英文书面比较句的写法（七）
byXIAOLAIon2009/03/18·10 COMMENTS
托福作文题目中有这样一道题：
It has been said, “Not everything that is learned is contained in books.”_Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books._In your opinion, which source is more important? Why?
这道题并不像看起来那么简单。如若没有人提醒，很多人考生会在作文中去比较“书本”与“经验”——不知不觉作文就写得越来越乱。为什么呢？因为“书本”与“经验”并不属于同一范畴（重点5），很难进行有意义的比较。
其实，题目中要求的是比较 (A)“从书本中获得的知识”与 (B) “从经验中获得的知识”——都是“知识”，于是属于同一范畴，于是可以做这样的比较：
1) 从书本中获得的知识要比从经验中获得的知识更广博。
或者
2) 从经验中获得的知识要比从书本中获得的知识更深入。
这两句话应该怎么翻译呢？“文绉绉”的书面形式应该写成什么样呢？读者不妨先尝试一下。我们先讲点别的东西，一会儿回头再讲这个句子。
有的时候我们需要比较的不是A和B，而是属于A的一个事物与属于B的一个事物。也就是说，我们要比较的是“A’s X”和“B’s X”。比较句是两个句子构成的，于是，最终的比较句大抵上应该含有以下结构：
A’s X… than/as B’s X…
“文绉绉”的书面语讲究“避免重复”，甚至会“避免重复结构”。“A’s X”和“B’s X”就是结构上的重复。而英文中的所属格有两种表示方式，“A’s X”和“X of A”、“B’s X”和“X of B”。于是，书面比较句的第一个句子使用“A’s X”和“X of A”中的任何一个，而第二个句子中往往使用“X of B”的形式：
A’s X… than/as X of B…
可是，“X”还是重复了，那怎么办呢？换成代词“that”。
“他的眼睛比我的眼睛大”，口语中直接说“His eyes are bigger than mine.”就完事儿了；“文绉绉”一点的书面语要写成：
His eyes are bigger than those of mine.
（注意，要用“those”而不是“that”，因为“我”不是独眼龙。）
重点10：比较句中的第二个所属格往往表示为“that/those of …”的形式。
以下是几个托福阅读文章中的句子：
- Baskets produced by other Native Americans were less varied in design than _those _of the Pomo people.
- Lavoisier’s interpretation was more reasonable and straightforward than _that _of the phlogiston theorists.
- This amount of change that has occurred in fossil bone, even in bone as old as _that _of dinosaurs, is often remarkably small.
事实上，除了“than/as”之外，还有很多比较结构，都可以使用这种“所属格代词结构替换”：
- same as: The values of the news media are the _same as those of _the elite, and they badly want to be viewed by the elites as acceptable.
- similar to: Their composition is thought to be _similar to that of _Earth’s iron core, and indeed they might have once made up the core of a large planetoid that disintegrated long ago.
- differ from :How did the work of American carvers in 1776 _differ from that of _contemporary sculptors?
- prefer to: They _prefer _the temperature and climate of the canopy _to that of _other environments.
- favor over :Rather, the denominator ideology is to _favor _businesses’ interests _over those of _individuals.
- superior/inferior to :The position of the women, lie says, is miserably _inferior to that of _English and American working women, and the hours of work of English people a whole age ahead of those of their Continental brethren.
- parallel to: The author discusses the development of flight in birds as resulting from a separate but _parallel _development process _to that of _pterosaurs.
- …
现在，让我们回到前面提到句子：
从书本中获得的知识要比从经验中获得的知识更广博。
之前大多数人会把这个句子翻译成：
Knowledge gained from books is broader than knowledge gained from experience.
这样翻译当然完全没错，不过，如果应用一下刚刚讲解过的内容，那么这句话可以写成：
Knowledge gained from books is broader than_that_gained from experience.
应用重点2，书面比较句第二个句子中的谓语动词建议不要省略，那么：
Knowledge gained from books is broader than that gained from experienceis.
再应用重点4， 第二个句子的谓语动词可以倒装，那么：
Knowledge gained from books is broader than_is_that gained from experience.
再给提供两个例子：
- In particular, the responses of less-educated individuals are far more sensitive to issue framing _than are those of _highly educated individuals.
- “Thus,” Darwin concludes in the last sentence of the book, “we are brought face to face with a difficulty as insoluble _as is that of _free will and predestination.”