Pushed by polls that show health care is one of his main domestic problems and by forecasts showing that the retiring baby-boomers will crush the government’s finances, George Bush is to unveil a reform plan in next week’s state-of-the-union address.
重点词汇:
Domestic:国内的
Forecast:预报,预测
Unveil:使某事露出面目
结构分析
主语:George Bush
系词:is
表语:to unveil a reform plan
时间状语:in next week’s state-of-union address
原因状语:Pushed by polls that show health care is one of his main domestic problems and by forecasts showing that the retiring baby-boomers will crush the government’s finances
经验分享
这句话的主干其实非常的简单,就是“George Bush is to unveil a reform plan in next week’s state-of-the-union address”这部分,具体的成份也很明确,我们在上面已经分析过了。但很多同学在看到这一句话的时候都会被逗号前面的一长串的东西弄得不明所以。其实,越是这个时候越不能慌张,无论多长的句子都是通过修饰关系一步步衔接上的。“pushed”开头,十有八九就说明这是一个过去分词做非谓语的结构。而用过去分词就说明真正的主语是被动承受这个动作的,英语被动态最常见的就是带一个“by...”而且后面接“polls”这个名词,名词后面加“that”,几乎可以肯定是个从句,接下来就是判断是哪一种从句的问题。观察得知,“polls”在后面的从句中做的主语(因为后面的从句里没有主语直接加的动词“show”),说明这是一个定语从句。定语从句中还有一个小玄机就是“show”后面实际上紧跟了一个宾语从句 “health care is one of his main domestic problems”
一直向后看到“by forecasts”,不要认为这是凭空出现的,英语中的省略十分常见,而省略的就是前面出现过的。我们看前面出现的“pushed by”,就说明后面的“by forecast”实际上也是跟在“pushed”后面,而“forecasts”作为一个名词,同样有资格跟着一个定语。定于除了定语从句之外,不要忘了分词结构同样可以,所以“showing that the retiring baby-boomers will crush the government’s finances”实际上都是“forecast”的定语,只不过中间还糅杂着一个宾语从句“that the retiring baby-boomers will crush the government’s finances”。所以砍掉这些修饰结构,这个句子的骨架实际上可以写成这样:
Pushed by polls and by forecasts, George Bush is to unveil a reform plan in next week’s state-of-the-union address.