从十种语法结构谈怎样突破GRE考试难句(三)
三、分割结构在英语中常常出现这样的现象:语法关系密切的两个句子成分被其他句子成分所分割开来,而有这种现象的句子结构我们称之为分割结构。它的种类十分繁多,但我们常常遇到这样的情况,即在主语与谓语之间插入介词短语或是从句等比较长的结构用于描述一个状态,或是修饰说明主语,在这种情况下,其目的往往是为了保持语义的严密,结构的紧凑。
例如:
Most novelists and historians writing in the early to mid-twentieth century who considered women in the West, when they considered women at all, fell under Turner’s spell.这句话的中文意思是从本世纪初到本世纪中叶从事写作的小说家和历史学家只要描写妇女,就会描述西部妇女,而且都被特纳迷住。这句话的主干是Most novelists and historians fell under Turner’s spell.其主语和谓语间被writing引导的修饰用的短语,一个由who引导的用于修饰Most novelists and historians的定语从句,和在这个由who引导的定语从句中的状语从句所分割开来。
当然有时还会存在这样的情况,即同位语或同位语从句与先行词的分割是为了照顾句子结构平衡或突出强调的需要。
例如:
After Galileo’s work the feeling grew that there were universal laws governing the motion of bodies and that these laws might apply to motion in the heavens as well as on earth.这句话的中文意思是在伽利略著作之后,这样的认识加强了,即认为存在着支配物体运动的普遍规律,这些规律不仅支配着地球上的而且也支配着天体上的物体的运动。在这句话中the feeling和that引导的从句被分割。
此外,还有定语(或定语从句)与中心词被分割;某些词与其所要求的介词被分割;动词与其宾语被分割等等许多情况。总之,英语的分割遵循的是尾重原则,即将长而复杂的成分放在句末,从而使结构平衡均匀,以避免主语部分太长,谓语部分太短),和句尾信息焦点原则,即把新信息(往往是语义的重点)放在句子末尾。所以阅读时一定要注意先找出句子主干来,再来分析句子的其他部分。
A contiguous zone is an area extending seaward from the territorial sea in which the coastal or island nation may exercise the control necessary to prevent or punish infringement of its customs, along with its fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws and regulations that occur within its territory or territorial sea (but not for so-called security purposes).
句子解析:这句话的主干部分十分简单就是A contiguous zone is an area。后面的extending引导的短语是用来定义和解释area的,而再后面的in which引导的定语从句部分也是用来修饰它的,而在这个定语从句中还有一个由that引导的定语从句,用于修饰其前面的infringement但它被一起修饰作用的介词短语所分割。
句子翻译:毗连区是从领海向外海一侧伸延的一片海区,沿海国或岛国在这一海区内可行使必要的管制,以防止或惩罚在其领土或领海内违反其海关、财政、移民和卫生法律与规章的行为(而不是所谓的安全目的)。
Anyone considering taking part in a work of transformation of those forms of older art which seem to us in many ways unsatisfactory, so that they should be more in turn with the changing timers, and anyone who does not quail at the prospect of seeking out new forms of expression for new materials and new building function, will find spiritual kinship, observing Borromini’s buildings.
页:
[1]