三剑合璧,威力无比。英语长句之比较费解的一部分,才真正实现了迎刃而解。
先看1994年的考研阅读理解中这道题目。
55 . according to the passage, the credit card enables its owner to__.
a. withdraw as much money from the bank as he wishes
b. obtain more convenient services than other people do
c. enjoy greater trust from the storekeeper
d. cash money wherever he wishes to
我们观察一下它的d选项,第一个词cash在这个地方变成了动词。但是凭什么判断它已经变成了动词呢?我们如果看题干,就知道是确定无疑的。题干中的谓语动词enable, 其用法决定着结构是enable sb to do, 其补语必定是不定式,故cash为动词原形。这样才能准确地将cash money理解为“将钱变成现金”,而不是整个理解为“现钱”。
我们再看一些非常“简单”的词所可能伴随的障碍,体会一下把握其用法并由此预测句型即主干结构后那种拔云见日的感觉。
“the test of any democratic society,” he wrote in a wall street journal column, “lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be.
邪说:看whether开头的从句。必须对give心中有数,才会游刃有余。give sb/sth sth, 意为“给谁/什么以什么东西”,后面两个名词短语代进去,此句可成。给谁呢?freedom of though and expression, 给什么呢?the widest possible latitude.
参考译文 对任何一个民主社会的检验不是看它如何严格地控制舆论,而是看它能否尽可能给予人们思考和表达自由以最大的空间,不管其结果有时候引起多么大的争议和愤怒。
the currents of air that the walls of the ship direct upwards, as well as in the line of its course, are enough to give the great bird with its immense wings sufficient sustenance and progress.
邪说:此句主干结构是the currents of air are enough to give the great bird with immense wings sufficient sustenance and progress. 而理解的关键又是give开始的结构。如果不坚守双宾的结构,可能误认为是give the great bird with its immense wings, 即“给巨鸟以巨翼”。但英语的动词用法是模式化的,不会随便更改,所以必然后面是两个独立名词,构成give sb/sth sth, 意思为给谁什么。后面的sufficient sustenance and progress才是它的直接宾语。而with immense wings只是the great bird的定语。在结构清晰的情况下,即使sustenance和progress有识别或词义变化的困难,我们从整个语境来看“气流给了大鸟以什么”,这个“什么”从常识来看也是不言自明的。
参考译文沿船体上升的气流和沿航线向前的气流给这种巨翼大鸟以足够的浮力和推力。