[阅读理解] 长难句五步破解法

01

找谓语，定主语

　　Declaring that he was opposed to using this unusual animal husbandry technique to clone humans，he ordered that federal funds not be used for such an experiment -although no one had proposed to do so and asked an independent panel of experts chaired by Princeton President Harold Shapiro to report back to the White House in 90 days with recommendations for a national policy on human cloning.

    解析：此句中的谓语形式的动词及其对应的主语有：was opposed-he，ordered-he，（should）not be used-federal-funds，had proposed-no one，asked-he（asked前面有and，说明asked与前面某个谓语动词并列，根据逻辑意义asked应与ordered并列）。这一句的主干为“he ordered...and asked...”，“Declaring that...”作状语。

　　汉语翻译：他宣布自己反对使用这种非同寻常的畜牧繁殖技术来克隆人类，并下令不准联邦政府基金用于做此类试验——尽管还没有人建议这么做——他还请一个普林斯顿大学校长Harold Shapiro为首的独立专家组在90天内向白宫汇报关于制定有关克隆人的国家政策的建议。

02

提主干，去枝叶

　　First put forward by the French mathematician Pierre de Format in the 17th century，the theorem had baffled and beaten the finest mathematical minds，including a French woman scientist who made a major advance in working out the problem，and who had to dress like a man in order to be able to study at the Eco-lab Polytechnique.

　　解析：本句夹杂分词短语、动名词及两个定语从句。“First put forward by the French mathematician Pierre de Format in the 17th century”为过去分词短语作状语；“including...”为介词短语作状语；“who made...and who had to...”为两个并列的定语从句，修饰a French woman scientist。所以句子的主干为the theorem had baffled and beaten the finest mathematical minds此为主要信息。

　　汉语翻译：这个定理，先是由十七世纪法国数学家Pierre de Format提出，曾使一批杰出的数学大师为难，其中包括一个法国女科学家，她在解决这个难题方面取得了重大的进展。为了能够在Ecolab Polytechnipue理工学院学习她曾女扮男装。　

03

寻关联，辨逻辑

　　Whereas a woman’s closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage，it wasn’t unusual to hear a man say he didn’t know his friend’s marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa.

　　解析：“whereas”提示前后对比；not unusual=usual；not...until...直到……才……

    汉语翻译：一个女人最亲密的女性朋友最可能是第一个告诉她离开一次失败的婚姻的人；而听见一个男人说，直到他的朋友一天晚上问他是否可以睡在他家的沙发上，他才知道他朋友的婚姻已非常糟糕，这是很平常的事。　

04

看搭配，防分隔

　　Some companies have made the manufacturing of clean and safe products，to some degree，their main selling points and emphasize it in their advertising.　

   解析：其实本句是一个“主语+谓语+宾语+宾语补足语”句型“make+宾语+宾补”，即“使……成为……”，只不过宾语和宾补被“to some degree”隔开而已。

    汉语翻译：一些公司把生产的卫生的、安全的产品，从某种程度上说，当作他们的卖点，并在广告中强调这一点。

05

关键词，抓线索

　　Miss Dermaine’s mother looked anxious throughout the wedding and Mr.Cordell’s parents are reported to be less than delighted.

　　解析：此句似乎在描述婚礼上不同的人的情绪，而前后句用“and”连接（不是but），所以“anxious”和“less than delighted”所表现的情绪的反差不会太大。

   汉语翻译：Dermaine的妈妈在整个婚礼显得很焦虑，据说Cordell的父母的情绪也不是很高涨。

　　总之，读者在碰到长句和难句时，要根据实际情况灵活运用上述方法，在平时阅读过程中要加强对长句和难句的句法分析训练。有时要几种方法综合使用才能正确理解句意。如：

　　We even have different words for some food，meat in particular，depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked，which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming，while the upper class Normans were doing most of the eating.

　　解析：本句夹杂多种语法结构，而且包含对比。句子的主干为“We even have different words for some foods，meat in particular”；“depending on...”为分词短语作状语；“whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked”作depending on的宾语；“which”引导非限制性定语从句指代上述内容“the fact”后为其同位语，即同位语从句说明fact的具体内容。

　　汉语翻译：我们甚至对某些食物用不同的单词表达，特别是肉类，这取决于它是长在田野时，还是在家里准备煮着吃，这就表明一个事实，即萨克森农民在农田干活，而上层阶级的诺曼人在大口地吃。