1. For example, they do not compensate for social inequality, and thus do not tell how able an underprivileged youngster might have been had he grown up under more favorable circumstances.
分析:本句中 had he grown up under more favorable circumstances 属于部分倒装。正常语序为: if he had grown up under more favorable circumstances 。在正式文体中,可以将虚拟条件句中的 if 省略,并将助动词提前。
2. Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday’s “baby boom” generation reached its child-bearing years.
分析:该句中 so did bigger crops of babies 属于语法倒装。用 so 来代替前述肯定句谓语部分所说情况。
1. 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.
分析:本句的主干结构是: Most novelists and historians…fell under Turner’s spell. Turner 是美国历史学家。 under a spell :被迷住,着迷。 writing in the early to mid-twentieth century who considered women in the West, when they considered women at all 修饰主语,起分割主谓的作用。而其中的状语从句 when they considered women at all 是定语从句 who considered women in the West 中的状语成分。
2. Abraham Lincoln is the most famous instance of the claim that Americans often made that in their country a man may rise from the lowest to the highest position.
分析: the claim 和其同位语 that in their country a man may rise from the lowest to the highest position 被 the claim 的定语从句 that Americans often made 分割。同位语从句在翻译时可按照顺序翻译,将其翻译为分句。
3. In the last eight years there were difficult, almost non-stop negotiations and reported threats of failure, ultimately overcome by a combination of creative compromise and stubborn determination—indeed, some call it unprecedented determination—to succeed.
分析:本句的主干结构是: …there were negotiations and…threats of failure 。 “overcome by…” 是过去分词短语,修饰 threats of failure 。 stubborn determination 和其定语动词不定式 “to succeed” 被 “indeed, some call it unprecedented determination” 分割。
4. The discovery of surplus value suddenly threw light on the problem, in trying to solve which all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and social critics, had been groping in the dark.
分析: in trying to solve 插在 the problem 和定语从句 which… 之间,起到承上启下的作用。 of both bourgeois economists and social critics 为 investigations 的后置定语,起到分割作用。
5. A better knowledge of China ’s civilization would lay open to us an empire of learning, hitherto fabulously described.
分析: lay open 和 an empire of learning 被介词短语 to us 分割。本句选自英国前首相撒切尔夫人 1982 年在中国欢迎宴会上的讲话。翻译时要注意转译的应用。如把 “better” 译为副词 “ 更好地 ” 。
译文:更好地了解中国的文明,将为我们打开一个知识的王国,对这个王国迄今只有神话般的描述。
6. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in, and parts of, the United States —a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer.
分析: insistence 后接 upon the interdependence of the various elements in, and parts of, the United States, 中间被插入语 as a first consideration 分割,做进一步说明。该句选自美国前总统罗斯福在 1933 年的就职演说。汉语中动词用得较多,翻译时可把名词转译为动词。
7. Old Henry and his wife Phoebe were as fond of each other as it is possible for two old people to be who have nothing else in this life to be fond of.
分析:连词 as 引导的比较状语从句中, it 代替 for two old people to be 。 to be 后省略了 fond of each other 。 to be 做分割成分。
译文:象两位老人一生中没有其他什么东西可爱而彼此相爱一样,老亨利和他的妻子芬比也互相爱慕。
8. As they grow old, people also accumulate belongings for two other reasons: lack of physical and mental energy—both of which are essential in turning out and throwing away—and sentiment.
分析:该句包含了并列结构被分割的情况。 lack of physical and mental energy 和 sentiment 是并列结构,作 two other reasons 的同位语。但是被非限定性定语从句 both of which are essential in turning out and throwing away 分割。