This accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient.(1996年阅读TEXT3)
其中,like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels 举例说明simple innovations,而后面的定语从句that make life more convenient 进一步修饰simple innovations。如果把定语从句that make life more convenient看作suitcases on wheels的定语的话,就会使得对文章理解不到位,从而,翻译文章时也会出现修饰不明确的问题。
例1. Thus,the anthropological concept of"culture,"/ like the concept of "set" in mathematics,/ is an abstract concept/which makes possible/ immense amounts of concrete research and understanding.(2003 年65 题)
例2.Downshifting-also known in America as"voluntary simplicity"-has,ironically,even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. (2001 年55 题)
例3. Whether to use tests,/ other kinds of information,/ or both /in a particular situation/ depends,therefore,upon the evidence from experience concerning comparative validity/ and upon such factors as cost and availability.(1995 年73 题)
Whether to use tests,other kinds of information,or both in a particular situation 系主语从句,谓语是)depends upon,therefore 是用来解释整个句子的来龙去脉的,所以放在句首比较合适。
例4. Even today,in our industrial life,apart from certain values of industriousness and thrift,the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human association under which the world's work is carried on receives little attention as compared with physical output. (2009 年74 题)
under which the world's work is carried on 是定语从句,修饰前面的human association,为了说明人们更关注物质成果而非智力和情感上的反映,中文读者必须清楚地产生这种情况的背景,所以插入部分的定语从句必须先译出,为主句的阐释说明打一个基础。
例5. On the other hand,/ he did not accept/ as well founded/ the charge made by some of his critics/ that,while he was a good observer,/ he had no power of reasoning.(2008 年48 题)
该句中的as well founded 是宾语the charge 的补足语,因宾语后接定语太长,故将宾语补足语置于宾语之前。理解时,可先读作did not accept the charge as well founded,即"认为此指责是缺乏根据的"。既然是宾语补足语,可以先把主句的基本结构译出,在把插入成分译成单独的句子。