研英长难句翻译真题词汇详解：（22）

　　长难句：However,whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans,or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago,is,as yet,an unanswered question.

　　重点词汇： stem

　　1、长难句： 但是，这种公平感是在卷尾猴和人类身上各自独立演化而成，还是来自三千五百万前他们共同的祖先，这还是一个悬而未决的问题。

　　分析： 本句的主语由whetheror whether(是还是)结构充当，两个 whether各自引导一个主语从句，而且后一个从句的宾语(ancestor)后接一个定语从句。全句的谓语由系动词+表语构成。as yet是一个插入语，意思是迄今为止。

　　2、stem作名词主要表示茎(干)、词干、家系、干线等。作动词时意为滋生,阻止。He put a huge effort into trying to stem the rebellion but to no effect.(他拼命想阻止叛乱，但是没有成功。)注意stem from意为出现或形成。The Czech-German declaration on mutual relations and their future development closed some of the controversial issues in Czech-German relations stemming from the past.(捷克与德国关于相互关系及未来发展的声明结束了两国关系中的一些历史争端。)