英语四级真题英语阅读长难句分析之二_大学英语阅读

英语四级真题英语阅读长难句分析之二

　　2. The first time that question What is at the bottom of the oceans? had to be answered with any commercial consequence was when the laying of a telegraph cable from Europe to America was proposed.

　　【译文】当有人建议铺设一条从欧洲到美洲的海底电报光缆的时候，出于商业动机，人们才不得不首次回答这个问题海底有什么东西。

　　【析句】本句话的难点在于主从句成分的区分。主句为The first time was when the laying...was proposed, when引导表语从句，而that question had to be answered with...则是定语从句修饰the first time。

　　3. At the early attempts, the cable failed and when it was taken out for repairs it was found to be covered in living growths, a fact which defied contemporary scientific opinion that there was no life in the deeper parts of the sea.

　　【译文】在早期的尝试中，光缆铺设失败，不得不取出来维修。这时人们发现上面覆盖有生物，这推翻了当时科学界认为深海没有生命的理论。

　　【析句】句子主干为the cable failed and it was found to be covered in living growths, and连接两个并列句子，中间插入了when it was taken out for repairs为时间状语从句.it was found to be covered in...中，it指代the cable, found为find的过去分词相当于形容词，后面接不定式。之后a fact作同位语，which defied contemporary secientific opinion为定语从句修饰a fact, 最后that there was no life...是opinion的同位语从句。