GRE历年真题长难句突破讲解

　　GRE试题的一大特色就是篇幅中有很多长难句，而所谓的长难句就是众多语法结构按照一定的语法顺序堆砌起来的句子。
　　1.长难句分类
　　1．带有较多成分的简单句
　　简单句的句子主干类型有五种：主系表?主谓?主谓宾主谓宾宾主谓宾补。
　　在句子主干上进行扩充，如增添定语、状语等就构成了此类句子。如：
　　A. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century.
　　本句主干是classical instrumentalists ... compete with...。一部分是for引导的介词短语作状语，说明目的。第二部分虽然句子很长，但结构较简单，其宾语是由表示递进关系的关联词组not only...but also连接的两部分，of the 20th century做后置定语修饰musicians。
　　B. The emphasis on data gathered first-hand, combined with a cross-cultural perspective brought to the analysis of cultures past and present, makes this study a unique and distinctly important social science.
　　这句话的一个显著特点就是主语很长，主语其实是两个并列的结构用combined with来连接。
　　2．含有多个简单句的并列句
　　两个或两个以上的简单句用并列连词连在一起构成的句子，叫做并列句，其基本结构是“简单句 并列连词 简单句”。并列连词有：and, but, or, so等。并列句中的各简单句意义同等重要，相互之间没有从属关系，是平行并列的关系。它们之间用连词连结。如：
　　A. The role of natural selection in evolution was formulated only a little more than a hundred years ago, and the selective role of the environment in shaping and maintaining the behavior of the individual is only beginning to be recognized and studied.
　　本句的句子结构比较简单，是由and连接的并列句。
　　B. Children will play with dolls equipped with personality chips, computers with in-built personalities will be regarded as workmates rather than tools, relaxation will be in front of smell-television, and digital age will have arrived.
　　这是一个由四个并列句组成的句子。equipped with personality chips作定语修饰dolls。
　　3．含有多个从句的复合句
　　此类句子是指一个从句中嵌套另一个从句，句子较长。如：
　　A. Marketers have embraced the two-step flow because it suggests that if they can just find and influence the influentials, those selected people will do most of the work for them.

　　because引导原因状语从句，其中包括that引导的宾语从句；该宾语从句中，if引导条件状语从句。
　　B. Meanwhile, many settles had slighter religious commitments than Dane’s, as one clergyman learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New World for religion.
　　as引导的定语从句指代前面整个句子，该定语从句中，who引导的定语从句修饰folk，that引导的名词性从句做mocked的宾语。
　　4．含有多个插入成分的句子
　　此类句子是指，本来应该紧密相连的句子的各成分被分开，中间存在其他成分。如：
　　A. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English.
　　插入语Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care是his latest book的同位语；a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views是插入语，说明John McWhorter的身份。
　　B. While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline—after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late-80s—and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.
　　破折号中间是插入语，对前面进行补充说明；第二部分，at least... acquaintance也是插入语，来进一步补充说明，为前面讲的话留有余地。
　　5．并列复合句
　　并列复合句是指并列连词连接了带从句的并列句。如：
　　A. Chomsky’s grammar should show patterns of language change that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it, whereas Greenbergian universality predicts strong co-dependencies between particular types of word-order relations.
　　本句是由whereas连接的并列结构。一部分that引导的定语从句that are independent of the family tree or the pathway tracked through it修饰patterns of language change。
　　B. 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.
　　本句是由but连接的并列句。第二部分the message之后是that引导的同位语从句说明message的内容。
　　6．倒装句
　　And since these messages have an agenda—to lure us to open our wallets— they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. “Celebrate!” commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
　　第二句前半部分是倒装句，用以强调“Celebrate”，该句主语是the ads，谓语是commanded，是before引导的时间状语从句。