倒装+插入语，这个 GRE 阅读中的长难句你能看懂吗？

　　长难句在 GRE 阅读中可谓比比皆是，几乎每篇文章都会有个别句子特别长或特别复杂。但由于 GRE 阅读的重点并不一定在于考察细节的精读分析，很多长难句的存在也并不会影响分数。

　　事实上，对于长难句的缩句，而非精读，才是 GRE 阅读的重点。

　　

　　硬货来了

　　但如果说起真正会影响阅读理解、影响分数的长难句，这篇讨论的句子可以说是机经中我最常被问到的一句。这道题目是出自一篇长阅读，这里仅截取与题目有关的段落内容。

　　GRE真题展示

　　The ingenuity of Renaissance architects extended beyond merely using a material in a way not suggested by its outward natural appearance. If they conceived a design that called for a certain material either too expensive or difficult to work with, they made no scruple about imitating that material. Their marbles and their stones are often actually painted stucco. When the blocks of masonry with which they built were not in scale with the projected scheme, the real joints were concealed and false ones introduced. Nor were these practices confined, as some scholars insist, to the later and supposedly decadent phases of the art. Material, then, was utterly subservient to style.

　　The passage suggests which of the following about the cited “scholars”?

　　A. They believe that a decadent phase is characteristic of any significant artistic movement.

　　B. They reject the popular view of the Renaissance as the apex of architectural achievement.

　　C. They believe that a vigorous and healthy architecture would not usually employ false surfaces or imitation building materials.

　　D. They represent the mainstream in critical and historical thought about the Florentine Renaissance.

　　E. They have focused on such technical matters as the cost of building materials rather than on artistic concerns.

　　选自真经GRE《阅读机经350篇》

　　题目所考察的Scholars所在的原文倒数第二句虽然不长，但是是非常难的一句话，这里我们分几步理解这句话：

　　step 1

　　先找主干；原句中间的scholars是插入语，先暂时去掉插入语，则原句的主干内容是Nor were these practices were confined to the later and supposedly decadent phases of the art. （这些操作并不局限于后代的堕落艺术时期。）

　　step 2

　　如果觉得主干的倒装句很难理解，可以改成普通非倒装句：these practices were not confined；补上these practice的指代对象，是说的前文的使用假货替代真材料（imitating the material/ the real joints were concealed and false ones introduced）。

　　step 3

　　加上插入语：原句其实是把两句话浓缩成一句，作者反对的话题却是scholars insist 的内容：

　　1) These practices were not confined to the later and supposedly decadent phases of the art.

　　2) Scholars insist that these practices were confined to the later and supposedly decadent phases of the art.

　　理解了原句的意思之后，题目的答案就呼之欲出了：题目问scholars可以推断出哪些内容，原文对scholars最直接的表述是他们认为这种操作只局限于堕落时期（decadent phase），正确答案C进一步体现了推断题常见的取反思路：健康时期不等于堕落时期（vigorous and healthy ≠ decadent），堕落时期有用假材料替代真材料的操作，则健康时期没有。

　　如果还想有更多的既有插入语又倒装的练习，可以做下下面这篇：

　　大家可以把答案发到留言区，中午我们会公布正确答案哟。

　　思考题

　　While historian Linda Nicholson sees women's participation in voluntary associations as activities consistent with the increasing relegation of women’s lives to a separate, “private” sphere in nineteenth-century Europe, historian Katherine Lynch argues that these kinds of activities enabled women to join with one another and to develop a kind of shadow citizenship within civil society, if not the formal state. These kinds of experiences were no substitute for actual political entitlements, Lynch suggests, but they deserve more attention for their importance in helping individuals forge enduring bonds of community and identity beyond domestic life. Only by limiting one’s notion of public life to formal political participation, she says, can one conclude that most women in Western society have ever been literally consigned to a separate or “private” sphere.

　　The passage implies that Lynch would agree that formal political participation

　　A. was increasingly important as the nineteenth century progressed

　　B. was an underreported phenomenon among women in nineteenth century Europe within civil society

　　C. is crucial to helping individuals form community ties

　　D. is a significant component of public life

　　E. is indicative of a kind of shadow citizenship

　　选自真经GRE《阅读机经350篇》

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