Question

英语的句子太长，读不懂怎么办呢？

Answer 1

下面我结合一个具体例子，给各位介绍一下。下面这个长句子，是美国作家Hendrik Willem van Loon的名著《Tolerance》第二章的第一段，对于这个长句子，我估计初学者如果只读一篇，很难理解这句话的全部含义。 　　How it happened that a little rocky peninsula in a remote corner of the Mediterranean was able to provide our world in less than two centuries with the complete framework for all our present day experiments in politics, literature, drama, sculpture, chemistry, physics and Heaven knows what else, is a question which has puzzled a great many people for a great many centuries and to which every philosopher, at one time or another during his career, has tried to give an answer. 　　遇到这种长句子，我首先认真读一遍，对整个句子的结构有一个大概了解，然后用红笔，在每个从句的前面，以及我认为需要引起注意的地方，划一条竖线，不过为便于读者观察，我下面没有划竖线，而是加入①②③等数字，请看： 　　① How it happened ② that a little rocky peninsula in a remote corner of the Mediterranean was able to provide our world ③ in less than two centuries ④ with the complete framework for all our present day experiments in politics, literature, drama, sculpture, chemistry, physics ⑤ and Heaven knows what else, ⑥ is a question ⑦ which has puzzled a great many people for a great many centuries ⑧ and to which every philosopher, ⑨ at one time or another during his career, ⑩has tried to give an answer. 　　这样分隔之后，句子结构就比较明显了，此时我可以把每个部分的意思分别翻译出来，请看： 　　最后，将各个部分的意思合并起来，就构成整个句子的意思： 　　上面这句话，我分隔成十个部分，这主要是为了便于读者理解，实际上并不需要分隔这么多(五部分足够了)。希望这种方法能够对您有所帮助。 推荐一本书《2005考研英语长难句过关演练》中国石化出版社出版