1.Because the potential hazards pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous,wind pollinated plants have,in the view above,compensated for the ensuing loss of pollen through happenstance by virtue of producing an amount of pollen that is one to three orders of magnitude greater than the amount produced by species pollinated by insects.
难度系数(5)
译文:由于花粉粒在其长距离的运输过程中所要面临的潜在危险是巨大的,按上述观点来看,由风授粉的植物补偿了通过偶发事件而伴随造成的花粉损失。其途径是,制造出大于昆虫授粉的植物种类所产生的花粉量的一至三个数量级的花粉量。
难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、省略
解释:本句就是上面所说的构成本篇文章首段的第二句话,而且本句的难度超过上一句。本句一上来就不好读,Because the potential hazards that pollen grains are subject to as they are transported over long distances are enormous,其中主语后的pollen grains are subject to本来就是一个定语从句,但是由于主语the potential hazards在从句中作介词to的宾语,所以引导词that被省略,这就显得句子的结构模糊不清,再加上as引导的状语从句,隔开了主语和谓语,给读者造成了较大的阅读困难。后面的分句中,句子的结构更为复杂:插入语、定语和状语层层相套。有两个词组需要解释一下:orders of magnitude指的是数量级,其中order是等级、级别的意思,而magnitude在此不是指重要、星球的光亮度,指的是尺寸大小和数量多少的程度,同义词是size,quantity,number。后面的speciespollinated by insects特指虫媒植物。
2.For example,the spiral arrangement of scale-bract complexes on ovule-bearing pine cones,where the female reproductive organs of conifers are located,is important to the production of airflow patterns that spiral over the cone’s surfaces,thereby passing airborne pollen from one scale to the next.
难度系数(5)
译文:例如,带有胚珠的松球的鳞苞综合体的螺旋状安排,亦即松柏目植物雌性殖器官的所在位置,对于气流模式的形成与产生殊为重要,而这些气流模式在松球的表现盘旋上升,从而把在空气中飞行的花粉从一个鳞苞传播至下一个鳞苞。
难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语、专有名词
解释:本句的两大难点中,一是结构复杂,二是专有名词较多。在主语the spiral arrangement之后,出现了长长的定语,其中套了三层修饰,这样读者就难以把主语和谓语联系到一块。另外,句中的大量生词也明显干扰了我们的理解,spiral arrangment(螺旋状安排)、scale-bract complexes(鳞苞综合体)、ovule-bearing(携带胚珠的)、pine cones(松果)、female reproductive organ(雌性生殖器官)、airflow pattern(气流模式)等。其中只有后面的三个单词我们有可能根据常识大概猜出其含义。那么现场阅读时遇到这种东西又该如何处理呢?
可以肯定的是ETS的出题者并没有期望读者都是生物学家或物理学家,而且从众多的出题的情况来看,也根本不可能考到任何必须对专有名词作精确理解的内容。读到这种东西的时候,读者的首要任务是从联系文章出题的角度,读出这句话与文章主题有关的意思,从而理解它在文章中的作用。比如这个句子,读者只要能够读出the arrangement of female reproductive organs of conifers are important to reduce the ollen waste这个意思即可。
3.Friedrich Engels, however, predicted that women would be liberated from the “social, legal, and economic subordination” of the family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of “the whole female sex into public industry”.
难度系数(3+)
译文:FE,却预测妇女们将被从家庭的“社会、法律和经济压迫”中解放出来,只是通过使得征召“整个女性阶层进入公共的工业中去”成为可能的技术进步的方式做到的。
难句类型:复杂修饰、倒装
解释:本句的前半部分简单,后面的宾语从句中的第二个状语by technological developments 后面跟着的定语从句中出现了倒装:the made/possible/the recruitment of the whole female sex into public industry的正常语序应该是that made the recruiment of the whole female sex into public industry/possible/,固定搭配make…possible中的副词possible被倒装到了前面。
4.It was not the change in office technology,but rather the separation of secretarial work,previously seen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers,from administrative work that in the 1880’s created a new class of "dead-end" jobs,thenceforth considered "women’s work."
难度系数(5)
译文:十九世纪八十年代,产生了新的一类“没前途”的职业,这并不是因为办公室技术发生了改变,而是由于秘书工作——在此之前被视作是初起步的经理们的一种习见训练——与行政工作的分离。自此以后,这类“没前途”的职业便被视作是“女人的工作。”
难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
解释:这句话的结构是It was something that,,,It是形式主语,其真正的内容是was之后、that、之前的something的内容。本句的something结构复杂、长度惊人,并且包含了一个较长的插入语,把固定搭配separation from分开,造成了极大的阅读困难,其实这个句子说得简单就是It was the separation of secretarial work from administrative work that created a new class of jobs。
5.The increase in the numbers of married women employed outside the home in the twentieth century had less to do with the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it did with their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool of single women workers,previously,in many cases,the only women employers would hire. 难度系数(5)
译文:二十世纪已婚妇女在家庭以外就业的人数不断增加,这与家务的机械化及这些妇女闲暇时间的增加并无多大联系,更多地是与妇女自身的经济需要和高婚姻率相关。高婚姻率致使所能雇佣的单身女工的总量缩减,而在此之前的许多情形中,单身女性则是雇主们所愿雇佣的唯一—一类妇女。 The pool of 如果后面跟着一群人,则表示劳动力资源
难句类型:复杂修饰、插入语
解释:主语the increase之后照例来了一堆修饰成分。后面的had less to do with…than do with…的意思是与前面的东西的关系不如与后面的关系那么重要,相当于中文的与其说还不如说…。但是本句的比较双方都是又臭又长的由and所连接的两个名词性短语,令读者阅读时的思维难以连贯。The pool of如果后面跟着一种人群,则这个词组指劳动力资源。