英语常用并列连词,如and, but, so, yet, for, nor, or, not only…but also, either…or或 neither…nor等连接两个或几个同等成分,这种结构称为并列结构。连接的同等成分可以是两个或几个动词的宾语、两个或几个名词的定语、两个或几个介词短语等。如果并列连词连接的是两个或几个简单句,则构成一个并列句,使用并列结构可以使文字简洁,结构紧凑,并避免重复。
1. But the individualist approach, by attacking gender roles, denying the significance of physiological difference, and condemning existing familial institutions as hopelessly patriarchal, has often simply treated as irrelevant the family roles important to many women.
分析:句中由by引导的三个并列平行结构表示原因。treated as…结构使用了倒装结构,因为the family roles后面有修饰成分,故将其置后。
译文:而个人主义的方法由于攻击性别角色,否定生理差别的重要性,攻击现存的家庭体制是不可救药的父权制,结果把对许多妇女来说非常重要的家庭角色完全视为无关紧要了。
2. There is no complete inventory of positions or people in federal service at this level. The lack may be explained by separate agency statutes and personnel systems, diffusion among so many special services, and the absence of any central point (short of President himself) with jurisdiction over all upper-level personnel of the government.
分析:介词by 后面的separate…personnel systems, diffusion…special services和the absence of…the government为三个并列成分。表示缺少详细记载的原因。句中一些词要转译。
译文:这个级别的联邦政府官员和职位没有完整的记载。对此(缺少详细记载)所做的解释可能是,各部门的条例和人事制度各不相同,分布的特殊服务部门太多并缺少一个中心机构(总统本人除外)来管理所有的政府高级官员。
3. He refuses to consider sufficiently the wants of the customer, who must buy, not the thing he desires but the thing the English gentleman wants to sell.
分析:动词consider 后面的宾语是the wants of the customer。 非限定性定语从句who must buy… 修饰the customer,not the thing …but the thing…是并列成分。
4. The standardized educational or psychological tests that are widely used to aid in selecting, classifying, assigning, or promoting students, employees, and military personnel have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress.
分析:该句中,to aid in 后面跟了四个并列的动名词,而四个并列的动名词后又跟了三个并列的宾语。
译文:广泛用来借以对学生、雇员和军事人员进行选拔、分类、分配任务或提拔的教育或心理方面的标准化测试,最近受到了书报杂志,甚至国会的抨击。
5. The lack of insistence on personal honor, the surface informality, the disparaging responses to compliments, and willingness to admit mistakes are part of the egalitarian tradition, as are the Americans’ pride in what they have been able to achieve and their criticism of things that fall short of perfection.
分析:该句的主句由四个并列的名词短语做主语,即The lack of insistence…,the surface informality, the disparaging responses…和willingness to admit mistakes。另外,值得一提的是, as 引导的比较状语从句使用了倒装语序。这是为了保持句子平衡。
译文:美国人一方面对所取得的成就感到自豪,一方面又对未臻完美的事物进行批评,这是其平等主义传统的一部分;同样,他们不坚持个人的面子,不拘表面的礼节,对别人的称赞采取自贬的态度,以及愿意承认错误,也是其平等主义传统的一部分。
6. Green, hilly, with abundant trees, it was a beautiful country, the Virginia-Kentucky border territory——or would have been, except for the mines.
分析:和it was a beautiful country 并列的分句(it) would have been是虚拟语气,后面省略了a beautiful country。Green, hilly, with abundant trees修饰a beautiful country,放在主句前是为了强调。
7. That is why women remain children their whole life long: never seeing anything but what is quite close to them, clinging to the present moment, taking appearance for reality, and preferring trifles to matters of the first importance.
分析:该句中,四个现在分词短语构成并列结构,做状语。对前面的表语从句进行补充说明。
译文:那就是为什么妇女一生都不成熟:从来都只看见眼前的事情,都只抓住眼前的一刻,都把表面当本质,都倾心于琐事而放过至关重要的事。
8. But since the consequences of poverty are related to powerlessness, not to the absolute supply of money available to the poor, and since the amount of power purchasable with a given supply of money decreases as a society acquires a larger supply of goods and services, the solution of raising the incomes of the poor is likely, unless accompanied by other measures, to be ineffective in a wealthy society.
分析:该句有两个并列的由and 连接的原因状语从句,都是由since引导,available to the poor修饰money, purchasable with a given supply of money修饰the amount of power。主句中的从句unless accompanied by other measures分割了is likely和to be ineffective in a wealthy society。
译文:但是,既然贫穷与穷人可得到的货币绝对供应量无关,而是无权力所造成的,既然用一定量的货币所能购买的权力量随着一个社会获得的商品和服务量的增加而下降,那么提高穷人收入的解决办法在一个富裕社会很可能不会奏效,除非同时采取其他的措施。
9. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
分析:old story是句子的表语,后面有两个介词短语做定语。它们在结构上是相同的,在连词until后面都有状语从句。翻译时也要译成两个平行的句子。