雅思阅读：新概念难句分析

　　1. The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas--legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another.

　　解读:legends作sagas的同位语,后接被动分词短语做定语。

　　基本结构：主+定+谓+宾+同位。

　　翻译:他们保存历史的唯一方法是把历史作为英雄故事讲述--由说书者代代相传。

　　2.One can tell the difference almost at a glance for the spider always has eight legs and an insect never more than six.

　　解读:主谓宾+原因状语(省略句)

　　an insect never more than six 应该理解为昆虫只有六条腿而不是昆虫绝不多于六条腿,全句翻译如下:

　　翻译:谁都可以一眼就看出蜘蛛与昆虫不同,蜘蛛都是八条腿,而昆虫最多只有六条。

　　3. Such inns as there were dirty and flea-ridden; the food simply local cheese accompanied by bread ofen twelve months old, all washed down with coarse wine.

　　解读:第二个分句中,simply是副词，意为“食物只有···”，而accompanied含被动意思，说明人们把陈面包和乳酪搭配着吃，并不是乳酪自己同面包相配。第二句作者把谓语省略了。

　　翻译：那里的小旅店通常又肮脏，跳蚤又多.吃的食物仅仅是当地产的乳酪加上存放了一年之久的面包，大家只能就着下等酒把它们吞下去.

　　4.The gorilla is something of a paradox in the African scene.

　　解读：这里的paradox并不是说猩猩是自相矛盾的动物，而是指人们对其捉摸不透。

　　翻译：大猩猩是非洲景观中有点让人捉摸不透的家伙。

　　5.All this and many other things remain almost as much a mystery as they were when the French explorer Du Chaillu first described the animal to the civilized world a century ago.

　　解读:句子是一个比较复杂的主从复合长句，应该采用分句法，逆序法来译，先将when引导的状语从句译，再译出主句。

　　翻译：100年前法国探险家Du Chaillu第一次向文明世界叙述过这种动物，如今这一切和其他许多事情几乎像100年前一样，仍然是个谜。