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、专有名词
    • 解释:本句的两大难点中,一是结构复杂,二是专有名词较多。在主语the spiral arrangement之后,出现了长长的定语,其中套了三层修饰,这样读者就难以把主语和谓语联系到一块。另外,句中的大量生词也明显干扰了我们的理解,spiral arrangment(螺旋状安排)、scale-bract complexes(鳞苞综合体)、ovule-bearing(携带胚珠的)、pine cones(松果)、female reproductive organ(雌性生殖器官)、airflow pattern(气流模式)等。其中只有后面的三个单词我们有可能根据常识大概猜出其含义。那么现场阅读时遇到这种东西又该如何处理呢?
    • 可以肯定的是ETS的出题者并没有期望读者都是生物学家或物理学家,而且从众多的出题的情况来看,也根本不可能考到任何必须对专有名词作精确理解的内容。读到这种东西的时候,读者的首要任务是从联系文章出题的角度,读出这句话与文章主题有关的意思,从而理解它在文章中的作用。比如这个句子,读者只要能够读出the arrangement of female reproductive organs of conifers are important to reduce the ollen waste这个意思即可。
    • 意群训练:For example,the spiral arrangement of scale-bract complexes on ovule-bearing pine cones,where the female reproductive organs of conifers are located,is important to the production of airflow patterns that spiral over the cone’s surfaces,thereby passing airborne pollen from one scale to the next.
  88. Friedrich Engels, however, predicted that women would be liberated from the “social, legal, and economic subordination” of the family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of “the whole female sex into public industry”. (3+)
    • FE,却预测妇女们将被从家庭的“社会、法律和经济压迫”中解放出来,只是通过使得征召“整个女性阶层进入公共的工业中去”成为可能的技术进步的方式做到的。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装
    • 解释:本句的前半部分简单,后面的宾语从句中的第二个状语by technological developments 后面跟着的定语从句中出现了倒装:the made/possible/the recruitment of the whole female sex into public industry的正常语序应该是that made the recruiment of the whole female sex into public industry/possible/,固定搭配make…possible中的副词possible被倒装到了前面。
    • 意群训练:Friedrich Engels, however, predicted that women would be liberated from the “social, legal, and economic subordination” of the family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of “the whole female sex into public industry”.
  89. It was not the change in office technology,but rather the separation of secretarial work,  previously seen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers,from administrative work that in the 1880’s created a new class of "dead-end" jobs,thenceforth considered "women’s work." (5)十九世纪八十年代,产生了新的一类“没前途”的职业,这并不是因为办公室技术发生了改变,而是由于秘书工作——在此之前被视作是初起步的经理们的一种习见训练——与行政工作的分离。自此以后,这类“没前途”的职业便被视作是“女人的工作。”
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:这句话的结构是It was something that,,,It是形式主语,其真正的内容是was之后、that、之前的something的内容。本句的something结构复杂、长度惊人,并且包含了一个较长的插入语,把固定搭配separation from分开,造成了极大的阅读困难,其实这个句子说得简单就是It was the separation of secretarial work from administrative work that created a new class of jobs。
    • 意群训练:It was not the change in office technology,but rather the separation of secretarial work,  previously seen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers,from administrative work that in the 1880’s created a new class of "dead-end" jobs,thenceforth considered "women’s work."
    • 注:本文难度再分不清separation … from 的搭配关系
  90. The increase in the numbers of married women employed outside the home in the twentieth  century had less to do with the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it did with their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool of single women workers,previously,in many cases,the only women employers would hire. (5)
    • 二十世纪已婚妇女在家庭以外就业的人数不断增加,这与家务的机械化及这些妇女闲暇时间的增加并无多大联系,更多地是与妇女自身的经济需要和高婚姻率相关。高婚姻率致使所能雇佣的单身女工的总量缩减,而在此之前的许多情形中,单身女性则是雇主们所愿雇佣的唯一—一类妇女。 The pool of 如果后面跟着一群人,则表示劳动力资源
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:主语the increase之后照例来了一堆修饰成分。后面的had less to do with…than do with…的意思是与前面的东西的关系不如与后面的关系那么重要,相当于中文的与其说还不如说…。但是本句的比较双方都是又臭又长的由and所连接的两个名词性短语,令读者阅读时的思维难以连贯。The pool of如果后面跟着一种人群,则这个词组指劳动力资源。
    • 意群训练:The increase in the numbers of married women employed outside the home in the twentieth  century had less to do with the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it did with their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool of single women workers,previously,in many cases,the only women employers would hire.
  91. For one thing, no population can be driven entirely by density-independent factors all the time.(5)难句类型:正话反说
    • 请思考:如果文中说这句话的前提是:all population are driven by two (and only two) categories of growth parameters, one is density-independent factors, and the other is density-independent factors. 那么作者说上面的这句话有什么用意。
    • 解释:本句虽然貌不惊人,但本书既然将其收录进来,并标出难度5,就意味着其中有怪异之处。值得一提的是,本文前面曾把控制种群密度的因素分为两种,一种叫做density-dependent factors(这里简称d-d因素),另一种叫做dentsity-independent factors(简称d-I因素)。原文的直译虽然好懂,但是总令人感觉说得不甚明白。显然,GRE或GMAT的作者不可能随便说一句无关痛痒的话,那么没有任何种群能够在所有的时间全被d-I因素所控制,其真正意思是什么呢?就是:一切种群都必然在某个时间内受到d-d因素的控制。本句是ETS在考试中惯用的正话反说的典型例子,请读者深沉体会。本句在文章中也是理解作者态度的关键所在。
    • 意群训练:For one thing, no population can be driven entirely by density-independent factors all the time.
  92. In order to understand the nature of the ecologist’s investigation,we may think of the density-dependent effects on growth parameters as the "signal" ecologists are trying to isolate and interpret,one that tends to make the population increase from relatively low values or decrease from relatively high ones,while the density-independent effects act to produce "noise" in the population dynamics. (5)
    • 为了能理解生态学家们所从事的研究的性质,我们可以把那些作用于增长参数的密度依赖效应视作生态学家们力图将其分离并予以解释的“信号”,正是这一信号倾向于使种群从相对较低的数值递增,或从相对较高的数值递减;而与此同时,那些密度独立效应起到的作用则构成了种群动态变化中的“噪音”。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:句子不仅很长,而且有两个地方看上去不舒服,第一:think of ..as…不是很常见,其实think of 这个词组就等于consider,imagine,加上后面的as就是把….认为是…的意思。第二个不习惯的地方是signal后面的大段修饰语,不但长度很长,而且在signal后面还省略了一个that,正常应该是the signal that ecologists are trying to isolate and interpret,,与前面见过对that的省略不同的是,这次that在句中不是句子的宾语,而是不定式动词的宾语。
    • 意群训练:In order to understand the nature of the ecologist’s investigation,we may think of the density-dependent effects on growth parameters as the "signal" ecologists are trying to isolate and interpret,one that tends to make the population increase from relatively low values or decrease from relatively high ones,while the density-independent effects act to produce "noise" in the population dynamics.
  93. But the play’s complex view of Black self-esteem and human solidarity as compatible is no more "contradictory" than Du Bois’ famous,well-considered ideal of ethnic self-awareness  coexisting with human unity,or Fanon’s emphasis on an ideal internationalism that also accommodates national identities and roles. (5)
    • 但该剧有关黑人自尊可与人类团结相融合这一复杂观点,丝毫都不比杜波伊斯(Du Bois)的理想或法侬(Fanon)的强调来得更为“矛盾”:杜波伊斯提出的著名的、深思熟虑的理想是,民族的自觉可以和人类大同共存;法侬则对理想的国际主义进行了强调,而这一理想的国际主义同样也能兼容民族身份与角色。 No more … than :一样不
    • 注:view Black self-esteem and human solidarity
    • ideal ethnic self-awareness coexisting with human unity
    • emphasis national identities and roles accommodates internationalism
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、抽象词
    • 解释:本句的一个大难点就是对A no more “contradictory” than B的理解,与我们想当然的意思正相反,其意思不是A不如B更矛盾,而是A与B同样都不矛盾。A no more…than B这个固定搭配的意思是A与B一样都不….例如:I can no more swim than a hammar并不是说我游泳不如锤子游得好,而是说我与锤子一样都无法游泳。
    • 另一个难点在于句子中大量的抽象词,给读者的词汇能力提出了较高的要求。但是功底较好的读者应该可以发现,句中用来比较的前后项中的描述三个作家的九组词汇形成了一个3×4的同义词矩阵,如上述的注。每一列都是同义词,可以看出,这三个人的观点是相同的,也可以看出作者英语功底之深。
    • 意群训练:But the play’s complex view of Black self-esteem and human solidarity as compatible is no more "contradictory" than Du Bois’ famous,well-considered ideal of ethnic self-awareness  coexisting with human unity,or Fanon’s emphasis on an ideal internationalism that also accommodates national identities and roles.
  94. In which of the following does the author of the passage reinforce his criticism of responses such as Isaacs’ to Raisin in the Sun?难句类型:复杂修饰、题干圈套 (5)
    • 在以下哪一个选项中,文章的作者加强了她对类似这样的对于《》做出的反应的批判呢?
    • 解释:为了对应原文,以上中文的翻译显得很笨拙,请读者原谅。需要说明的是,本题号称GRE五大难题之一。对于此题的市面上众说纷纭,皆不得要领,笔者很高兴能通过这本书把此题讲清楚,一来以正视听,二来解决同学们的疑难,三来提示ETS出题者的叵测居心。
    • 此题之所以难解,是因为题干中藏有圈套。请仔细观察题干,它问的是作者对谁的批评?是对I一伙的所有批评家的responses还是对I个人的responses做出的批评呢?当然是对所有的responses。出题者在此设下陷阱,让读者怎么看都像是对I的responses的批评,可是文章中对于I的描述并没有能和选项匹配的说法,因此用I到文中去定位,这道题当然无法做出:而文中对与I抱有相同观点的全体评论家们对<太阳下的葡萄干>一书的反应的描述十分清楚:Indeed, a curiously persistent refusal to credit Hansberry with a capacity for intentional irony has led some critics to interpret the play’s thematic conflicts as mere confusion,contradiction, or eclecticism.Isaac, for exmaple,…
    • 评论家们从一个错误的前提(即H不能intentianl icrony)推出一个错误结论,那么我们的作者应该怎么批评他们呢?当然要驳倒其assumption,说H是能作intentinal irony的。我们于是看到了D选项,intentianal 的完美的同义词:well-considered.从本题中可以体会到,对于句子的阅读能力是多么重要。
    • 意群训练:In which of the following does the author of the passage reinforce his criticism of responses such as Isaacs’ to Raisin in the Sun?
  95. Inheritors of some of the viewpoints of early twentieth-century Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker,these recent historians have put forward arguments that deserve evaluation. (3+)
    • 作为二十世纪早期“进步派”史学家(如Beard和Becker)等人某些观点的继承者,这些近期的史学家所提出的观点值得我们予以评价。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:看够了后置的修饰成分,我们来看一个放在前面的同位语。Inheritors之后的长长的复合结构是主句的主语these recent historians的同位语。本句稍微有些难的地方在于,很容易把B和B与recent historians的关系看错。正确的理解是:recent historians是B和B的后继者,而不是相反。
    • 意群训练:Inheritors of some of the viewpoints of early twentieth-century Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker,these recent historians have put forward arguments that deserve evaluation.
  96. Despite these vague categories,one should not claim unequivocally that hostility between recognizable classes cannot be legitimately observed. (5)
    • 尽管存在这些模糊范畴,但我们不应该断然声称,在各个易于辨认出的阶层之间所存在的敌对态度就无法被合理地观察到。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、三重否定
    • 解释:从这个例子可以看出,句子的难度也不全是与其长度成正比。比如这句话,既不算长又没有什么不认识的单词,但是偏偏很难看懂。看不懂的原因,是写文章的人使用了三重否定,should not unequivocally, cannot。在这里,可以明显看出ETS在考查我们的阅读能力,因为如果想把句子肯定的语气而不改变句子的意思是很容易的。Despite these vage categories, one may still claim definitely that hostility between discernable classes can be validely observed.
    • 意群训练:Despite these vague categories,one should not claim unequivocally that hostility between recognizable classes cannot be legitimately observed.
  97. Yet those who stress the achievement of a general consensus among the colonists cannot fully understand that consensus without understanding the conflicts that had to be overcome or repressed in order to reach it. (5+)
    • 然而,有些史学家强调在殖民者之间曾出现过一种普遍的一致意见。这些史学家如果不认识到各种矛盾的存在,就无法充分地理解这种一致意见,而所有那些矛盾只有在被克服或压制之后才有可能获得那种一致意见。 It 指代:general consensus
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、双重否定
    • 解释:本句同样不算长,但是难度却超乎寻常,而且本句在文章中是最后一句,文章的作者用本句话给出了他对文章中心论题的最后态度,不可谓不重要。据笔者观察,能够现场读懂这句话的读者绝不超过20%。
    • 本句之所以难,是因为三个原因,第一,句子中的复杂修饰带给读者思维上的困难。第二,本句without引导的条件状语的表述不符合读者大脑中的语言及思维习惯。Without引导的介词结构作条件状语,在中文里面不一定要像笔者上面给出的翻译一样,要放在其推出的结论的前面,相当于,如果不…则…,而在英文中,它既可以放在前面,也可以后面,而且以出现在后面的情况居多。这就造成了中国读者的思维上的不习惯。不但如此,without之后的表达也让人看得不舒服,我们习惯的表达是without understanding that the conflicts had to be overcome or repressed in order to reach it.而句中把the conflicts和that调换了一下,变成了without understanding the conflict that had to be overcome or repressed in oreder to reach it,从语法上可通,但从句义上却看起来别扭。作者为什么不用看起来更通顺的前一种说法呢?这是因为两者的意思上存在细微的差别。前者强调的是要去理解泛指的矛盾被克服这件事,而后者强调的是要去正确理解特指的需要被克服才是理解整个抗英斗争的着急。
    • 另外,句中的consensus和最后的it都是指殖民者的一致抗英的共识。
    • 本句给读者造成的最大困难还在于它使用了双重否定,如果不理解那些必须被克服的矛盾,就不能理解这些共识,其意思就是只有理解了那些必须被克服的矛盾,才有可能理解这些共识。请读者反复阅读,以熟练掌握这种对于多重否定的思维转换。
    • 意群训练:Yet those who stress the achievement of a general consensus among the colonists cannot fully understand that consensus without understanding the conflicts that had to be overcome or repressed in order to reach it.
  98. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements regarding socioeconomic class and support for the rebel and Loyalist causes during the American Revolutionary War?(5)插入语多
    • 从文章中可以推断出来,作者最有可能同意以下哪一个关于在美国革命战争中的社会经济各阶层及其对叛党和保王党的支持的陈述?
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:句子是在regarding之后才开始难懂的。Regarding引导一个分词结构,修饰statement。分词中regard的宾语有两个,一个是socioeconomic class,另一个是support for the rebel and Loyallist caused,中间由and相连接,本句的不好懂之处在于,我们对support 的第一反应是把它当成动词,这样就有可能理解成and support for是与前面的agree with并列的谓语,当然这种理解在语法上是成立的,然而在逻辑上不成立。正确的理解是support作名词,与socioeconomic class并列。其实本题干的意思就是在问哪个阶层的人会支持哪一方。
    • 意群训练:It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements regarding socioeconomic class and support for the rebel and Loyalist causes during the American Revolutionary War?
  99. She wished to discard the traditional methods and established vocabularies of such dance forms as ballet and to explore the internal sources of human expressiveness.(5)
    • 她希望抛弃传统的方法和像芭蕾舞这样已经确立的舞蹈语言,而希望探索人类表现力的内在源泉。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、省略、抽象词、易淆结构
    • 解释:本句尽管用词抽象,但给读者带来直接威胁的还是句子的结构,句中由两个and连接起三部分内容,这在语法上似乎说不通,可实际上这两个and在句子中所处的层次其实是不同的,第一个and连接了discard的两个宾语,也可以看成是and后面省略了不定式to discard,也就是说第一个and 是在不定式中的并列,而第二个and的层次要高于前面的第一个and。
    • 读者读到established的时候容易犯两种错误,一是把and之后的established看成是与wished并列的谓语,二是把established看成是与discard并列的不定式。其实这两种理解在语法上都行不通;如果与wished并列,则后面要加不定式,如果与discard并列,它本身就必须是动词原型。
    • 其实在阅读的现场,考生根本就没有时间去考虑其语法,上面所说的把established读错,还是因为读者很少见到established作形容词的用法及两个and居于不同层次的情况。
    • 意群训练:She wished to discard the traditional methods and established vocabularies of such dance forms as ballet and to explore the internal sources of human expressiveness.
  100. Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufactures and servicing trades thought their customers wanted,only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. (5)
    • 尽管有可能从实际制造的商品和服务中可推知制造商和服务业认为他们的顾客所需要的是什么,但只有对由实际顾客撰写的相关的个人文件进行一番研究,方能提供一幅精确的图画,藉以说明“什么样的人”需要什么样的东西。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装
    • 解释:前面的it是形式主语,主语真正的内容在不定式中。不定式中的大规模倒装,是这个句子读不懂的主要原因:infer的宾语是what从句,而infer和从句之间被以from为首的作状语的介词结构所分隔。正常语序应该是:to infer what manufactures and servicing trades thought their customers wanted from the goods and services actually produced.后面的分句也不好读:主语很长,而且句末的宾语precise picture后面的修饰成分of who wanted what也是比较少见的。
    • 意群训练:Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufactures and servicing trades thought their customers wanted,only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what.
  101. With regard to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of eighteen-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general: for example, laboring people in eighteen-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.(4)
    • 关于这个最后的问题,我们可以顺便指出,T尽管正确的使劳动人民重返十八世纪英国的历史舞台,但是她又可能吹嘘了这些人对于资本主义消费观在普遍意义上的敌视态度;比如说,十八世纪的英国劳动人民就很容易从家酿的啤酒转而引用由大型的、资本密集的城市酿酒厂生产的标准啤酒。In passing:顺便的、随便的、偶然的
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句的难点就在于句子开始的we might note in passing that Thompson…一句中,不认识in passing这个词组,现场就无法读懂这句话的结构和含义;好在这里这个词组没有什么特别重要的意思,即使跳过也不耽误大事。
    • In passing的意思是:顺便地,随便地或偶然地,其在英文中的同义词就是briefly,incidentally。句子中的note in passing that…就是“顺便提一下”,“简单说一句”的意思。
    • 意群训练:With regard to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of eighteen-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general: for example, laboring people in eighteen-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries.
  102. The correlation of carbon dioxide with temperature, of course, does not establish whether changes in atmospheric composition caused the warming and cooling trends or were caused by their.(4+)
    • 当然二氧化碳与大气温度之间的相互联系并不能确定到底是大气成分的变化引起了气候的变暖和变冷的趋势,还是大气成分的变化是由气候的冷暖变化造成的。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
    • 解释:本句主句中的谓语establish在GRE、GMAT和LSAT的阅读文章中除了可以作建立的意思以外,还有一个更常用的意思,就是确定、确证的意思,等于determine, prove或confirm,另外,本句的省略很容易使读者将指代关系搞混:在最后的or were caused by their当中,存在两处省略:or之后省略了与whether一句中相同的主语changes (in atmospheric composition);最后的their之后又省略了与whether从句中的主语一样的changes。这里不管将their之后被省略的内容看成是warming and cooling trends还是看成composition都是错误理解。
    • 意群训练:The correlation of carbon dioxide with temperature, of course, does not establish whether changes in atmospheric composition caused the warming and cooling trends or were caused by their.
  103. Such philosophical concerns as the mind-body problem or,more generally,the nature of  human knowledge they believe,are basic human questions whose tentative philosophical solutions have served as the necessary foundations on which all other intellectual speculation has rested. (5 -)
    • 他们相信,诸如灵与肉的问题,或更普遍而言,人类知识的性质等此类哲学关注,均是一些基本的人类问题,其探索性的哲学答案已构成一个必要的基础,其它所有的智力思辩均赖以建立其上。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装、抽象词
    • 解释:本篇文章所讨论的主题就是哲学的起源问题,因此在这篇文章中出现大量的抽象词,是理所当然的。
    • 然而本句的开始的结构比较特殊,出现了一个倒装结构,正常的语序应该是:They believe that such philosophical concerns as the mind-body problem or, more generrally, the nature of human knowledge, are basic human question…。笔者说此结构特殊,并不是因为我们司空见惯了的倒装本身,而是因为从句子的结构来讲,此倒装毫无必要,并无头重脚轻之虞。作者之所以这样写,一是为了强调句首的、作为文章主题的哲学,二是为了使句式有所变化,不至于过分单一,三是为了为难一下考生,看看读者看懂了没有,后面就对这句话出了一道题。
    • 意群训练:Such philosophical concerns as the mind-body problem or,more generally,the nature of  human knowledge they believe,are basic human questions whose tentative philosophical solutions have served as the necessary foundations on which all other intellectual speculation has rested.
  104. The idea of an autonomous discipline called "philosophy," distinct from and sitting in judgment on such pursuits as theology and science turns out, on close examination,to be of quite recent origin. (4)
    • 细作审视,我们便不难发现,一种被称为“哲学”的独立学科——既有别于神学和科学诸般学科,并高高在上地对其予以评判——的思想,其渊源却是甚为近期的事。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:本句与上面那句话出自同一篇文章,因此用户仍很抽象,在此解释几个对读句子比较重要的单词。
    • sit in judgment on :审视,做出判断,本文中特指文章前面所说的superior to;
    • pursuit:不是追求,而是指被从事的事业=occupation, career, interest, etc.
    • turn out:被证明是,实际是,同义词有:prove to be, be discovered to be。
    • 这句话除了单词的问题之外,两个插入语把主谓宾全部隔开,尤其是第一个插入语还很长,造成了我们阅读的困难。
    • 意群训练:The idea of an autonomous discipline called "philosophy," distinct from and sitting in judgment on such pursuits as theology and science turns out, on close examination,to be of quite recent origin.
  105. They were fighting, albeit discreetly, to open the intellectual world to the new science and to liberate intellectual life from ecclesiastical philosophy and envisioned their work as contributing to the growth, not of philosophy, but of research in mathematics and physics.(5-)他们战斗着,尽管是谨慎的,来为学术界打开新科学的大门,而且去把学术生活从宗教哲学中解脱出来,而且他们把自己的工作看成是对科学和物理学而不是对哲学成长做出了贡献。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略、抽象词
    • 解释:本句再一次出现两个and连接三个不属于同一层面的成分的情况:第一个and 连接两个并列的不定式,第二个and的级别较高,连接前后两个并列的句子,and之后相当于省略了主语they.第二个插入语起到的干扰作用比较大,把the growth of分割成了the growth, not of philosophy, but of…。
    • 意群训练:They were fighting, albeit discreetly, to open the intellectual world to the new science and to liberate intellectual life from ecclesiastical philosophy and envisioned their work as contributing to the growth, not of philosophy, but of research in mathematics and physics.
  106. But the recent discovery of detailed similarities in the skeletal structure of the flippers in all three groups undermines the attempt to explain away superficial resemblance as due to convergent  evolution — the independent development of similarities between unrelated groups in response to similar environmental pressures. (4)
    • 但是,最近在所有这三类动物身上,对鳍肢的骨骼结构所存在的细致共同点的发现足以削弱这样一种企图,即把表面上的近似作为趋同进化所致的结果来将其解释掉。而所谓的趋同进化(convergent evolution),是指在互不相关的生物群体之间,作为对类似的环境压力作出的反应,彼此独立的发展形成某些相同特征。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:读者大概也看出来了,本句的最大特点就是长,复杂修饰的长主语,复杂修饰的长宾语,中间以谓语undermines相连。修饰attempt的不定式中的to explain away something as…意思是把某件事情当作后面的东西解释掉。本句在文中起到了一个极为重要的作用,后面有一道题专门对本句提问。现场这种句子能否顺利看懂,会对考生考试的分数起到直接影响。
    • 意群训练:But the recent discovery of detailed similarities in the skeletal structure of the flippers in all three groups undermines the attempt to explain away superficial resemblance as due to convergent  evolution — the independent development of similarities between unrelated groups in response to similar environmental pressures.
  107. Human genes contain too little information even to specify which hemisphere of the brain  each of a human’s 10’’ neurons should occupy,let alone the hundreds of connections that each neuron makes. (5)
    • 人类因基所包含的信息是如此之少,以致于就连去具体规定人类1011的神经细胞中任意一个细胞应占据大脑的哪个半脑都无法做到,更不用提每个神经细胞所会形成的数百种连接。
    • 难句类型:倒装、省略
    • 解释:本句在固定搭配too little information even to specify之后,是一个大型倒装,正常的语序应该是:
    • Human genes contain too little information even to specify that each of a human’s 10’’ neurons should occupy which hemisphere of the brain, let alone the hundreds of connections that each neuron makes.
    • 固定搭配too..to是太怎么样以至不能如何的意思,其后的specify后面的内容实际上是一个宾语从句。文章的作者把从句中的宾语提到主语和谓语之前,并省略引导词that,使得句子非常难以读懂。最后的let alone的意思是表示递进的“更不要说,何况”。
    • 意群训练:Human genes contain too little information even to specify which hemisphere of the brain  each of a human’s 10’’ neurons should occupy,let alone the hundreds of connections that each neuron makes.
  108. For the woman who is a practitioner of feminist literary criticism, the subjectivity versus objectivity, or critic-as-artist-or-scientist, debate has special significance; for her, the question is not only academic, but political as well, and her definition will court special risks whichever side of the issue it favors.(5)
    • 对于一个从事女权主义文学评论的妇女来说,主观性还是客观性,或者说评论家应该做艺术家还是作科学家的争论有着特殊的重要性;对她来说,此问题不仅仅是学术上的,而且还是政治上的,并且她所给出的定义,不管有利于问题的哪一方面,都会招致特殊的风险。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装、省略、抽象词、易淆指代
    • 解释:首先解释一下几个词汇:versus:在这里不是前面的against的意思,它和后面的or都是“是….还是…”的意思,其英文释义为:in contrast to or as the alternative of free trade versus pretection 。court:招致(风险、失败),英文释义:to act as to invite or provoke (courts disaster)。
    • 分号前面的句子的主语被插入语”or critic-as-artist-or-scientist”分开,正常情况下应该是the subjectivity versus objectivity debate。这种名词修饰名词的情况在GRE和GMAT考试中是常见的,如前面讲过的句子中出现的mind-body problem。
    • 最后的条件状语从句whichever side of the issue it favors看上去不难,但却不好理解,首先是whichever被提前的表示方法,相当于no matter it favors which side of the issue 的倒装,no matter被省略,which提前并改成了whichever,后面的side of the issue也被提前到主谓it favors之前,issue在此之前面的主要问题,即主观性还是客观性的问题,而it前面的名词太多,一下子不好辨别,其实就是指本句的主语her definition。
    • 意群训练:For the woman who is a practitioner of feminist literary criticism, the subjectivity versus objectivity, or critic-as-artist-or-scientist, debate has special significance; for her, the question is not only academic, but political as well, and her definition will court special risks whichever side of the issue it favors.
  109. If she defines feminist criticism as objective and scientific – a valid, verifiable, intellectual method that anyone, whether man or woman , can perform – the definition not only precludes the critic-as-artist approach, but may also impede accomplishment of the utilitarian political objectives of those who seek to change the academic establishment and its thinking, especially about sex roles.(4)假如她把女权主义文学评论定义为客观的和科学性的——一个有效的、可证实的、理性的、无论男女都可以使用的方法——那么,这个定义不仅将排挤掉批评家作为艺术家的方法,而且可能会阻碍那些寻求改变学术界的现状的及其思维,特别是有关性别角色的思维的人们的实用主义的政治目标的成就。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:这句话在原文中紧接着上例的难句,句中的插入语虽然长,但是并不打断正常的语义,因此不算难懂;但是but also之后的分句中的宾语accomplishment的修饰成分实在太复杂,而且充斥着各色的极端抽象的词汇,没有一定的词汇功底,这句话的意思是不容易看懂的。
    • 意群训练:If she defines feminist criticism as objective and scientific – a valid, verifiable, intellectual method that anyone, whether man or woman , can perform – the definition not only precludes the critic-as-artist approach, but may also impede accomplishment of the utilitarian political objectives of those who seek to change the academic establishment and its thinking, especially about sex roles.
  110. These questions are political in the sense that the debate over them will inevitably be less an exploration of abstract matters in a spirit of disinterested inquiry than an academic power struggle in which the careers and professional fortunes of many women scholars-only now entering the academic profession in substantial numbers-will be at stake,and with them the chances for a distinctive contribution to humanistic understanding,a contribution that might be an important influence against sexism in our society. (5+)
    • 这些问题之所以带有政治性质,因为不可避免地,围绕这些问题展开的争论与其说是一种在客观冷静科研精神指导下对抽象问题的探索,倒不如说是一种学术上的权力斗争。在此斗争中,许多女学者中——只是在现在才开始以众多的人数进入学术界——的学术生涯和职业命运将处于存亡攸关的危急关头,与她们相伴随的是对人文理解作出一种独特贡献的机遇,这一贡献则很有可能成为消除我们社会中所存在的性别主义的一股重要影响。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略、抽象词
    • 解释:相信有不少同学在阅读现场看到这个长达10行,不算标点就有81个单词的庞然大句的时候,不禁心为之颤、色为之变、气为之短、胆为之寒。曾经有人把GRE戏称为God Read English,我们果然在这个句子中看到了“天书”的风采。
    • 经笔者认真的统计,本句是一切英语考试中所出现的最长的句子。而值得一提的是,笔者自己当初在模考中读到此处时,却根本没有感觉到这个句子的长短,只是在模考结束以后回头看文章的时候,才发觉这个文章中的第三段整个就是一句话。其原因在于笔者当时已经对GRE考试中出现的阅读难句做过认真的、系统的训练,而经过难句训练的人在读文章的时候、既不看句子的长短,也不想句子的结构,只看句子的意思。其道理在于,他读过太多遍的长句子,以至于对句子的长度早已麻木,而且也太熟悉这些句子的语法结构,不用想就知道这些结构所表达的含义,这才是我们训练难句的最终目的。
    • 本句的主句极短,难就难在从in the sense that开始到整句话结束为止的状语上。That引导的从句作sense的同位语,从句中的主架构还是前面曾经讲过的less…than…的结构,译成“与其说是…还不如说是”and后面是一个独立的介词结构,作者用它来强调女评论家的重要性。可以理解成作者在with them are the chances.中省略了系动词are.
    • 意群训练:These questions are political in the sense that the debate over them will inevitably be less an exploration of abstract matters in a spirit of disinterested inquiry than an academic power struggle in which the careers and professional fortunes of many women scholars-only now entering the academic profession in substantial numbers-will be at stake,and with them the chances for a distinctive contribution to humanistic understanding,a contribution that might be an important influence against sexism in our society.
  111. Perhaps he believed that he could not criticize American foreign policy without endangering the support for civil rights that he had won from the federal government.(4-)他有可能相信,他不能够即批评美国的对外政策,同时又不危及到他从联邦政府那里已经获得的对民权运动的支持。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、正话反说(双重否定)
    • 解释:单从语言上来讲,这句话并不难,但是我们可发觉作者在句子中拐弯抹角的,双重否定的表达,想说的一定不是字面上的意思:这是一个标准的正话反说“他有可能相信,他不能够既批评美国的对外政策,同时又不危及到他从联邦政府那里已经获得的对民权运动的支持。”的实际意思就是:他可能相信,如果他批评美国的对外政策,就有可能会危及到(他从联邦政府那里已经获得的)对民权运动的支持。其实这是一个较为简单的思维转换,也是GRE和GMAT的阅读和逻辑中经常出现的表达方法。希望读者通过反复的训练,迅速习惯这种语言方式。
    • 意群训练:Perhaps he believed that he could not criticize American foreign policy without endangering the support for civil rights that he had won from the federal government.
  112. However, some broods possess a few snails of the opposing hand, and in predominantly sinistral broods, the incidence of dextrality is surprisingly high.(5)可是,一些窝中会有一些相反旋向的蜗牛,而且在主要是左旋的窝种,出现右旋的几率是令人惊奇的高。
    • 难句类型:正话反说(或暗含的强对比)
    • 解释:本句貌不惊人,实无难句之伟岸雄姿,然而不知在考试中难倒了多少英雄好汉,原文的表面意思简单至极,一些窝中会有一些相反旋向的蜗牛,在左旋为主的窝当中,出现右旋的几率是令人惊奇地高,关键是作者只是单纯地想说左旋窝的右旋几率吗?什么是高,是绝对值还是相对值?如果是相对值,那么是与什么相比呢?
    • 这么一提示,读者可能会发现作者的言外之意,作者的真实意图,是想将两种窝的情况做一个对比,把句子补全就是:在左旋窝中会出现右旋,右旋窝中有左旋,而左旋窝中的右旋数量远远高于右旋窝中的左旋数量,这篇文章对这句话出了一道题,答案就是右旋窝中的左旋数量少于左旋窝中的右旋数量。
    • ETS的出题者的语言表述常常像初恋中的腼腆少女,言语间闪烁其辞,留有余味。让我们的考生自己云猜想,恐怕不是出于羞涩;其真实用心和正确含义,关乎读者的考试成败,不可不察。
    • 意群训练:However, some broods possess a few snails of the opposing hand, and in predominantly sinistral broods, the incidence of dextrality is surprisingly high.
  113. In experiments,an injection of cytoplasm from dextral eggs changes the pattern of sinistral eggs,but an injection from sinistral eggs does not influence dextral eggs.
    • 在实验中,用取自右旋卵子的细胞质进行的注射,可改变左旋卵子的模式;用取自左旋卵子的细胞质进行的注射却不能影响到右旋卵子。
    • 难句类型:省略、易淆词
    • 解释:本句与上一句来自于同一篇文章,蜗牛的右旋与左旋,在阅读这篇文章的过程当中,所有同学都在竭尽全力地分清左、右的区别,然而这里的时候,ETS的出题者终于突破了读者的心理防线,彻底地搞混了左右之间的关系。
    • 其实在这里之所以容易搞混,还有一个人为的重要原因,就是这句话使用了大量的省略;方中的changes the pattern of sinisteral eggs后面,实际上省略了一个to dextral,而最后的分句an injection from sinisteral eggs does not influencee dextral eggs,则是an injection of cytoplasm from sinisteral eggs does not influencee the pattern of dextral eggs的省略形式。
    • 意群训练:In experiments,an injection of cytoplasm from dextral eggs changes the pattern of sinistral eggs,but an injection from sinistral eggs does not influence dextral eggs.
  114. Recently some scientists have concluded that meteorites found on Earth and long believed to have a Martian origin might actually have been blasted free of Mars’s gravity by the impact on  Mars of other meteorites. (4+)
    • 最近,某些科学家得出结论认为,那些在地球上发现的并一直被相信源自火星的陨石(meteorite),实际上有可能是由于其它的陨石撞击火星而致使其被震离火星的重力作用范围。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:这个句子难就难在以that引导的宾语从句,从句中的主语是meteorites,修饰它的成分有两个,一个是found on Earth,另一个是long believed to have a Martian origin,两个冻死的成分之间以and 相连接。注意,这里不能把原句理解成是meteorites found on Earth and meteorites long believed to have a Martian origin的省略形式,这个表达是说有两种陨石,一种是地球上发现的,另一种来自于火星,原文所指的是同一批陨石的两个特征,发现于地球,来自于火星。
    • 句子最后的by the impact on Mars of other meteorites读上云令人感到不舒服的原因,是the impact of other meteorites中的impact of 被修饰impact的on Mars分隔开了。
    • 意群训练:Recently some scientists have concluded that meteorites found on Earth and long believed to have a Martian origin might actually have been blasted free of Mars’s gravity by the impact on  Mars of other meteorites.
  115. Under the force of this view,it was perhaps inevitable that the art of rhetoric should pass from the status of being regarded as of questionable worth (because although it might be both a source of pleasure and a means to urge people to right action,it might also be a means to distort truth and a source of misguided action)to the status of being wholly condemned. (4)
    • 在这种观点的力量作用下,一件或许是不可避免的事情发生了:修辞艺术竟然从被视和具有让人怀疑的价值这样一种地位(因为尽管它有可能既构成一种歪曲真理的手段和误导行为的来源)转变到彻底遭谴责的地位。
    • 难句类型:插入语
    • 解释:本句的插入语堪称GRE和GMAT考试中最长的插入语之一。笔者曾在本书前面的讲解中强调过,这种插入语(三行以上)一定要在阅读中毫不犹豫地跳过,读完整个句子后再来读它。否则不但句意无法衔接,而且类似于本句中的from…to…的固定搭配,也会在插入语的干扰下远隔千山万水,在读者的大脑中永无聚首之日。
    • 意群训练:Under the force of this view,it was perhaps inevitable that the art of rhetoric should pass from the status of being regarded as of questionable worth (because although it might be both a source of pleasure and a means to urge people to right action,it might also be a means to distort truth and a source of misguided action)to the status of being wholly condemned.
  116. None of these translations to screen and stage,however,dramatize the anarchy at the  conclusion of A Connecticut Yankee,which ends with the violent overthrow of Morgan’s three-year-old progressive order and his return to the nineteenth century,where he apparently commits suicide after being labeled a lunatic for his incoherent babblings about drawbridges and battlements. (4)
    • 然则,在所有这些被搬上银幕和舞台的改编作品中,没有任何一部作品能生动地再现《康乃涅克州的美国佬》结尾处的无政府状态。而在原作结尾处所描述的情节是,摩根历时三年之久苦心经营的进步事业被暴力推翻,他又重返于十九世纪,在由于他的那些有关吊桥和城垛的语无伦次的唠叨而被列为疯子之后,显然自杀身亡。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、
    • 解释:本句是典型的层层修饰的例子,主句的宾语anarchy被修饰得不像话,以至于笔者用光了三层修饰符号也没有把所有的层次标全(anarchy)与at the conclusion of 之间未做标记,是后者修饰前者),其实这种句子无它,惟长而已,多练即可。
    • 意群训练:None of these translations to screen and stage,however,dramatize the anarchy at the  conclusion of A Connecticut Yankee,which ends with the violent overthrow of Morgan’s three-year-old progressive order and his return to the nineteenth century,where he apparently commits suicide after being labeled a lunatic for his incoherent babblings about drawbridges and battlements.
  117. Calculations of the density of alloys based on Bernal-type models of the alloys metal component agreed fairly well with the experimentally determined values from measurements on alloys consisting of a noble metal together with a metalloid,such as alloys of palladium and silicon,or alloys consisting of iron,phosphorus,and carbon,although small discrepancies remained. (5)
    • 以伯纳尔所建立的旨在研究合金中金属成分的那类模型为基础,研究人员对合金密度进行了计算,这些计算相当程度上与某些合金测量中通过实验确定的数据趋于一致,尽管一些细小的差异依然存在。实验中测量的那类合金由一贵金属和一准金属构成,例如,钯和硅的合金,或由铁、磷、和碳组成的合金。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:前面的分句中同时有两个成分修饰主语Calculations。宾语the experimentally determined value之后的、从from开始一直到although之前的内容修饰宾语,说明宾语中determine的具体方法。
    • 值得注意的是后面的分句中的although。在由两个分句组成的句子中,although如果出现在后面的分句的句首,则其不是表示让步,而是一种委婉地表示转折的语气,相当于but.
    • 意群训练:Calculations of the density of alloys based on Bernal-type models of the alloys metal component agreed fairly well with the experimentally determined values from measurements on alloys consisting of a noble metal together with a metalloid,such as alloys of palladium and silicon,or alloys consisting of iron,phosphorus,and carbon,although small discrepancies remained.
  118. And Walzer advocates as the means of eliminating this tyranny and of restoring genuine equality “the abolition of the power of money outside its sphere”.(4)
    • 而起,W倡议把“在金钱的圈子之外废除金钱的力量”作为笑出这种暴政并且重新获得真正的平等的方法。
    • 难句类型:倒装
    • 解释:本句是典型的倒装,本句的正常语序应该是:And Walzer advocates “the abolition of the power of money outside its sphere” as the means of eliminating this tyranny and of restoring genuine equality/,而句中则把advocates的宾语”the abolition of the poer of money outside its sphere”倒装到了句末。
    • 意群训练:And Walzer advocates as the means of eliminating this tyranny and of restoring genuine equality “the abolition of the power of money outside its sphere”.
  119. It is now established that the Milky Way is far more extended and of much greater mass than was hitherto thought.
    • 现在,这已成为一个不争的事实:银河系要比迄今为止所想象的要来得远为浩瀚广阔,并具有远高得多的质量。(原书无此句)
  120. Is it not tyrannical, in Pascal’s sense, to insist that those who excel in “sensitivity” or “the ability to express compassion” merit equal wealth with those who excel in qualities (such as “the capacity for hard work”) essential in producing wealth? (5)
    • 按照P的观点,坚持那些在“敏感性”或“表达同情心的能力”上突出的人应该与那些在对赚钱很重要的能力(比如“刻苦工作的能力”)上突出的人得到同样的财富,难道这种做法就不是暴政么?
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:句首的it是形式主语,其真正的内容在不定式中,insist引导的宾语从句中的谓语merit是句子的中心难点。因为我们通常只知道merit的名词词义,并不知道它也可以被用作动词,所以此处不容易看懂。其动词的意思是:应该得到……,值得….,英文释义为to deserve, be worthy of。另外,句子作为一个疑问句,却结构复杂,冗长不堪,也是本句难以读懂的一个重要原因。
    • 意群训练:Is it not tyrannical, in Pascal’s sense, to insist that those who excel in “sensitivity” or “the ability to express compassion” merit equal wealth with those who excel in qualities (such as “the capacity for hard work”) essential in producing wealth?
  121. Yet Waizer’s argument,however deficient,does point to one of the most serious weak-  nesses of capitalism-namely,that it brings to predominant positions in a society people who,no matter how legitimately they have earned their material rewards,often lack those other qualities that evoke affection or admiration. (5)
    • 然则,沃尔泽的论点,无论它不充分到何种地步,确实揭示了资本主义体制中最严重的一个弱点,即它将某一类人置于社会中的显赫地位置,这类人无论以怎样合法的方式获得了其物质报偿,却常常缺乏其它那些能唤起他人受戴和钦佩的品质。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、倒装
    • 解释:第一个插入语however deficient 中的however在此不是转折连词,而是副词,等于no matter how,但是因为后面出现了no matter how,而作者又追求语言表述的多样性,所以作者在此使用了however deficient这样较为少见的(但在GRE考试中多见)的语言。
    • 尽管本句的插入语较多,第二个插入语很长,但是本句的真正难点在倒装上。破折号后面的部分是主句宾语的同位语从句,此从句中固定搭配bring A to B被倒装成了bring to BA。如果把这句话恢复成正常语序,则是it brings people who, no matter how legitimately they have earned their materiall rewards, often lask those other qualities that evoke affection or admiration to predominant positions in a society。很明显,这样的语序会显得头重脚轻。
    • 意群训练:Yet Waizer’s argument,however deficient,does point to one of the most serious weak-  nesses of capitalism-namely,that it brings to predominant positions in a society people who,no matter how legitimately they have earned their material rewards,often lack those other qualities that evoke affection or admiration.
  122. The appreciation of traditional oral American Indian literature has been limited,hampered by poor translations and by the difficulty,even in the rare culturally sensitive and aesthetically  satisfying translation,of completely conveying the original’s verse structure,tone,and syntax.(4 - )对美国印第安人传统口头文学的欣赏,一直被质量低劣的翻译所限制和妨碍,并且即使是那种不可多得的既体现着文化敏感性,又在美学上令人满意的译作,也难以完全传递出原作的诗体结构、语调和句法。
    • 注:the difficulty (….) of:括号中的是插入语
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:本句的插入语不好对付,一来它的长度比较长,而且修饰层次多,内容也不甚好懂,二来这个插入语正好嵌在difficulty of的中间,割裂了句意。
    • 意群训练:The appreciation of traditional oral American Indian literature has been limited,hampered by poor translations and by the difficulty,even in the rare culturally sensitive and aesthetically  satisfying translation,of completely conveying the original’s verse structure,tone,and syntax.
  123. Mores, which embodied each culture’s ideal principles for governing every citizen, were developed in the belief that the foundation of a community lies in the cultivation of individual powers to be placed in service to the community. (4+)“风俗习惯”,体现了每一文化制约每个公民的理想准则,它是在这种信仰中发展而来的,即一个社会的基础在于个人能力的培养,并将这些个人能力置于对社会的服务之中。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、抽象词
    • 解释:与前面的绝大多数句子相比,本句的结构算不上复杂。但是由于句意抽象,所以读到the cultivation of individuall powers to be placed in servicee to the comm.unity的时候容易读不懂,因为后面的这个不定式既有可能是修饰cultivation的,也有可能是修饰individual powers的。这里修饰的是后者。而且这里的individual powers to be placed in servicee to the comm.unity不应翻译成“individuall powers to serve the comm.unity”即可。此文强调这种individual power被置于一种位置、一种定位。当然这种细微的差别不一定会影响答题,但有时会对文章的理解产生影响。
    • 意群训练:Mores, which embodied each culture’s ideal principles for governing every citizen, were developed in the belief that the foundation of a community lies in the cultivation of individual powers to be placed in service to the community.
  124. Only in the case of the February Revolution do we lack a useful description of participants  that might characterize it in the light of what social history has taught us about the process of revolutionary mobilization. (5)
    • 唯独在二月革命(the February Revolution)这一情形中,我们缺乏一种有用的有关参加者的描述,而这一描述则有可能按照社会历史有关革命动员过程所教给我们的内容来勾画出这场革命的性质。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装、易淆指代
    • 解释:句首虽有一个倒装,但是这种简单结构并不能给我们的读者带来大的影响;倒是主句宾语a useful descryiption of participants之后的定语从句that might characterize it中的两个易混指代及其后的状语in the light of给我们的理解造成了巨大的困难。
    • 首先,that从句所修饰的不是participants,而是description。紧随其后的it指的则是前面的February Revolution。判断这两点的惟一方法就是通过句子的意思,没有任何其他途径。后面的in the light of…是按照…、根据….的意思,其英文解释为from the point of view。后面的层层修饰虽然有一定的难度,但是我们已经在前面的句子中司空见惯,在此不多做解释。
    • 意群训练:Only in the case of the February Revolution do we lack a useful description of participants  that might characterize it in the light of what social history has taught us about the process of revolutionary mobilization.
  125. As a consequence, it may prove difficult or impossible to establish for a successful revolution a comprehensive and trustworthy picture of those who participated, or to answer even the most basic questions one might pose concerning the social origins of the insurgents.(5)
    • 作为一个结果,有两件事就变得很困难或者根本不可能,1、为一次成功的革命建立起一个详尽的并可信的关于参加者的描述;2、回答人们会问的、关于起义者的社会背景的甚至是最为基本的问题。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装、省略
    • 解释:主句的主语it是形式主语,其真正内容在后面的两个由or连接的并列的不定式中,前一个不定式中出现了一个大型倒装,to establish /for a successful revolution/ a comprehensivee and trustworthy picture of those who participated 的正常语序是to establish a comprehensivee and trustworthy picture(of those who participated)/for a successful revolution。对于类似的结构,读者如果按照笔者的要求认真地过前面的难句,训练到现在已经有所感觉。正确的现场感觉是这样:看到established之后没有出现宾语,而是直接出现表示目的的for,句意不完整,大脑就会根据前面训练得出的经验自动判断可能有倒装的结构;读者本人的反应就是隐隐觉得后面应该有established的具体内容。因为有这种预期,读到a comprehensivee and trustworthy picture的时候,正好可以把它与没有说完的established连在一起。
    • 后面的不定式的宾语even the most basic questions之后有两个并列的宾语,第一个是省略了引导词的定语从句that one might pose,第二个分词修饰concerning the sociall origins of the insurgents。
    • 意群训练:As a consequence, it may prove difficult or impossible to establish for a successful revolution a comprehensive and trustworthy picture of those who participated, or to answer even the most basic questions one might pose concerning the social origins of the insurgents.
  126. Anthropologists and others are on much firmer ground when they attempt to describe the  cultural norms for a small homogeneous tribe or village than when they undertake the formidable task of discovering the norms that exist in a complex modern nation state composed of many disparate groups.(4)
    • 当人类学家和其他人试图去描述一个小规模的同一性质(homogeneous)部落或村落的文化标准时,他们处在一种要坚实得多的基础上。相对而言,当他们着手从事这样一个艰巨的任务,即去揭示存在于一个复杂的、由许多彼此间毫无联系的群体所构成的现代单一民族的独立国家(nation-state)时,他们就具备一个同样坚实的基础。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:句子的结构拉得很长,主要原因是用来比较的两个when引导的状语从句都太长,句子的主干是Anthroplogists are on much firmer ground/when…/than/when…/。结果more than的结构被长长的状语从句分隔得很远。
    • 另外,第二个when 引导的从句中的宾语也很复杂,解释一个单词:nation-state指单一民族的国家。此单词的词义不必背下来。
    • 解释:Anthropologists and others are on much firmer ground when they attempt to describe the  cultural norms for a small homogeneous tribe or village than when they undertake the formidable task of discovering the norms that exist in a complex modern nation state composed of many disparate groups.
  127. The Italian influence is likely, whatever Valdez immediate source: the Mexican carpas themselves are said to have originated from the theater pieces of a sixteenth-century Spanish writer inspired by encounters with Italian commedia dell’arte troupes on tour in Spain.(4+)
    • 不管V的直接来源是什么,意大利的影响都有可能存在:墨西哥的C戏剧本身就被认为来自于16世纪的西班牙作家的戏剧作品,而那些作家的灵感来自与他们与在西班牙巡回演出的意大利cd剧团的遭遇。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰
    • 解释:本句的冒号以后的分句中的from 引导的状语的结构又是典型的层层修饰,再加上主句的内容,整个句子的意思很难理顺。到底是什么来自于什么?
    • 意群训练:The Italian influence is likely, whatever Valdez immediate source: the Mexican carpas themselves are said to have originated from the theater pieces of a sixteenth-century Spanish writer inspired by encounters with Italian commedia dell’arte troupes on tour in Spain.
  128. It has thus generally been by way of the emphasis on oral literary creativity that these Chicano writers,whose English language works are sometimes uninspired,developed the powerful and arresting language that characterized their Spanish-language works. 因此,一般而言,正是通过对口头文学创造性的强调,这些奇卡诺作家——其英语作品时常显得缺乏灵感——才得以发展一种强有力的和富于吸引力的语言,并以此构成了他们西班牙语作品的特征。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:读者们阅读本句的时候一定感觉极其别扭。首先,我们尽管知道It has been …that..。这种结构是一种强调语气,但是It has thus generally been by way of the emphasis on oral literary creativeity that…看上去就极不舒服。当然从语法上讲这么说是可以的,可是我们确实很少见到it has been 和that之间插入这么多东西的说法。解释一下by way of的意思,就是通过什么样的方法、通过某种手段的意思。其英文释义为by the route of,同义词是via。
    • That以后的内容看上去更费劲,既有长插入语分开主谓,又有复杂修饰的宾语。本句之所以结构怪异,意思费解,其原因是作者为了强调这个口头文学的方法。否则,句子可以写得比较好懂:
    • Thus, these Chicano writers, whose English-language works are sometimes uninspired, developed the powerfull and arresting languagee that characterized their Spanish-language works.generally by way of the emphasis on oral literary creativeity.
    • 意群训练:It has thus generally been by way of the emphasis on oral literary creativity that these Chicano writers,whose English language works are sometimes uninspired,developed the powerful and arresting language that characterized their Spanish-language works.
  129. To measure them properly,monitoring equipment would have to be laid out on a grid at intervals of at most 50 kilometers,with sensors at each grid point lowered deep in the ocean and kept there for many months.
    • 为了恰当地测量它们,监测设备必须被设置在一网络上,彼此的间距最多为五十公里,位于每个网点的感应器沉放至海洋深处,并在许多个月中一直固定在那里。 (原书无此句)
  130. This declaration,which was echoed in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment,was designed primarily to counter the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people in the United States could be denied citizenship. (3)
    • 这一在第十四条修正案的文本中被复述的宣言,主要是旨在对抗最高法院在“Dred Scott诉Sandford”一案中的判决,此判决裁定,在美国的黑人可被剥夺公民权。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
    • 解释:句中的两个插入语分别起到了两个有效的分割作用:第一个隔开了主句的主语和谓语;第二个分开了作状语的不定式中的宾语及其同位语从句。
    • 意群训练:This declaration,which was echoed in the text of the Fourteenth Amendment,was designed primarily to counter the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Black people in the United States could be denied citizenship.
  131. The broad language of the amendment strongly suggests that its framers were proposing to write into the Constitution not a laundry list of specific civil rights but a principle of equal citizenship that forbids organized society from treating any individual as a member of an inferior class. (4)第十四条修正案的宽泛笼统的语言强烈地暗示,其制定者所意欲载入宪法的不是一张具体民法的细目清单,而是一种平等公民权的原则,这一原则禁止有组织的社会将任何一个个人作为劣等阶层的成员来对待。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装
    • 解释:本句的倒装还算友好,into的介词宾语the Constitution比较短,然后马上是write的宾语。而且本句的结构也算合理,避免了头重脚轻。如果真按照正常语序来写,那么句子只有更难读懂。即:
    • The broad languagee of the amendment strongly suggests that its framers were proposing to write not a laundry list of specific civil rights but a principle of equal citizenship that forbids organized society from treating any individuall as a member of an inferior class into the Constitution.
    • 意群训练:The broad language of the amendment strongly suggests that its framers were proposing to write into the Constitution not a laundry list of specific civil rights but a principle of equal citizenship that forbids organized society from treating any individual as a member of an inferior class.
  132. This doctrine has broadened the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to other,nonracial forms of discrimination,for while some justices have refused to find,any legislative  classification other than race to be constitutionally disfavored,most have been receptive to arguments that at least some nonracial discriminations. sexual Discrimination in particular,  are "suspect" and deserve this heightened scrutiny by the courts. (5)
    • 所谓“怀疑分类”,意指那种在有可能被理解成以种族为基础,针对某一群体进行的歧视这一信条扩展了第十四条修正案的适用范围,使其同样也适用于其它的、非种族形式的歧视。因为虽然某些法官拒不将除种族以外的立法分类裁定为非法的,但绝大多数法官已经接受了这样一个论点,即至少某些非种族性质的歧视,尤其是性别歧视,是“值得怀疑的”,并理应接受法庭这种更高程度上的审视。
    • 难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、三重否定、抽象词
    • 解释:句子虽然长,结构却不是太难,相信坚持训练到这里的读者不会再感到句子太长、或者结构太难了。不过这句话还有两个难点的。一个是其中大量的法律方面的抽象词,另一个就是其中的一个三重否定:some justices have refused to find any legislative classification other than race to be constitutionally disfavored,实际上就是:some justices believe that only racial classification may be constitutionally disfavored或者some justices regard nonraciall discrimination to be constitutionally legitimate。
    • 意群训练:This doctrine has broadened the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to other,nonracial forms of discrimination,for while some justices have refused to find,any legislative  classification other than race to be constitutionally disfavored,most have been receptive to arguments that at least some nonracial discriminations. sexual Discrimination in particular,  are "suspect" and deserve this heightened scrutiny by the courts.

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