【例1】 Actually we know of no type of astronomical body // in which the conditions can be favorable to life / except planets like our own revolving round a sun. (省略前面出现的名词)
【分析】本句的关键是要知道原句存在省略。原句是含有一个定语从句的主从复合句,还有一个except引导的状语。介词短语like our own之后承前省略了planet。Revolving round a sun是现在分词短语,作定语修饰our own planet。翻译时,按照汉语的表达习惯,运用倒序法,先译except引导的状语,再译主句和定语从句。
【例2】 I have five young children, // and now my wife has a baby girl // and I do not know where the money is to come from to feed and clothe them all. / We are very poor,/ and I fear I cannot work hard enough. (省略前面出现的不定式)
【分析】分析本段话结构的关键是弄清楚省略和否定转移。第一句话由三个并列句组成;第二句话由两个并列句组成,承前省略了“to feed and clothe them all”,且含有否定转移,即I fear I cannot work hard enough to feed and clothe them all.中的not应该是否定后面的目的状语。如果不明白该句的省略和否定转移现象,就会误译成“我们很穷,恐怕我也不能拼命干活了”,意思显然不通,存在逻辑错误。
【例1】 The strength thus developed, however, carried within it the seeds of its own decline. (主谓分割)
【译文】然而,这样发展起来的力量,其内部就具有衰退的因素。
【例2】 The job gives him plenty of responsibility—he is in charge of several thousand workers—and plenty of cash. (谓语和宾语分割)
【译文】他对此项工作负有重大责任,主管着几千名工人,但报酬丰厚。
【例3】 Comments are often made about activities which are relatively easy and satisfying like arranging flowers; but not about jobs which are hard and dirty, like scraping floors. (定语与其所修饰成分分割)
【例4】 An order has been given that the researchers who are now in the skylab should be sent back. (同位语从句与其先行词分割)
【译文】已经下令将现在在航天实验室的研究人员送回来。
【例5】 This trend began during the Second World War, when several governments came to the conclusion that the specific demands that a government wants to make of its scientific establishment cannot generally be foreseen in detail. (名词与其所要求的介词的分割)
【例6】 I have been translated from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of “having it all”, preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything. (介词固定结构的分割)