GRE閱讀測驗擾人的句型結構

在GRE紙筆測驗，長閱通常被擺到最後才寫，在緊迫的時間壓力下要閱讀一篇七、八百字的文章真的會讓人頭腦混沌喘不過氣，更可惡的是，ETS的句子故意用很多修飾語干擾作答，所以在看句子千萬要小心不能搞錯意思。以下舉幾個例子來看看ETS怎麼干擾我們。

例子1：Inheritors of some of the viewpoints of early twentieth-century Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker, these recent historians have put forward arguments that deserve evaluation.

這句的主詞是these recent historians，指的是inheritors，動詞是have put forward，受詞是argument，inheritors後面全部都是修飾語。

"Inheritors of some of the viewpoints of early twentieth-century Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker..."故意放了such as Beard and Becker干擾閱讀，讓你以為這兩個人是inheritors的例子，但只要仔細看"Progressive historians such as Beard and Becker"就知道這兩個人是為了舉例說明Progressive historians，這段文字根本沒提到半個recent historians，而題目就問：The author most likely refers to "historians such  as Beard and Becker" in order to ......所以若被干擾到的話，這題就可能做錯。

例子二：(同一篇長閱的句子)
The "Paxton Boys" incident and the Regulator movement are representative examples of the widespread, and justified, discontent of western settlers against colonial or state governments dominated by eastern interests.

這句最容易混淆之處是畫底線的部分，ETS故意在widespread和discontent中間插了", and justified,"，但其實只要讀成the widespread discontent of western settlers就可以了，再來，discontent別把它當作形容詞，它是名詞，所以畫線部分的意思是"西部殖民者的不滿"，而這個不滿要對抗的是"colonial or state governments dominated by eastern interest"，從這裡試著作答這一題：

The author suggests which of the following about the representativeness of colonial or state governments in America from 1763 to 1789?
(A) The governments inadequately represented the interests of people in western regions.
(B) The governments more often represented class interests than sectional interests.
(C) The governments were less representative than they had been before 1763.
(D) The governments were dominated by the interests of people of an upper socioeconomic class.
(E) The governments of the northern colonies were less representative than were the governments of the southern colonies.

例子三：When the waves meet the western boundary, they are reflected, and the model predicts that Rossby waves will be broken into numerous coastal Kelvin waves carrying the same negative sea-level signal.

這句可先拆解成兩部分：
(1) when the waves meet the western boundary, they are reflected
and
(2) the model predicts that Rossby waves will be broken into numerous coastal Kelvin waves carrying the same negative sea-level signal (S+V+O)

第二部分的that子句裡面又包含了Rossby waves(主詞)+will be broken into(動詞)+numerous coastal Kelvin waves(受詞)+carrying the same negative sea-level signal(修飾numerous coastal Kelvin waves)。閱讀時，迅速辨別句子結構後，就可以抓有用的資訊，不必要的部分省略，抓到重點即可。

其實可以用來解複雜句子的例子不勝枚舉，但只要掌握基本原則，找出修飾語修飾的對象，不要複雜句型擾亂心神，最重要的，就只要抓住大意就可以看題目找答案了。