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本文选自2010年9月7日Newsweek上一篇名为Parenthood Sucks—or Does It?的文章，主要通过珍妮佛的一篇杂志文章引出美国社会中“是否要孩子”这一热点话题，指出流行文化对于这一问题的反应：更多渲染养育孩子的好处，较少提及抚育孩子的辛苦;进而得出结论：流行文化这一反应可能会加剧父母对养育孩子的现实的不满。全文中在长难句方面，难度还是比较大的。作为2011年阅读部分的第四篇文章，其中的复杂长难句不算少，句子较长且语法现象较多，因此给考生们造成了理解上的困难。尤其是第一段仅由三个句子构成，但每句理解起来都不易，因此会给考生当头一棒的感觉、造成较大压力，不利于理解文章。下面就其中的典型例句进行分析：
【典型例句1】：It’s no surprise that Jennifer Senior’s insightful, provocative magazine cover story, “I love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter—nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience.
【例句解析】：本句是由破折号连接的两个并列句，后句对前句进行进一步的解释和说明。前句中，it作形式主语，that从句是真正的主语;而在that从句中，“I love My Children, I Hate My Life,”作为文章名字属于同位语，解释前面的story。后句中，nothing gets people talking like the suggestion是一个比较结构;that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience是that引导的同位语从句，解释suggestion。
【难点点拨】：insightful：见解独到的;provocative：具有煽动性的;chatter：唠叨，讨论;rearing：培养，抚育;anything less than：表示部分否定。
【例句释义】：毫不惊奇的是，珍妮佛·赛尼尔的那篇见解独到且颇具煽动性的杂志封面文章《我喜爱我的孩子，但我讨厌我的生活》正引起广泛讨论——没有什么能够比“抚育孩子并不完全是一种充盈自己、丰富生活的体验”这样的示意更能引起人们的热议了。
【典型例句2】：Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition.
【例句解析】：本句主干成分为Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness，其中又包含一个省略that的宾语从句we need to redefine happiness。Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable是由rather than引导的状语来修饰主句，省略主语，因此变成现在分词短语作状语;其中又包括一个that引导的宾语从句that children make parents either happy or miserable。冒号后面的句子instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition对前面主句进行解释;其中instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy属介词短语作状语，修饰后面的we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition;此外，that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy又是定语从句修饰前面的something。
【难点点拨】：moment-to-moment：即时即地的，瞬间的;past-tense：过去式的。
【例句释义】：森尼尔并没有断定孩子到底是让父母幸福还是痛苦，而是建议我们需要重新定义幸福：我们不能将幸福当作可以用瞬间的快乐来衡量的东西，而要视之为一种过去式的状态。
【典型例句3】：Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight.”
【例句解析】： 本句主句为Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight;其中that “the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight是由that引导的宾语从句;而本从句中，又包含一个that引导的定语从句that in the moment dampen our moods修饰the very things。Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard是由even though引导的让步状语从句，修饰主句。
【难点点拨】：soul-crushingly：令人抓狂地;very：恰好是，正是;dampen：抑制，使…丧气。
【例句释义】：虽然日复一日抚育孩子的经历是令人抓狂地艰难，但是森尼尔写到：正是这些此刻让我们倍感压抑的事情日后将成为我们诸多喜悦和幸福的来源。
【典型例句4】：Unhappy parents rarely are provoked to wonder if they shouldn’t have had kids, but unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world: obviously their misery must be a direct result of the gaping baby-size holes in their lives.
【例句解析】：本句是由but连接的两个并列句。前句中，包含一个由if引导的宾语从句if they shouldn’t have had kids。后句中，包含一个同位语从句：that children are the single most important thing in the world，来解释说明message;此外，冒号后面的句子对but后的unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world一句的内容进行解释。
【难点点拨】：provoke：煽动;gaping：开口的;baby-size holes：没有孩子的缺陷。
【例句释义】：不快乐的父母很少会被煽动着去思考是否不该养育孩子，但是那些不快乐且没有子女的人们却会被“孩子是世界上唯一最重要的东西”这样的信息所困扰：显然他们的痛苦一定直接来源于自身生活中这些洞开的、没有孩子的缺陷。
【典型例句5】：But it’s interesting to wonder if the images we see every week of stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthood aren’t in some small, subconscious way contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience, in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting “ the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston.
【例句解析】：本句主干成分为But it’s interesting to wonder if the images aren’t contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience，其中it是形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式短语，此外本短语中又包含一个if引导的宾语从句。we see every week是省略that的定语从句，修饰images。of stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthood是of介词短语作后置定语，修饰images。in some small, subconscious way是介词短语作方式状语修饰主句谓语动词。in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting “ the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston又是介词短语作方式状语修饰主句;其中that引导同位语从句解释way;而在同位语从句中，又包含一个省略that的宾语从句：getting “ the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston。
【难点点拨】：happiness-enhancing：幸福十足的;subconscious：潜意识的。
【例句释义】：但有趣的是：想一下我们每周看到的那些毫无压力、且幸福十足的为人父母的形象是否正在以一种细微且潜意识的方式加剧我们自己对现实生活的不满，这种方式就像：我们当中有些人希望，变成瑞秋那般的人或许可以让我们看起来有点像 詹尼弗·安尼斯顿。
总之，由于本文中对于后置定语、状语、定语从句、宾语从句、等知识点考查较多，因此大家课下需要多多复习，尤其是要弄懂其中的难点。此外，如果时间充足的话，可以多读一些外国核心期刊文章，如《经济学人》、《新闻周刊》等，积累英语国家新闻中常用到的表达。
(本文作者为中公考研英语指导老师—张玉环)
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发表于 2016-7-25 13:22:06